So I have the land to potential build a underground grow room. I have never tried constructing anything of the sort before so I'm looking for everyone's suggestions, comments or their previous experience with building such a thing My thoughts are to build the room I to the side of a hill with 3 walls "underground" with the 4th being exposed somewhat. I will camouflage the front wall so you won't be able to see it. Idea is to use concrete blocks to build the walls. Looking for maybe a 16 wide 16ft deep 8 ft ceiling. What would I use for the roofing to keep moisture out and also something that won't degrade quickly from being underneath soil all the time. So everyone tell me what you would do or how you would design it. Or tell me I'm crazy and forget this idea lol. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I love this. However I'm not sure how you could dig 'into' a hill without it collapsing under its own weight. I would recommend getting a shipping container, dig a hole, throw it in, and just have a hidden enterance down to it. Imagine a bomb shelter more or less.
Bury a c train, insulate it and reinforce the outside with concrete. A 40 foot hi capacity c trainis between 2-3k cheapest way to Go. I picked one up last year.
Save yourself work and do the shipping container. Very stout structurally and secure. Are you considering an underground greenhouse? That is the shit, I know a grower who has one thats 1,200 square feet. Thermal mass of the earth keeps the environment somewhat stable.
Shipping container is a good idea. Will deff think about that. Was planning on 16 by 16 square with prolly a 4x4 side room on one side for the electric room where electric will come in at. Would like to eventually run some solar panels so I figured this room could hold the batteries needed for that. I'm really just unsure of what to do with the roof and floor. I need something strong and rot resistant for the roof and for the floor I figured about 8 inches of sand with buried drain piping and another 8 inches of rock and just using the rock as the floor since we will be running hydro so if anything leaked it would just drain down through the rock and out the drain pipes Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Unless you are an engineer and/or construction expert, I would not even attempt to build anything underground. The potential risk of collapse is too great. Burying a container might be practical.
I've built plenty of structures and the few others building with me have construction and electric backgrounds. We should be all set there. I was reading up about containers and it seems that I would have to strengthen the walls to keep them from buckling in. And the roof isn't that strong either. It's the 4 corners that support the weight since they are designed to be stacked. Will be mapping out the exact site for the build this coming week. Will prolly begin building within the next couple of weeks. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Makes sense I suppose. But not like the container would be 10' down with tons and tons of dirt, have it like 2' and I'm sure it would be able to hold the weight. Either way very excited to see this come together.
I agree a container should be fine under 2-3 ft of soil. But I figure if I'm going to put in the time and effort I might as well make this thing solid and exactly how I want. Really don't wanna have to dig it back up in 2 years because the wall is caving in lol Hopefully will have some time after work early this week to make it up to the property and figure out where we want to start digging. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I was watching a YouTube vid awhile back and they put a buckets worth of dirt and the sides started to give in.
I would go with a shipping container. Make sure to paint the outside to avoid rust and if your worried about a collapse reinforce it. with the size of the containers you should be able to build rooms to suit your needs. here is a link to the containers you can get. Make sure to give yourself plenty of ventalation http://www.seven-log.com/site/index.php/container-sizes
I've always wanted to buy a broken down bus and do the same thing (stripped of everything ofc). The engine compartment being the electrical room and the emergency escape the actual ladder hatch to get down (just frame it out before you fill it in). If you're worried about the shipping container not being strong enough, I would just get some I beams and make two supports at the front and back. You may even get away with just one in the middle seeing they are designed to take the weight on the corners. Either way, I'm excited to see what idea you run with.
It's funny that you say that, there was a drug bust in TN not too long ago that a guy buried a school bus and was growing out of it. I have seen a lot of research on the structural strength of shipping containers and this is def the way to go, plus they are affordable. There is a guy up in Washington who made a mushroom farm in a shipping container. They dug out the side of the hill so it was placed 80% into the hillside and the other 20 was left out and they built a rock entrance to it, stealth was not a priority though.
Building science engineer here. I recommend welding C channels into the top/sides if you want to reinforce. How many feet of material is going to be on top? When you bury it try and put sand/gravel (well draining) above it if you can so its not heavy saturated soil. Dig the hole first and see if water seems in from the sides. If you want to build it right you should wrap the whole thing in a self adhering (peel and stick) bituminous membrane.