Growing in an Attic

So I'm looking to grow some bud in a not so obvious spot in my house.

There's kind of a hidden attic where the entrance is above my closet. It spans my entire house and is about 4-5 feet tall in places.

It seems to be almost the perfect place to grow, except for the temperature. Now the roof is modern and isn't sealed off (the entire roof is open with cracks of light along the gutters and the very top), but it is still hot as hell up there. I'd guess it's about 85-90 degrees and extremely humid.

Is that high temperature going to ruin things? Also will the insulation all around light on fire from the powerful lights? Don't want that either.

I bought some plywood today though and laid it down over areas because it's all just 2x4 beams right now. But there is a nice open square where the plants would sit.

Any help is appreciated, want to get this going asap!

I did an attic grow over the winter. Very tricky to control temperatures. I spent a lot of time and money constructing an area to grow in. Your gonna need intake and exhaust, a thermostat etc, etc. Get everything dialed in with the light running and it might work. Just letting you know it's a constant battle to keep things regulated. I just finished building a stealth cabinet that looks like a piece of furniture to grow in. Any questions let me know. I'm a contractor so I kinda have a clue when it comes to building grow rooms. Good luck man.

Got to agree with JM on this one. It would be a giant pain in the rectal area to do an attic grow. You have to lug all your water up there etc. not to even mention spilling some. It could surely be done if a person had the money and time. Now you turn that area into a giant bathroom white shower area with floor drains. It would be perfect. Just take money and a fella like JM to do the work

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I managed to pull a good amount of bud from the attic grow but I spent a lot of dough and had the knowhow to set up a descent area.

yea i attempted an attic grow it was a bitch. temps were hard to control.

How would you recommend setting up a ventilation system?

I have money that's not a problem, I just need to know what to buy and how to do it.

Also nobody was able to answer, would 1 or 2 lights start the insulation on fire? It wouldn't be directly under the light, but I'm sure it'd get hit by it.

jm30 said:

I did an attic grow over the winter. Very tricky to control temperatures. I spent a lot of time and money constructing an area to grow in. Your gonna need intake and exhaust, a thermostat etc, etc. Get everything dialed in with the light running and it might work. Just letting you know it's a constant battle to keep things regulated. I just finished building a stealth cabinet that looks like a piece of furniture to grow in. Any questions let me know. I'm a contractor so I kinda have a clue when it comes to building grow rooms. Good luck man.

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Well you cant really just toss lights up there with plants sitting under them, you need to construct a grow box in the attic itself. If you leave your plants just sitting up there your obviously going to have bug problems since your attic has open cracks. Then not only will you have to deal with the heat from the light but the heat from outside also since you'll be sucking air in from the attic itself. So just think, say 85 degree outside temp plus at least 5 degree's from the light itself and you've already got a temp problem. You want to shoot for 72-78 degrees so without very good ventilation or an AC unit your probably going to have more trouble than its worth especially being a beginning grower.

too hot in the summer too cold in the winter. you dont have a basement?

Alright, here are some pictures that I snapped this morning.

As you can see I do have the bathroom fan right there as well as what I think is the water line to my shower. I could buy a fan to suck the air into the bathroom fan and shoot it out the bathroom window so that may cover the exhaust part of it.

As far as intake, there's that crack on the roof and it's actually only really hot in the peak hours of the day, it's quite nice in the morning/night hours.

How can we make this work! Thanks for the replies so far!

And a full quarter went into that monster blunt.

Thats not a water pipe. Thats most likly the vent for the plumbing in the bathroom. I assume it's a bathroom cause of the vent fan.


ETA: Speeking of vents, I almost used one of the vent at my house to hook my exhaut fan up to. It vents right to the outside of the house through the roof. But I didn't.

Duh. Haha water wouldn't run through that.

CannabisErectus said:

Duh. Haha water wouldn't run through that.

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Hey just making sure. Some people aren't the britest when it comes to plumbing or something like that. LMAO.

Anybody have any other ideas for this?

I guess I'll go to home depot and ask how to vent out my attic lol.

i would like to see this attic grow in more detail, i have been thinking about growing in my attic as well, but am to worried about temps, also it would be annoying to get the ladder out everyday

Erectus,

I was looking @ the very same thing. I sat in my attic with the lights on wondering the more important limitations in both summer and winter. I didn't stay long in the summer. It was over 100 degrees.
The area you show would be adequate. Here was my plan. Build a big, sealed (as much as possible) box. Insulate the inside with those foam panels you see on the inside of garage doors, reflective film side in. The important issue is heat. My house has all the aircon and heat ducts running in my attic. I would tap off of this duct (my room would be right next to the outlet duct and just above the furnice/air handler) and direct it to an inlet of my grow box. The outlet of my grow box would have a carbon scrubber and dump into the attic or ducted out the roof vent. You would only be adding 100-200 cubic feet to the overall aircon/heating need of the home, so you should not need to upscale the units. The tricking part I see is electrically wiring a thermostat into the existing system so it maintains the desired temp in the room while still maintaining a comfortable level in the home. And not offsetting the therostat in the main living area.
As far as water and drains. I would lay down thick plastic film or I even thought about adding a thick, plastic, waterproof coating to the floor. As far as lugging water up there, I can deal with that. Depending on the grow size , I was planning on 6-10, how much water is that a week? Small price to pay for stealth.
Again, a sealed room and getting a consistent temp both summer/winter is key. In my case, that's from 30 degrees to 100 degrees. I don't think it's easy, I just believe it's the main obsticle to overcome.
Hey, I've even entertained those small AC and heating units that would attach directly to the box. Fresh air with filter in, exhaust into attic or ducted out.
Don't underestimate the possibilities. Problems have many solutions.
Think outside the box to better control what's inside the box.
Best of Luck