A New Outbuilding for grow cost

Breezee77 · Jan 19, 2017

im wondering if anyone can give details on the cost it would take to build a outbuilding of some kind from scratch and turn it into a decent grow... I'm more interested in the cost of the actual outbuilding with electric and water etc than the cost of the grow equipment obviously.

Anyone have any experience? Any details are great! Thanks!

MMJ Dreaming 99 · Jan 19, 2017

I assume you are in the USA? Metal building or pole barn. Pole barns are cheaper but not as good. In some areas you can get either one done fairly cheaply.

How big? The concrete slab is not cheap. Need to level and compact first. You then need to insulate it

Electricity, water and maybe drains. You will also need heat and cooling. Cheap end maybe $40,000 to $50,000.

qballizhere · Jan 19, 2017

Breezee77 said:
im wondering if anyone can give details on the cost it would take to build a outbuilding of some kind from scratch and turn it into a decent grow... I'm more interested in the cost of the actual outbuilding with electric and water etc than the cost of the grow equipment obviously.

Anyone have any experience? Any details are great! Thanks!

Is there utilities already on the property? You didnt mention if there was or how far is from the utilities to the proposed site?
How handy are you and will you be doing the work?

Breezee77 · Jan 20, 2017

I was actually going to have someone else build it because I'm not handy enough to do all of that... Just the basic stuff I'd feel comfortable doing... I was just trying to get a rough estimate of other peoples experiences so I had an idea of prices for different projects... $40-50,000 man yea I didn't think it would be that much for everything.

If I was interested in doing it, I would say the proposed site would be 30 feet from the house... yes I'm in the states btw

MMJ Dreaming 99 · Jan 21, 2017

Breezee77 said:
I was actually going to have someone else build it because I'm not handy enough to do all of that... Just the basic stuff I'd feel comfortable doing... I was just trying to get a rough estimate of other peoples experiences so I had an idea of prices for different projects... $40-50,000 man yea I didn't think it would be that much for everything.

If I was interested in doing it, I would say the proposed site would be 30 feet from the house... yes I'm in the states btw

How big? Second time. Why do people ask for help then are too lazy to read the responses with follow up questions?

green217 · Jan 21, 2017

Just depends on how much money you're willing to dump into it. I had an existing shed went to the local Home Depot bought two by fours, particle board, insulation. Wired everything up myself. I've had to put another roof on it sense growing in it. I probably have a thousand to $1,500 tied up in it not counting grow equipment.

I get most of my stuff from a local second-hand Building Supply. Window unit air conditions from Craigslist as well as my dehumidifier I try to get out as cheap as I can and still have good bud.

qballizhere · Jan 21, 2017

Breezee77 said:
I was actually going to have someone else build it because I'm not handy enough to do all of that... Just the basic stuff I'd feel comfortable doing... I was just trying to get a rough estimate of other peoples experiences so I had an idea of prices for different projects... $40-50,000 man yea I didn't think it would be that much for everything.

If I was interested in doing it, I would say the proposed site would be 30 feet from the house... yes I'm in the states btw

You can get a tuff shed 12x12 for 3k and then insulate it and have a4x8 tent inside for veg.
You can rent a digger and dig the trenches yourself if not will add a few hundred just for the trench.
Adding a sub panel is easy. Water line depends on your frost line here it is 3' you can insulate it and get away with 18" dont need a drain just use pans and a shop vac dump it outside.

Breezee77 · Jan 21, 2017

Breezee77 said:
I was actually going to have someone else build it because I'm not handy enough to do all of that... Just the basic stuff I'd feel comfortable doing... I was just trying to get a rough estimate of other peoples experiences so I had an idea of prices for different projects... $40-50,000 man yea I didn't think it would be that much for everything.

If I was interested in doing it, I would say the proposed site would be 30 feet from the house... yes I'm in the states btw

I missed one of your questions my bad... I was tried to cover all the questions and I was a little stoned... I guess ideally, 20'X20'X10 would be a nice indoor size... I'm trying to get an idea of cheaper ways to do it because $40-50k is a little out of the budget... $10-20k would be way better... I don't care what kind of structure. Pole barn or metal building or anything else is good.

I'd just want to make sure its heavily insulated so theres no smell or noise..

qballizhere said:
You can get a tuff shed 12x12 for 3k and then insulate it and have a4x8 tent inside for veg.
You can rent a digger and dig the trenches yourself if not will add a few hundred just for the trench.
Adding a sub panel is easy. Water line depends on your frost line here it is 3' you can insulate it and get away with 18" dont need a drain just use pans and a shop vac dump it outside.

Great information.. How much does it cost to get a sub panel installed? I mean obviously would want something that can handle a lot of electricity. Are there sheds that you could turn into a workshop or something. That seems like a really good price, but I think a little bigger of an area would be good and what do you men just for veg? how come you couldn't grow the entire grow in a shed?

Breezee77 · Jan 21, 2017

green217 said:
Just depends on how much money you're willing to dump into it. I had an existing shed went to the local Home Depot bought two by fours, particle board, insulation. Wired everything up myself. I've had to put another roof on it sense growing in it. I probably have a thousand to $1,500 tied up in it not counting grow equipment.

I get most of my stuff from a local second-hand Building Supply. Window unit air conditions from Craigslist as well as my dehumidifier I try to get out as cheap as I can and still have good bud.

Do you have a lot of experience with electric stuff or how did you learn how to do it? Thats a great amount of money you spent on that... Have you build structures and stuff before too? I wish I knew how to do it, then I would just do it myself lol

green217 · Jan 21, 2017

Yeah I'm an electrician by trade. And I've worked in residential construction close to 20 years now. I'm sure you've got a buddy but one that you can trust maybe another matter, but maybe they can help you out.

green217 · Jan 21, 2017

Man in my opinion I'm taking the cheapest route possible. I'm not able to grow inside so my biggest obstacle is conditioning outside air. Just getting a tent and throwing it up in a unused bedroom it's probably the cheapest

Breezee77 · Jan 21, 2017

green217 said:
Man in my opinion I'm taking the cheapest route possible. I'm not able to grow inside so my biggest obstacle is conditioning outside air. Just getting a tent and throwing it up in a unused bedroom it's probably the cheapest

Awesome man.. How much would it cost to have an electrician install a sub panel in an outbuilding that would be able to handle a decent grow? Have you used big tents before? I already have some lights I want to use, so I would need a pretty big tent to use them.. Do the tents insulate well? I'm wondering what the smell issue would be like if you used a big tent.. That's great if the tent will completely block the smell... I never used a tent before, so I don't know...

Thanks man!

qballizhere · Jan 22, 2017

Breezee77 said:
I missed one of your questions my bad... I was tried to cover all the questions and I was a little stoned... I guess ideally, 20'X20'X10 would be a nice indoor size... I'm trying to get an idea of cheaper ways to do it because $40-50k is a little out of the budget... $10-20k would be way better... I don't care what kind of structure. Pole barn or metal building or anything else is good.

I'd just want to make sure its heavily insulated so theres no smell or noise..

Great information.. How much does it cost to get a sub panel installed? I mean obviously would want something that can handle a lot of electricity. Are there sheds that you could turn into a workshop or something. That seems like a really good price, but I think a little bigger of an area would be good and what do you men just for veg? how come you couldn't grow the entire grow in a shed?

When I said add a 4x8 tent for veg the rest of the shed is your flower room. You cant have the light leaks thats why I said to put the veg in the tent.
I had my sub panel installed at the same time I upgraded from 100A to 200A and 70A just for the flower room. to upgrade the panel and install the sub panels I needed also rewire the kitchen and bathroom of the house it was a older house still has nobbin tube in it. Also to dig the trench 70' from main panel to sub panel the total was $2500 I was going to do it but I wasn't sure on the code and the electrician was I didn't have to read the code and figure what that was.

Breezee77 · Jan 22, 2017

green217 said:
Yeah I'm an electrician by trade. And I've worked in residential construction close to 20 years now. I'm sure you've got a buddy but one that you can trust maybe another matter, but maybe they can help you out.

Hey man since you're an electrician... Can you give me a ball park on getting a really good electrical set up in even say a basement that could handle a nice grow without any worry? I'm curious about how much it would cost to upgrade an electric in a basement and get a lot of outlets installed for everything. Say you wanted to add 15 outlets to a basement that could handle 1000W lights for example

green217 · Jan 22, 2017

I I have to bring my calculator and figure out what 15 1000 watt lights will pull. It will to be close to 150 amps though. It's not going to be cheap. Are you sure the service to your house is going to allow you to pull that much? Are all those lights going to be running at the same time? Sounds like a big commercial grow! In the United States a regular run-of-the-mill house usually has a 200 amp service supplying the entire home. Sounds like you need another two hundred amp service to supply your grow. The hardest part usually in a job by that would be getting a wire capable of carrying all the current in the building to the building. It usually requires a ditch. I don't have a contractor's license myself I just work for electrical contractors. So I don't bid jobs I just do the work. But if you got to change your entire service into a 400 amp service to make all this happen that's going to run you in and of itself close to a thousand probably, then probably damn near another thousand 4 getting the wire to the building and wiring up the building.

Like I said I don't bid jobs so I'm just throwing those numbers out loosely. But you're definitely going to be paying a good chunk of change. Especially if you require that service change, that's going to pretty much double it.

Is the same scenario in a basement you're just going to have to get a wire capable of carrying 200 amps from your main panel to the basement. Maybe a misunderstanding and you're not trying to run 15 separate 1,000 watt light fixtures. Doing it in a basement instead of an exterior building or bring the cost down a little bit. Like I mentioned a couple times already the ball buster is going to be a service change. And like the gentleman above-mentioned some houses are old have knob and tube wiring, and those are nightmares and very expensive nightmares for the homeowner. It also depends if you're going to get all this work inspected. Being the it'll be in a basement everything's going to have to be GFCI protected. Just make sure you get somebody that knows what they're doing

qballizhere · Jan 22, 2017

green217 said:
I I have to bring my calculator and figure out what 15 1000 watt lights will pull. It will to be close to 150 amps though. It's not going to be cheap. Are you sure the service to your house is going to allow you to pull that much? Are all those lights going to be running at the same time? Sounds like a big commercial grow! In the United States a regular run-of-the-mill house usually has a 200 amp service supplying the entire home. Sounds like you need another two hundred amp service to supply your grow. The hardest part usually in a job by that would be getting a wire capable of carrying all the current in the building to the building. It usually requires a ditch. I don't have a contractor's license myself I just work for electrical contractors. So I don't bid jobs I just do the work. But if you got to change your entire service into a 400 amp service to make all this happen that's going to run you in and of itself close to a thousand probably, then probably damn near another thousand 4 getting the wire to the building and wiring up the building.

Like I said I don't bid jobs so I'm just throwing those numbers out loosely. But you're definitely going to be paying a good chunk of change. Especially if you require that service change, that's going to pretty much double it.

Is the same scenario in a basement you're just going to have to get a wire capable of carrying 200 amps from your main panel to the basement. Maybe a misunderstanding and you're not trying to run 15 separate 1,000 watt light fixtures. Doing it in a basement instead of an exterior building or bring the cost down a little bit. Like I mentioned a couple times already the ball buster is going to be a service change. And like the gentleman above-mentioned some houses are old have knob and tube wiring, and those are nightmares and very expensive nightmares for the homeowner. It also depends if you're going to get all this work inspected. Being the it'll be in a basement everything's going to have to be GFCI protected. Just make sure you get somebody that knows what they're doing

If he is running 240v it would take 70A for 15 lights here is the calculator I use http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/Watt_to_Amp_Calculator.htm
I wouldn't think about having them on 110v

Breezee77 said:
Hey man since you're an electrician... Can you give me a ball park on getting a really good electrical set up in even say a basement that could handle a nice grow without any worry? I'm curious about how much it would cost to upgrade an electric in a basement and get a lot of outlets installed for everything. Say you wanted to add 15 outlets to a basement that could handle 1000W lights for example

If i were you call a couple of electricians in your area and get a few quotes. Tell them what you would like to do and they will go from there.

Breezee77 · Jan 22, 2017

green217 said:
I I have to bring my calculator and figure out what 15 1000 watt lights will pull. It will to be close to 150 amps though. It's not going to be cheap. Are you sure the service to your house is going to allow you to pull that much? Are all those lights going to be running at the same time? Sounds like a big commercial grow! In the United States a regular run-of-the-mill house usually has a 200 amp service supplying the entire home. Sounds like you need another two hundred amp service to supply your grow. The hardest part usually in a job by that would be getting a wire capable of carrying all the current in the building to the building. It usually requires a ditch. I don't have a contractor's license myself I just work for electrical contractors. So I don't bid jobs I just do the work. But if you got to change your entire service into a 400 amp service to make all this happen that's going to run you in and of itself close to a thousand probably, then probably damn near another thousand 4 getting the wire to the building and wiring up the building.

Like I said I don't bid jobs so I'm just throwing those numbers out loosely. But you're definitely going to be paying a good chunk of change. Especially if you require that service change, that's going to pretty much double it.

Is the same scenario in a basement you're just going to have to get a wire capable of carrying 200 amps from your main panel to the basement. Maybe a misunderstanding and you're not trying to run 15 separate 1,000 watt light fixtures. Doing it in a basement instead of an exterior building or bring the cost down a little bit. Like I mentioned a couple times already the ball buster is going to be a service change. And like the gentleman above-mentioned some houses are old have knob and tube wiring, and those are nightmares and very expensive nightmares for the homeowner. It also depends if you're going to get all this work inspected. Being the it'll be in a basement everything's going to have to be GFCI protected. Just make sure you get somebody that knows what they're doing

qballizhere said:
If he is running 240v it would take 70A for 15 lights here is the calculator I use http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/Watt_to_Amp_Calculator.htm
I wouldn't think about having them on 110v

If i were you call a couple of electricians in your area and get a few quotes. Tell them what you would like to do and they will go from there.

Thanks guys! No, actually not 15 lights all at the same time... I am just thinking that I'd like to have outlets around that are dependable, so say you have 2-4 lights or something on one half of the basement and then you decide to move everything to the other side of the basement, I just want there to be reliable outlets around that you don't have to worry about.

I basically wouldn't want to have to build a grow and then realize that I need to have an electrician come in, so I would have to tear everything down so they can do it. So basically, I'd like to get the electrical stuff done first so that it's definitely dependable before anything is built.. I just want a super dependable electrical system set up right from the bat so there's no worries done the line and I would never have to think of it.

green217 · Jan 22, 2017

I personally recommend pulling a subpanel down to your basement. This will give you the option to add on electrically in the future without a lot of trouble. How many lights are you going to run at once?

green217 · Jan 22, 2017

Also you may want to get any walls built first. So you can run wires in them if you want receptacles in the walls. You may be happy with them thank you on the ceiling

A New Outbuilding for grow cost

Breezee77

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MMJ Dreaming 99

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qballizhere

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Breezee77

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MMJ Dreaming 99

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green217

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qballizhere

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Breezee77

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Breezee77

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green217

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green217

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Breezee77

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qballizhere

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Breezee77

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green217

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qballizhere

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Breezee77

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green217

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green217

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