Man'O'Green
Well-Known Member
Ok so I built a new grow space. The area is dictated by the space in the spare room that is not used for exercise equipment, bookcases, and shelving for pantry items. My wife and I have lots of stuff and we use it regularly so it has to stay. I spent a lot of time in Visio trying different configurations and a 4' x 6' x 8' grow room was all I could fit. Actually those are the inside dimensions. The framing is 2x4 and plywood. I felt I had to wear a hard hat while I was raising the top frame. I work alone and it was really wobbly until I secured the plywood end panels and cross supports. The west wall gets pretty warm in the summer so I added 2" r-7 ridged foam on that side. The south wall is a dual sheeted hollow with a 3.5" x 48" x 92" air space; on the outside I have fitted a 20"x20" air filter and on the inside I have 5 — 4" louvered vents for my air intake. The interior of the airspace is painted the darkest grey I could get mixed in Kilz 2 mold and mildew resistant paint. All of the framing is painted with Kilz 2. With the offset placement of the vents they should be light proof. I decided to go with Orca Grow Film for the interior walls and ceiling. I was originally planning to make zippered doors but the Orca film even though quite tough does not seem substantial enough for the long haul. Instead I bonded the film to canvas and sewed the zippers to the canvas. The seams of the film are "welded" together with a high temperature hot glue gun. Working at the right speed creates an excellent airtight strong weld. A champagne cork made an efficient tool for pressing the seam as I worked. Just like welding light metal it is easy to burn a hole in the material and in me. I have several blisters to prove it. I think I have solved the problem of not having enough places to hang lights, fans, filters and scrog screens etc. I bolted 4 — 18"x48" metal shelf racks as cross members in place of rafters giving me a place to hook something every inch. I am using a flood pan as a floor to contain any water spills. I added another 20A service to the room for a total of 60A maximum; of course you can't really use them up to the full rating safely so in essence I have a usable 45A on the three circuits. I got the floor pan installed and all of the seams welded. I have a couple of light leaks around the bottom zippers. I think some velcroed flaps will fix them. As I predicted there are no light leaks through the louvered air vents. I have some weather stripping to apply around the pan and wall but I decided on White duct tape as a better option?
I dropped some seeds the other day say here we grow!
I dropped some seeds the other day say here we grow!
