What I am looking into is a house with a decent basement that doesn't flood, and is sealed very well here is the idea: First off going to put bars up on the windows as there are small animals in the area that like to get init shouldn't be that weird. Between the bars and the window will be black trash bags up to hide from the house side. Then wrapped up on the outside of the bars will be aluminum foil to block ALL light coming in the window. The thought being, the window will be unable to open and the bag on the window will look like a standard bag and not someone trying to block all light, which some people look for in a grow house... Second I am going to build a room that takes up half of the basement, fully studded wall with dual drywall on either side, and an outdoors door on the frame with serious lockage. Once inside the room I am going to put up heavy plastic along all the beams and ceiling of the basement so that scent shouldn't even be able to permeate the rest of the house, also thinking of doing the walls but that might be overkill.. Third I plan on putting in 3 seperate grow tents or build 3 seperate "air tight" (Not completely obviously) green houses. In each will be it's own lighting system, Aeroponics system, Intake air from the outside behind a bush, and Exhaust... All exhaust fans in them will be lead to a communal out of the house funnel. This funnel will be fed into the dryer vent out of the house. That way if people find warm air going out of the exhaust they won't question it too much. Also in the dryer vent I am installing a few other filters one being charcoal, and the other being plain old dryer sheets in them.. I think this should pretty throughly hide the scent except from drug dogs. Last All power going to the grow room will be on it's own circuit breaker and i am using Florecent's to try and keep the power bills down and the heat down as well.. Only person that will be going in will be me, and the only other person that knows is my wife. We will be telling people not to go down in the basement due to mold, and another exterior door will be installed at the top of the stairs and always be locked. Should people get down there, we will tell them behind the door is just mechanicals like water heater ect. We will actually have the water heater and furnace in another area also hidden to keep the story semi legit, yet make it so if a worker needs to get to them they don't have to see the grow room.. Now ... Thoughts... Is this way too much over kill? Does this sound fairly thought out? Am I missing anything? Should I think of other ideas that i missed? Am doing this because we just wan our own steady supply for ourselves and immediate friends. We cook with it a lot so we need a little more. No one will know we grow, if friends want it we just "know a guy". I am doing this setup as a permenant solution, and all the security on the room because we have friends and family over. Renting another place to grow would just be a lot more expensive in the long run. So I would like to know what you guys think.
Black plastic bags stuffed in front of windows look suspicious (and ghetto) IMO. Aluminum foil for leakproofing does not make sense. Use poly, or nail wood over the windows or something. Plastic sheeting, a charcoal filter in the vent, and dryer sheets (!!) won't begin to deal with the odor issue. You need to get a carbon filter and exhaust fan for each room or the odor will leak throughout the house and outside too. You can't exhaust three rooms into one little dryer vent. You will be exhausting air out of the rooms 24/7 and the air makes noise blowing out, so you had better be exhausting it somewhere hidden. You need to read up on ventilation, leakproofing, odor control, and lighting.
Oh wow I didn't say that, yes I am planning to use a big Carbon filter with exhaust fan for each room. Already had planned it just forgot to type that out. The charcoal and dryer sheets were just backups for the carbon filters, or would that just be redundent? However I didn't think about the air flow through the dryer vent being too small.. Maybe if I updated all of the duct work to be larger? Or should I just do the hidden exhaust vents? I was worried about people finding a bunch of heat coming out of a vent which is why I thought the dryer vent would be good idea. Will do the wood over the windows instead that is a much better idea.
Hidden exhaust vents. If you think hostile people are going to be looking for, examining, and contemplating your exhaust vents, maybe you shouldn't be growing.
nothing wrong with being over cautious about growing... I like growing in basements... its cooler, retains humidity better/retains temps easier and your less likely to get caught in a basement grow, less people go down to basements if you can create a fake wall or a hidden area to keep your grow away from foot traffic, besides... light leaks will render your crop useless... so creating a blacked out space is useful anyway... be prepared to get a de-humidifier...craigslist is a good way to get a cheap one and i really like the options you've been given so far... I like the fact of using wood to cover windows rather than foil... but it also depends on the area and the cars your driving... i'd just wrap some panda film over a piece of wood and slide it into the window and nail some 2x2's to the sides to lock the plywood in place... panda is cheap, reflective and all white, so it looks like a curtain... but before you do anything make sure you have your exhaust plans in place... we don't know how you can exhaust but multiple exhaust vents shooting tons of heat in the middle of winter is a dead give away, but mostly to other growers.... if you have questions about exhaust take lots of pictures of your setup and maybe people can help... but i like to exhaust into attics... that does not look weird and heat in a attic in the winter helps keep your house hot... but you didn't say if your house was two story or if you could run a pipe up there..... anyway.. my vote is to use the basement, but security is a must
Perhaps it would be better to get some black batting and put that on plywood, then a set of blinds ontop of that then hang that to cover your windows. that way they cannot see inside and it doesn't look like someone blocked the window, just that the basement is dark and they can't see in. Security is in the details. also yeah, try to vent your exhaust through your attic through a vent you put onto your roof, (the metal ones) a chimney is even better.
I don't think that people will be looking that close to the house or anything I am just trying to take this seriously from the start and plan for the future. My main goal is just to have a nice grow room in my basement and not have to worry about getting caught. I want to use it for years and get plenty of good things from it. So BEFORE I start I am planning everything out. This is why I came here the community, I really love the ideas that you guys give and input is important. I was worried about the hot air vents coming out all the time, I watched a couple videos that showed cops using heat to catch people so I was trying to think ahead. I don't have the house yet, what I am looking for is a house in the country, off country roads off the main roads. With at least a half acre of land to a whole acre of land. Nice basement with sump pump back ups and will super seal the walls to be safe. Beyond that the main thing that I think will keep everything safe is just to be a good neighbor. Cutting the grass, grilling outside, just being visable as a young couple with my wife. The more mainstream we look I think we will be ok. I think that venting into an attic would be the best way based off what others have said but I am still open to suggestions. I also liked the idea of a chimney, if there isn't a chimney, I could always put a chimney top on the house, not a stone one, but modern installed fireplaces usually just have a metal flue heading up so it wouldn't look too weird. Thoughts on that? Will definatly look into a dehumidifier as well for the basement. All words of wisdom welcome =).. Once I start building I will definately post pictures you will all be part of the process! Thanks in advance for all help. PS - Any advice on what else I should look for in a house for this? What I am already looking for is above but any other considerations I should take?
power... look for a sub panel in the basement... if not look for a easy way to run power wires from the main panel into the basement for grow power... their not much to install yourself, but if the run is easy its just going to make life easier
I used to be an electrician so running a sub panel is Easy Peasy for me. Thinking of going Florescent to manage power usage and heat better, not the CFLs the full size Florescents. Going to have Mylar walls in the green houses to help with light. Putting the Lights on a dual Pully system so that I can raise and lower the light through out the life of the plants. Also thinking of having a separate area to keep 1-3 plants for breeding or to keep a mother plant for cloning. obviously with a much smaller system inside with it's own air system in case I have males in there I don't want to contaminate the main greenhouses. Or do you guys think it would just be easier to get all female seeds from a seed bank each time? Original thought was to buy a couple strains and then keep a male and female together in the separate area just to produce seeds for future growing... The seeds just get expensive after a bit.
Kitsune, if you are going to vent to your chimney i would suggest running HID Lamps as they would give you faster growth and better product. since you are venting you could have air cooled hoods which would eliminate most of the heat issue. also agree with having a false wall, security is nice. Another all together different approach would be to spend 4k on a Sea-Can (big metal box) and rent a hoe to dig a hole for it right beside your house then cut out a door sized section of your basement wall, cut out the same on the top/side of the sea-can. (bury it deep so you have to walk down a few feet to get to the box from the basement) weld the doors on the sea-can shut so they are air/water tight and then run your electrical to it. Back fill over the box and perhaps use the hoe to do some landscaping while your at it. then build a faux wall about 2ft from the basement wall, put in a hidden door (like a shelf unit on hinges) then run your ventilation from the sea-can behind your faux wall and vent it straight up to the attic. This would give you a 20x40 Grow area, lots of room for later projects and maximum security. I might of gone overboard on the last suggestion, i just smoked a fatty when i started typing this.
reflect your light around the plant helps a lot more then you would think but. Grow Grow lean some thing grow some more...Thanks for sharing this file.
Love the idea of adding on a secret room to the basement as it would be seriously secure... However that is just a little TOO ambitious for me I'm afraid lol. Making the investment to seal off part of the basement is a lot more cost effective however. I think I will be telling people there is a mold problem down in the basement and that should keep most people from investigating further. I was also thinking of supplimenting the T5 or T8s with some CFLs between the plants, like maybe a couple 100watt CFLs... Not as the main lights but something to get a little closer and add some light. Or would this be a little too much? I think would help... I will have reflectors, the walls of the greenhouses will all have mylar and EVERYTHING will reflect light. I am all about maximizing the light that I am providing. On the HPS front, I know that they put out a bigger yield and everything however I really want to minimize the power usage where I can, as well as the heat. I was going to do more plants to make up for the difference in using Florecents vs the HPS. Since I will have the room down there to use I think it would work out better. I want the 3 different grow rooms so that I can have several plants at different stages in the growth cycle so I can have a steady supply. Not trying to sell just want to keep me and my friends in a good mood and save some cash in the long run.
I do wonder what would be the best size to make the rooms or if I get Grow Tents and just improve them to be more permenant. I am wanting to have around 8 Ladies in each room, I was thinking 4'X6' and the room will be around 6' tall.. Is this sufficient for 8 ladies or will I need more room than this? Or can I go a little more compact than this to make it more efficient?
that is alot of room, perhaps not vertically but enough leg room for the girls for sure. for 8 girls i would go with a 4x4 space and give yourself 2 ft of room to work in (rotating plants, tending to details) It all really depends on your strain and how you manage your canopy.
4X4? I was reading a grow journal where they had 5 plants in a 4X4 and they had some problems with the 5 Plants in there and moving things around. I would like my ladies to have some breathing room, as well as some room to rotate them without having to take them all out to do the process. I am not sure on the Genetics AT ALL... That is one subject that I have absolutley no idea what road to approach due to the MASS amounts of strains and the fact that everyone has a complete different opinion on the matter... On the subject of strains Anyone have some advice on where to start? I have heard that White Widow is a great starting plant with decent yield. Any advice? I want a strain that is easy to grow for a beginner with a nice yield doesn't have to be the best yield. Something that will grow well under the Florescents. I am going to run a test run or two with bag seed from a great batch. However I am a complete newb when it comes to genetics, and all the threads I find are so varied on opinion
hey man just to help out if you are looking to in the basement look in on investing in a dehumidifier! you will most likely need it, especially if its an older home because the basements tend to be "wet". Also if you are using tents in the basement a problem i kept having was mold growing on the bottom of the tent. also for your ventilation dont run it off the drier vent, it increases your humidity when the drier is running, if you havent got the house yet try to find one that is natural gas water tank... they have easy to access exhaust pipe that goes straight up and out through the roof and if you dont have houses around you and its a two story you wont need a carbon filter because the smell getts carried up in the sky. just some food for thought... P.S. if you are looking to rent for a while and your going to do a studded room, tents are waste of money, problems with light leaks and after wear and tear on the zippers they wont last long