Build Journal: Turning a 7'x7' Shed Into a Grow Room

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
Hey Rollitup. Like the subject says, I’m building out a shed into a grow room, and since I got such great advice on this forum, I wanted to pay back with a journal of our build which is starting today.

The shed is a 7x7 Suncast Sutton shed with 45 sq ft interior floor and a 322 cu ft interior space. I chose the shed because of brand, price and this is the steel-reinforced model.

We are siting the shed where I have been growing outdoors for years. This year was a weather disaster, and that finally made me bite the bullet and build an indoor setup. The site has a slight incline so we will have to account for that when making the foundation. A nice benefit of the site this that there is a 6” drainage pipe from my backyard patio running right underneath, so we are going to put in a drain in the shed floor down to that. The acetic condensate from the AC and dehumidifier will go straight into the drain, and it should protect from accidental floods as well.

I will be updating budget figures as we go along. There are some items which I already own, so I will note those for people doing their own budgets. When I’m done I will post the final budget to Google docs including links to buy.

I expect the build to cost around $5k, which not coincidentally, was roughly our annual cost of buying at dispensaries in CA before I started growing. I encourage you to do your own math here.

To date, I have spent $3193.77, about 2/3 of that figure being the shed and lights. Here’s a quick rundown (all prices include CA tax where applicable and shipping)

Shed with added shelf system and basket kit $814.54
  • As explained: brand, price model. Shelf system will hold AC, and the baskets and hooks are to keep supplies and tools.
Timber Grow Lights 3x 200W COB kit: $1215
  • I’m so bad with a soldering iron it’s criminal so I’m gonna let Dan from Timber Grow Lights put this together for me. The price is not that much higher than what I would have paid from a Chinese supplier on Alibaba.
LG Electronics LP0815WNR 8000 BTU 115-volt Portable Air Conditioner: $299.99
  • These single hose portable ACs are notoriously terrible, but I think the next step up, a window unit or mini-split, is huge overkill for this space and much more expensive. Remains to be seen if it can do the job, but at only 322 cu ft of space to cool, I think it will be adequate.
DeLonghi HMP1500 Mica Panel Heater: $76.43
  • Chose this model because of it’s flat-panel form factor, and also it has a low setting where it runs at 750W rather that the 1500W most heaters run at.
Frigidaire FFAD3033R1 Energy Star Dehumidifier: $184.21
  • Smallest version of the Frigidaire line. Highly recommended, works like a champ in my curing closet.
Anypro 3.5L Cool Mist Humidifier: $49.99
  • Works great in the curing closet, remains to be seen if I need a more robust model for the grow shed.
2x WILLHI WH1436H Air Humidity Controller: $45.25
  • The long-wire sensor leads will allow me to put the humidity sensors right into the canopy
Bayite BTC211 1650W Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat: $39.99
  • Ditto for temp sensor.
Honeywell HT-908 Turbo Force Room Air Circulator Fan: $30.39
  • Chose because of brand, and low power mode
Hydro package from my local hydro store. Includes 3x3 tray and stand, 20 gal reservoir, fittings and lid, 4x 4 gal smart pots, coir and clay pebbles, air and water pumps, air stone: $420 (lol)
  • Could have done better online, but decided to go with a local guy so I would have someone to whine to when the shit (inevitably) hits the fan.
200’ of 1/16” shock cord for SCROG: $17.98
  • Using shock cord instead of string so I can more easily manipulate it

This does not yet include materials for the shed foundation, electrical, insulation, SCROG screen PVC, framing and pulley system for light kits and other misc items. Also, friends are helping, but I don’t expect them to work for free, so there will be a cost in money plus green there. Again, I expect the total of around $5k + an oz for the guys.

Today is electrical so I will report back on how that went tonight or tomorrow. We have to run some Romex conduit pretty far under the house, so this could be an adventure. We will be putting two 20A lines into the shed: one for heating/cooling one for everything else. I will post my wattage calcs to Google Docs with the next post.

In the meanwhile, enjoy a picture of giant shed boxes in my backyard (attached image)
 

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Blue brother

Well-Known Member
enjoy mate, I love building new rooms, I've never had a tent, even though a tent would have been better and more cost effective than my first few rooms. What plant numbers are you thinking? Hydro? Soil? You should use the drain for whatever method you choose.
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
enjoy mate, I love building new rooms, I've never had a tent, even though a tent would have been better and more cost effective than my first few rooms. What plant numbers are you thinking? Hydro? Soil? You should use the drain for whatever method you choose.
I am going to grow 4x 4 gal pots in a 3x3 tray under a 3x5.5 scrog screen. This will leave plenty of room on the sides for me and the climate control appliances and still have 16.5 sq ft of scrog area

Hydro with coir and perlite. Clay pebbles top and bottom.

Sensei Seeds Northern Lights #5 x Haze in all

More details in subsequent posts
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
As a shed builder myself i'm subbed up and looking forward to seeing where you go with this!

Keen to see if/how you're gonna insulate that steel structure, and plan for electrical.

Enjoy / Good luck!
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
As a shed builder myself i'm subbed up and looking forward to seeing where you go with this!

Keen to see if/how you're gonna insulate that steel structure, and plan for electrical.

Enjoy / Good luck!
Sorry, I should have been clearer on the shed. It's a double-walled plastic resin shed with steel reinforcement. Suncast has the same model without steel reinforcement which is what I was trying to say.

AFA insulation goes, I was planning on 2" of EPS rigid foam everywhere, including under the floor. Flat white towards the room, silver towards the outside. In my original post, I forgot to mention the shade canopy, which we won't need right away. I'll get to that later,

Electrical is fairly simple and we have plenty of overhead with 20A breakers. Under all scenarios, each line is under a kW. The big issue is getting from our panel on the west side of the house to the site which is on northeast corner of the house, with a big cement slab floor of our garage in the way. We found some conduit with enough room in it to get us under the garage, but my buddy, who is 5'5" 140 lbs is going to have to crawl the rest under the house, and it's pretty tight down there. Anyway, he got called away on a child care thing, so we are on day one of the job and already two days behind ;) Anyway, once we get that all sorted out I will post pics and numbers.
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
Day One and We’re Two Days Behind

So frustrating, but all we got done today was a materials run, and I lost my help for tomorrow. So we have to pick back up Weds. I'll use tomorrow to get all the hydro stuff here and go looking for EPS insulation

We got all our materials for electric and the foundation today. A note on the foundation. Suncast recommends putting in 4-6" of gravel and laying a wooden frame on top of that. The shed gets bolted to the wooden frame. Because of seismic activity around here, we're going 1 step further, and sinking 4 pier blocks at the corners and building a frame out of 4x6 beams with floor joists. You can see a bit of how it will start in the photo attachment.

Back Thursday morning with the next update
 

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ruwtz

Well-Known Member
What's your cooling plan and how does it respond to where you are based? Plastic won't insulate anything like wood and in combo with EPS, cooling requirements could be high and inefficient. I know this because before building a structure I looked at prefab options in great detail. But my regional weather played a big part in this.
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
I am going to grow 4x 4 gal pots in a 3x3 tray under a 3x5.5 scrog screen. This will leave plenty of room on the sides for me and the climate control appliances and still have 16.5 sq ft of scrog area

Hydro with coir and perlite. Clay pebbles top and bottom.

Sensei Seeds Northern Lights #5 x Haze in all

More details in subsequent posts
that's cool bro, I've grown nl5 x haze a few times, sensi seeds. They don't half stretch mate, you grown it before? I had 2 diff phenos both keepers in their own right, I had a lemony larger yielding denser hungry pgeno and a more floral tea like lower yielding airy pheno, although his pheno was ridiculously strong, total haze soaring high
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
What's your cooling plan and how does it respond to where you are based? Plastic won't insulate anything like wood and in combo with EPS, cooling requirements could be high and inefficient. I know this because before building a structure I looked at prefab options in great detail. But my regional weather played a big part in this.
Thanks for the input.

I actually have a smaller Suncast shed I use for storage made from the same materials. I put my temp/RH data logger in there, and what I found is that when there's no direct sun, the shed stays pretty cool. When the sun hits, however, temps soar. That's why we're also putting up a shade canopy and siting the shed on the north side of the hose.

I intend to run the lights at night and mornings, which are the coolest part of the day here in So Cal. Temps will range from mid 70s midday to low 50s at night. Also, I will not be running from mid-June to mid-Oct (I will do a reduced outdoor crop for the summer) because it's just too darn hot. Not sure even a mini-split would do the job when it's 100 degrees F out there (38 C)

I chose an 8000 BTU portable A/C for starters. These are notoriously awful I know, but the tight space inside and outside the shed sort of require it. They rate the unit for up to 200 sq ft, so I'm hoping the 45 sq ft inside the shed will adequately cool. If not, I will reassess then. We will modify a bit by using an insulated exhaust hose and using the cool air from under the foundation as the intake. This, in addition to the relatively low heat given off by the COBs, will hopefully keep it cool enough in there

Not ideal, I know, but I will see how it goes, and adjust if I need to.
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
that's cool bro, I've grown nl5 x haze a few times, sensi seeds. They don't half stretch mate, you grown it before? I had 2 diff phenos both keepers in their own right, I had a lemony larger yielding denser hungry pgeno and a more floral tea like lower yielding airy pheno, although his pheno was ridiculously strong, total haze soaring high
I've grown that strain outdoors before, so I didn't really worry too much about the stretch, just let it go (they were 6' monsters). It's my fave strain, but very difficult outdoors here in So Cal, so I gave up on it. What do you mean by "They don't half stretch"? Do you mean they don't stretch at all, or that they do a full stretch? I have an email out to Sensei for clarification on this and other issues. Any other tips on this strain would be most welcome.

Thanks
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
I've grown that strain outdoors before, so I didn't really worry too much about the stretch, just let it go (they were 6' monsters). It's my fave strain, but very difficult outdoors here in So Cal, so I gave up on it. What do you mean by "They don't half stretch"? Do you mean they don't stretch at all, or that they do a full stretch? I have an email out to Sensei for clarification on this and other issues. Any other tips on this strain would be most welcome.

Thanks
Ha ha, that's some British colloquial phrasing caught you out there friend if I'm not mistaken!

"It don't half..." meaning "it really does"! :bigjoint:
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
double at least for both my phenos mate, a friend had a nl leaning pheno and even that doubled, bend tie and top all the way through the first month of flower
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
double at least for both my phenos mate, a friend had a nl leaning pheno and even that doubled, bend tie and top all the way through the first month of flower
I was planning on letting half the scrog screen fill up and then flip to flower and let it fill up. Sound good?

Super helpful thread, thanks. How do you like the panda film? We were just discussing how to treat the walls not 20 min ago.
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
Prepping The Site

Today we got most of the site prep done.

  1. A lot of cleaning up, as my outdoor crop was finished harvesting over the weekend, and it was still a mess back there.
  2. We graded the area to 2%. We are near the bottom of a big hill, so we had to go with the natural grade a bit which is from the front door of the shed to the back door. The shed will still be level. My soil is hard clay, so this was lots of fun.
  3. We have an existing drainage pipe from my backyard patio, so we are using that to help with exterior drainage, drain off condensate inside the shed, and emergency protection against flooding inside. In the first attached photo, you can see the drains going in. The second photo shows the prepped site. The pipe coming out of the ground is going to become the interior drain, and the cardboard squares are covering up the 2 exterior drains front and back.
  4. Also in the second photo, you can see the pier blocks where the corners of the shed will be. The install manual calls for a wood-frame foundation lying on top of 6" of gravel. We are going to sink the 4 pier blocks at the corners, and bolt in a frame made of 4x6 pressure-treated beams with floor joists. The floor of the shed gets bolted to that. 2" of gravel will be there for drainage, but it will not support the foundation as Suncast recommends. This should give us added stability for earthquakes, which are an issue here.
  5. As you can see we're not quite done with the grading left to right, but we're close

Hopefully, the foundation and electrical tomorrow

IMG_6505.jpg IMG_6506.jpg
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
I was planning on letting half the scrog screen fill up and then flip to flower and let it fill up. Sound good?


Super helpful thread, thanks. How do you like the panda film? We were just discussing how to treat the walls not 20 min ago.
depending on your pheno you could get away with filling a quarter of the screen before flipping, my advice would be to fill half and flip. This way u won't end up with dead space. But be vigilant and be ready for some aggresive pruning. I found that fiming every head a couple days prior to the flip really cut down on stretch. So does transplanting just before flip.
and if you take cuttings and pick a phenotype for next time you will know what to expect. There's a piney limey pheno that is just so oily it's ridiculous, even after it cured it wasn't even sticky, just very very greasy, if that makes sense, that pheno done the x5 on me throughout its 16plus weeks of flowering. You will definitely find something ur after, I was happy to see a couple indicas in the mix and there's a pheno that looks like old school nl, very similar to nl actually, all phenos had a hazey citrusy aroma. Some beautiful lemon smells there

I like panda film, orca is even better. I also like white paint. Depending on the grows value and priority I use them in this order.

1. Orca
2. Panda
3. White paint

orca and panda can be stuck to foil ply bubble insulation which is great.
 

sheckylovejoy

Well-Known Member
depending on your pheno you could get away with filling a quarter of the screen before flipping, my advice would be to fill half and flip. This way u won't end up with dead space. But be vigilant and be ready for some aggresive pruning. I found that fiming every head a couple days prior to the flip really cut down on stretch. So does transplanting just before flip.
and if you take cuttings and pick a phenotype for next time you will know what to expect. There's a piney limey pheno that is just so oily it's ridiculous, even after it cured it wasn't even sticky, just very very greasy, if that makes sense, that pheno done the x5 on me throughout its 16plus weeks of flowering. You will definitely find something ur after, I was happy to see a couple indicas in the mix and there's a pheno that looks like old school nl, very similar to nl actually, all phenos had a hazey citrusy aroma. Some beautiful lemon smells there

I like panda film, orca is even better. I also like white paint. Depending on the grows value and priority I use them in this order.

1. Orca
2. Panda
3. White paint

orca and panda can be stuck to foil ply bubble insulation which is great.
When I tried the NL5xHaze outdoors, conditions were definitely suboptimal for it, which is why I moved to other strains. Even so, it's still one of the best things I've grown, damn that was a good crop. I will take all your recommendations to heart for sure

Me and my guys were going over the issue of the interior walls yesterday with no firm resolution. We're starting with 2" rigid EPS foam insulation which is foil on one side and shiny printed white plastic on the other. The foil will face outward, but treating the inside plastic surface has perplexed us a bit.
  • Anti-microbial flat white paint: We will have to use a spray primer here to make it bond with the plastic surface, but I think this will do fine
  • Panda or Orca: When you say "foil ply bubble" are you referring to something like Reflectix? How would you secure the Reflectex to the plastic sheeting of the foam insulation and how would the orca/panda attach to the Reflectix? My big worry with all this layering will leave gaps that moisture can get trapped in and start mildew or mold, and that we would have to do a sort of wallpaper hanging application that got rid of all bubbles and gaps. Despite that, I still like this as it will provide better reflectivity as well as added insulation, so I'd like to try and make that work.
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
When I tried the NL5xHaze outdoors, conditions were definitely suboptimal for it, which is why I moved to other strains. Even so, it's still one of the best things I've grown, damn that was a good crop. I will take all your recommendations to heart for sure

Me and my guys were going over the issue of the interior walls yesterday with no firm resolution. We're starting with 2" rigid EPS foam insulation which is foil on one side and shiny printed white plastic on the other. The foil will face outward, but treating the inside plastic surface has perplexed us a bit.
  • Anti-microbial flat white paint: We will have to use a spray primer here to make it bond with the plastic surface, but I think this will do fine
  • Panda or Orca: When you say "foil ply bubble" are you referring to something like Reflectix? How would you secure the Reflectex to the plastic sheeting of the foam insulation and how would the orca/panda attach to the Reflectix? My big worry with all this layering will leave gaps that moisture can get trapped in and start mildew or mold, and that we would have to do a sort of wallpaper hanging application that got rid of all bubbles and gaps. Despite that, I still like this as it will provide better reflectivity as well as added insulation, so I'd like to try and make that work.
yeah it's the same as reflectix and I usually staple the orca to the reflectix. If you're already insulating the shed you could just glue a wooden frame around the perimeter of the insulation boards then staple and tape the orca to it. It's the air that provides the insulation the foams and foils and fibres just provide a means of trapping it. If money is no object spray on insulation is supposed to be good for this sort of thing
 
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