Newbie Introduction

O40 said:

All:

I am in the planning stage of a new out building, probably a 1 to 2 car garage size, and decided to build a grow room space during the construction, probably a 10 X 12 space. I was thinking of a basement for the grow room but the soil where I live is not suitable The building will have water, electric and heat available. So if any of you vetrans have any ideas on how you might construct something in this environment I would be very appreciative of your feedback. Specfically with regards to size and dimensions, electrical connections, 110 or 220 ? ampreage, drainage,etc.

My objectives:
- is to produce a pound or so a year of quality buds, with some room for expansion

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Welcome to the forum. Wow, this could be fun. I would ask you to take the time to read thru my journal. Its posted in grow room design, My Current set up: Journal?? My grow area is actually at the back of my garage. A little bit different, I live in a mobile home so my garage is 40' long, with the workshop is at the back and is attached to the house.
The area that I have my flowering tables in is about 10' by 10'. The rest of the room is not quite 10 X 10, it has a chunk out so my bathroom window isn't in the grow area. Its just like any other living pace, you want it insulated.
As far as the electric goes, its really easy. I would recommend getting a book about doing it. I use, Wiring Simplified, I bought mine at Home Depot, $10.95. So many things come to mind. What I did was plan circuits for each table I was planning on using, I installed all of it including the new 200apm service so it was not a problem to do. If I had it to do over again I would put switches in a convenient spot outside of the actual growing area, having to go behind a table of plants to make a change is kinda dumb.
Are you going to construct this yourself?? I tell you one thing that you do want if is a garage is an automatic door opener. You open the door drive in, close it, and you can unload all of your supplies. I have plants all the way around the outside of the house, so having pots and stuff in the garage is not a problem. I use coco-coir for my growing medium and after use I put it in the flower beds around the house. You will probably have to have at least one window for ingress and egress. Plan on getting one way glass for those windows. The number one way you can get the LEO's paying attention to you is a covered window. One way glass solves the problem.
I can see you still have some research to do on lights. The hid's that produce all of that heat will be dinosaurs soon as folks get the facts on t-5's and led lighting. For what you are setting up the led's will be the way to go. 4/1 ratio, you would need 4 times the watts of hid lighting to match the output of the led's. 150watts of led=600 watt hid, and there goes the heat issue along with the high electric bill. Right now they are a little pricey, saves the energy though. lasts about 10,000 hours. I'm doing research on some now and will have answers for you about them by the time you could get this built.
You would be wise to install a Reverse Osmosis System, of course bigger is better. When you get one you want to make sure its for continuos use. Not that you will have it on all the time.lol My installation was difficult, had to put four screws in the wall and attach a hose and 1/4" drain line, took at least an hour.
When the walls are being built use Styrofoam insulation on the outside walls and tape all the places where two pieces meet. This block air from blowing out or in, gives you better control of the environment. Wait to insulate the inside walls until you are all done with the plumbing, electric etc. and then if you are not forced to finish the walls (you may be because you need a fire stop) use Panda Plastic, white side in of course, as your vapor barrier. In the attic space insulate to an R-38. Lay one batt between the rafters and then go across that insultaion and the rafters. 20% of the structure is wood with an R-value of approximately 1/". So even with the batts between them 20% of the structure is an R-6 or less. The Styro outside and criss cross batts will make a marked improvement and allow you to control the enviroment.
As far as venting goes, once again bigger is better. An 8" duct has 4 times the capacity of a 4" duct. And, get this, the 8" duct fits right in a 'roof hat' commonly used to vent attic space. Install a few in the roof above the workshop area, you want the extra venting cause you might do some painting in there, so even though you have the 'Ridge Vent, you want those others in case.... Mine vents right thru one at the top of the roof, not many folks can smell it up there, and heat rises. I have one 8' inline fan in that duct, 500cfm, replaces the air with 'fresh' air every two or three minutes, which is fine with the space I have. Oscillating fans, buy the wall mounted ones. Period.
Since you had a Greenhouse I won't go into floor drains other than to say you do want one.

- maybe do some hybridizing stuff for fun, I did this with some other species in my past gardening life and really enjoyed it.
- be extremely transparent, I live out in the county, semi rural and there is a lot of space between my property and the neigbhbors, the other houses are probably a 1/8 to 1/4 mile away but it has to be a very, very transparent operation.

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I get ahead of myself sometimes. I think I gave some ideas on this above.

I think I have a good understanding of the lighting systems available, but I really need to understand the exhaust systems better. What I am better trying to understand is the air cooled lighting systems. Any webdstes or product sites that explain this would be great.

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Check led's and T-5's, cfl's for experiments. You won't need to air cool. Nuff said, its in my journal.

I looked at a number of sites, homeharvest, hortilux, etc. Since I will be installing these, they need to be easy, I have a green thumb for gardening, but suck at electrical stuff construction stuff.

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Its as easy as 123, abc, black, white and green. I can talk you thru it, and provide pictures if necessary. Every thing is made to be simple and standard. Any time you re installing a plug or a duplex, one of the screws will be gold that = black-hot wire, one of them will be silver that=white-return wire, and the one at the bottom will be green this = green-ground wire. The recepticle you plug it in is the same. It has three screws(at least) gold, silver and green. Black white green. Now when we get to installing the breaker, the switch that goes in the panel, there will be three wires, black which attaches to the actual switch, white which attaches where all the other white wires are attach, and the ground wire which at this point will be bare, it attaches where all the other green wires are attached. Remember, ALWAYS TURN OFF THE SWITCH FIRST, AND ON LAST. Your best research for this is at the big box stores, Lowes, Menards, home Depot etc. They will have displays. Learning how to do this type of work can save you a grand or so now.

Investment wise, money is not that big of a deal I read some threads about low budget DIY hydro and CFL systems, but I want something that will be easy to install, highly productive and some room for possible expansion.

Thanks and good luck to you all.....


Any comments and opinions are welcome...[/

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You will want a room more like 20x12 to do the things you are talking about doing. My set up produces more like a pound a month, not a year. VV

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