Hey Grassers! Long time lurker, new grow and a new account! So I'm planning to redo my entire grow area, I've done 2 successfull grows in this area but with a very low effort setup which in turn made it pretty difficult to work in it. I'm going to change things up to make it more streamlined and alot easier to work with. I would love for any feedback that you may have! First let me explain the picture I've attached. The hollow square on the right is the entrance to an attic space. The posts are the trusses (there are more, I've just drawn up the important ones), the red arrows are where I have intended to have the warm air exit and the blue arrows are where I have intended to have cool air coming in. The top side exits will only be used if necessary. The dimension of the entire grow area (within the posts) is 9,4 meter length, 2,2 meter wide and the height up to the ridge is 2,35 meter. Slanted roof though so the entire height can't be used. My plan is like this; Flower room - 3x 1x1m hydro trays running E&F, SOG style growing due to the limited height available. (May only be 2 trays depending on how it looks when I actually start to assemble stuff) Veg room - 6x flower plants, 3 different strains. (May only be 4 mother plants depending on how it looks). Not sure which route to go with the mother plants yet, looking at DWC. Ideas? Ventilation - The direction of ventilation will be from left to right. 2x filters from flower room, 1x filter from veg and probably 2x filters on the warm air exit holes on the right. There will be an AC unit directly below the "entry square", kind of making the lower floor a lung room. I will mainly rely on passive intakes on the holes with the blue arrows, thinking that I'll need one active in the flower room though. One of the intakes in the veg room will probably have a T-connector so that both the flower and the veg room will have access to passive intakes from that one. The ventilation part is the one that I'm the most insecure about. I have no idea how to actually do any real calculations on how much airflow I need to keep negative pressure and exchange the air in there sufficiently. The holes in the floor will have a diameter of 125mm. It's worth mentioning that the grow area isn't sealed so if the holes aren't allowing the exact amount of air intake there will still be air coming in from other places, ideally as much as possible goes by the AC unit though. Any and all feedback is most appreciated here! Smell is important to keep really low so I will be running 2 filters from the flower room and 1 from veg. If needed I can add another filter in each room that scrubs the air but doesn't exhaust it anywhere. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!
Do you like in a climate controllable area where your attic isn't going to hit 140 degrees in summer and -10 in winter? I also don't fully understand how you'll be controlling the temp and airflow in the different rooms. What are the partitions between the rooms and how will you dial in humidity settings for each area?
Attic spaces usually don't have enough thickness to the joists to support a floor weight load like your proposing. Floor Joists are 12 inches thick and spaced at 16 inches. Ceiling Joists are 4 inches thick and can be spaced at either 16 or 24 inches as they only have to hold up the plasterboard. There are some exceptions if an interior wall runs the full length under where your loading then you can load directly over that. BNW
I have to comment . Knowing what i know seeing what i seen and deal with on a daily basis . Do not leave or keep opening a attic . More info can be given and you wont understand . Lets say if you want to live a healthy life style with out feeling sick all day and hurting your health . Keep that attic sealed ! Bitch out buy a tent like everyone else
The grow are will most likely have to be insulated when I start rebuilding, the AC unit (minisplitter?) will cool when needed and heat when needed. That's the idea anyway. The temps and humidity will most likely be roughly the same in both the flower room and the veg room. Not optimal but it's the best I can do with the space I have, when it comes to needing increased humidity for clones etc I will have to use domes. Good looking out! The weight won't be a problem, the previous owner used this floor as a storage space with a crapton of heavy stuff up there. I'm not sure I understand. The attic will definitley not be open, there will be one opening and it will be closed at all times except for when I'm up there. I have some other incognito plans for it as well. When I said it's not sealed I ment that air can get pulled in through nooks and crannies but nothing more than that. If I miss the ball completely please explain more, I'm eager to hear your thoughts!
I still don't know your locale climate but attics get super HOT & COLD where I am.....I might reconsider trying to control and ventilate the whole space and instead build out and insulate individual rooms and feed those with the mini split. Also keep in mind that attics are designed to be thermal breaks between the main living area.
We have a few months that gets hot, majority of the months are cool not cold. Every once in a while we get a really cold winter. But with insulation, a minisplitter and enough air movement it shouldn't really be a problem, right? I definitley hear your concerns and appreciate your thoughts. The floor below needs to look "normal" though so I can't really do alot of creative feedpipes to the different rooms. There is good insulation in the attic flooring (like 40cm thick is my estimation, can of course get an exact measure if needed), and with some insulation on the roof sheeting would possibly make it less attic like and more... Normal? Haha I'm sorry I'm no good with the terminology.
Get some thermal sheets put them on on the inside roof. It will help stop some heat. . 1200sqft Radiant Barrier Solar Attic Foil Reflective NASA Insulation 2x600 perf | eBay If you do this feel a lott better with you going in and out of the attic stops all the bad things
Great advice! Thank you very much! I'll see if I can source that stuff locally, looks really good. Is this stuff good enough to use as only insulation? I'm still pretty damn new so forgive me for asking, the bad things that you mention, could you clarify a bit on that? What bad things? I'm the kind of person that prefers to do it right the first time so the more knowledge I can soak up the better.
That sheet does what it says . Reflects heat . Its not a great insulation . It will work some what as a insulation. But lets say you had to get out of a house that was on fire . You would wrap yourself with this stuff to reflect the heat .
What’s up grow brother!! Theres a few things I would change and chime back if you’ve got questions. Be careful of water bins and trays etc. In a hydro system water temps are keen and have to be monitored closely like 50-60s nothing higher then 70s. Think about chillers and power consumption. Next would be tray leaks/overflows so water proofing should be considered/drains and water added and natural gas if you want co2, plumbing added by professionals. Given what you got size wise I would recommend 3 gallon fabric pots in coco/soil. Both would add a nice buffer and protects the roots from heat and cold like how insulation works. Also water retention is nice but will dry out fairly fast or slow depending on your media. Last thing you want to do is have root issues or bug issues in your resi. Now you will have to dump clean and fill everything in the grow on the spot. Things to consider: Adding a water spigot/system for fresh clean water. Climate control monitoring system for grow rooms. Ease of access and how you would complete regular tasks in an indoor garden. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
easy way to complete the tasks if its a bitch to get in and out of . Make the wife go up there ! Do something but have your hands on your hips yelling lmao
Hey hey Frost! Thanks for the advice! I'm pretty confident in preventing leaks, I have quite a bit of experience with plumbing so that stuff shouldn't be an issue. Very good advice none the less, I'll start looking for an "overflow tray" to have under the water bins/trays. I did a few grows with hempy fuckets back in the day, and then went over to coco in airpots. Since it's not the easiest place to haul stuff up and down to the new grow area I'm pretty set on growing in an E&F style way with rockwool cubes. Last two grows was done with E&F in net pots with hydroton in them, and the clones were simply started in rockwool cubes and then placed in the netpot with the hydroton. I kind of felt like the hydroton was pretty damn annoying to work with so I'm thinking that I'll try without it. Just rockwool cubes and obviously tighter watering schedule. Am I way off the mark here? I'll make sure to monitor the water temps closely until I get a solid feel for it. Do you have any thoughts about the intended ventilation? Oddly enough this is what worries me the most.
Dont be this guy Lack of snow on house leads to drug bust in the Netherlands posting more for humor then legit concern.
Still in the planning stages, I have a few parts that I need to hire a professional to do before I can get going