I've done alot of reading and learned alot from this website. I have also watched mr. greens grow room creation a few times and a bunch of others. I usually find some kind of documentary to watch as i fall asleep at night, so i would say i have a decent knowledge of what to do, i just need some help for a few things. first off, is the room itself. Attatched is a picture of the space i would like to use. What should i all do to make it a good base to start? My basement has a bunch of spiders, and a snakeskin was found in the ceiling a few years ago. Actually found a baby black snake down there a few years ago. so what should i do to make this a healthy environment for my future babies? there isnt a door to this room. I was considering one of those grow tent kits with everything but with upgrades, the cost is too much for me to handle right now. I basicly need help setting this all up for cheap. I would like to have a cfl veg cabinet or something so i can clone. I was thinking of doing 3 plants, then add 2 plants later, then after the first harvest, throwing 3 in there. that way, ill have a faster harvest. 2 one time, 3 the next. i planned on using a 600watt hps for this. so how should i design this room to be healthy and functional? also, how would cold winters play a part in this? My basement really isnt heated. Theres a vent i can open down there but with such a large basement, and the attatched garage being in bad condition, it gets pretty cold either way.
i was also considering just getting a cheap-o plastic framed tent and just hanging the lights from the wooden support beams on the ceiling. I could just screw one of those circle things in, then have my lights on a retractable cord to raise and drop it, i can just cut 2 holes in the roof of the tent for the light cords, then just lightproof around it, even though the room will always be dark anyhow. i can do the same thing only with chains to hang the exhaust. with no weight on the tent itself, there shouldnt be any problems for a long time.
Alright Ill chime in here. That looks like a great space to grow in. Plenty of room it looks like. I am not seeing any electricity in the space though. Does it have any chance of flooding? Personally I think a colder growing area is better than a hot one. there are no pictures of the ceiling or opposite wall so I'm kind of left for a blank on what those look like. Let me throw a few things out at you and you can mull them over. After dealing with a few spaces I've come to terms that simple is better but sometimes it cant be avoided. What I would do to start is seal up any kind of air leaks or anything that can be sealed up. Hard to tell but any kind of crevices or gaps can easily be filled with some spray insulation. Keep in mind there are two types one that expands a little the other were talking bowing and cracking and breaking shit expanding foam, buy the right one for the job. Where is the fresh air going to come in and where is the air going to be expelled to? Is smell a concern if it is thats a whole other problem. Does that sewer pipe go to a septic or city sewer? For the walls and floor you can buy some paint to try and lock out any moisture that the masonry will be wicking into your grow space. After the paint I would put up some insulating sheet foam on the walls, ceiling and possibly even the floor, this will help moderate the humidity and the heat cold issues you may have. The sheets aren't super expensive and even come with foil/reflective surface on some of them, or if you plan to put up mylar or polyfilm its easy to put up onto a nice flat surface. It would be easy to frame in a divider or equivalent for that space to make your separate areas. Do you have a preferred method of growing? Having a budget or dollar amount helps to achieve your goal that's a good size space that could be producing quite a bit of green don't go to cheap you want to be rewarded for your efforts.
so i have noticed lol. It usually stays in the 20's to 40's in the winter here, and this basement is mostly underground. Maybe a foot or 2 is above ground. Would a little space heater hooked up to a timer be good? Im thinkin 1 hour on, 1 hour off. we have sewage. And its too big of an area to grow in alone i think. There is no way to seal it off, there isnt a door or even a door frame, its just a stone cutout and its pretty wide. I was going to get that waterseal paint and do the room up anyhow, but im thinking of getting the 600 watt grow tent off HTG with the dimmable ballast, air cooled reflector (or should i get an open one since i have cold winters?) running 6 inch exhaust out of the tent, sucking it through the carbon filter, then through the light, then out. it comes with a clip on fan but i would also get another fan for inside. do you think that would work? I would like to keep it as low as possible. the entire grow tent is complete and with the upgrades i want, it came to 804 and some change. so if i can do it a cheaper way, that would be dope. but if this is the cheapest way i could possibly do it, then i gotta save up for another 2 weeks and ill be ordering it.
Take your time and don't rush into anything. The situation I would be worried about is when the temperature drops. I like tents and dont have anything against them but most people who have tents are using them in climate controlled areas. I think temps while the light is on should be controllable. What about when the lights are off and those temps drop? You want to trust a space heater inside your tent on a thermostat? A tent isn't insulated so it and this is a guess probably wont retain the heat from the space heater so it may not shut off at all. With creating an insulated room it would maintain a much better constant temperature. For the cost of a tent I think you could easily frame in an insulated structure in that space and have plenty of area to evolve your grow and skills. I was asking about the sewage pipe because some people that are tied to city mains exhaust there grows into the sewer line. A septic system on the other hand though is not cool to do it with. You say its a big space but a few 2x4s some spray foam and sheet foam can enclose an area fairly fast and cheap.
Yea, but then i would have to buy the lighting, duct work, fans, soil, nutes, and everything seperate, which i think would cost more. If i was to get the tent, i could work on watersealing the walls and floor, then adding on the insulation before winter. Then after i save up some more, id just use this tent as a clone and veg tent and get a bigger setup for the flower room. There is no electricity outlets in this room, im glad you pointed that out. Is there any extension cords that would be rated high enough to handle that kind of load for the lights and exhaust? I want everything to be safe, no fires!!! and yes, i am tied into a city sweage system, but wouldnt that release smell into other peoples houses? My neighborhood is pretty packed tight with houses.
I highly suggest learning how to run some new 12/2 w/ground wiring and outlets from the breaker box. Extension cords have to be a very thick gauge to handle all of they load of a light, fan, etc. and would be very, very expensive. If you try and go cheap and use thin gauge extension cords with your high amperage loads those cords will get so hot they have a great chance to catch something on fire. Electric safety is one area you cannot be cheap on. All the wiring, connectors, splitters, etc will have an amperage and or wattage rating so plan everything out. For instance, I ran two separate 15A circuits for my grow room. One is for the lighting and the other for all the other equipment. You might be able to safely run all of your equipment and lighting on one 15A circuit depending on what you are using. However, if you try and leach off of an existing circuit that is already handling a heavy load - like refrigerators, etc - you will end up tripping your breakers constantly.
I guess im unclear in how much you think it will cost to equip the room with or with out a tent. Do some homework and come up with some drawings and estimates as to what exactly you would need to hook that room up. Your planning on spending 800 dollars for a tent well you could easily frame in walls add rigid styrofoam insulation, buy lights fans etc for that price. You need some solid numbers measurements prices etc. You seem to have your heart set on the tent though so do what you think is the best course of action for your grow. As for venting and the neighbors no they wouldnt smell a thing because if there plumbing is done right gasses etc should not be able to pass up through waste pipes and into a living space. I would keep all your electric up as high as possible to with that room being underground I would be worried that water could seep in or flood it at some point. Even if its only a one in a million chance thats not one you want to take. I run my 400 watt light off of a 220 line and then my fans, pumps, etc off of a separate circuit as well. Never had a breaker pop with everything running its sound advice.
I am very mixxed up on cost, but the thing is, im not very handy. Framing those rooms off dosent sound like a job for me. The room has gotten water in it before but never nothing super high. I would have the ballast mounted somewhere high though. and my buddy is an electrician, but i dont want to even tell my friends about the grow. Rather just keep it all a secret. I just need to act fast because my money is diminishing day by day due to 20 dollars a gram. so if i dont buy the stuff now, i wont be able to start it until fall.