Ideas, suggestions for new grow room in garage (best layout, recommendations etc

Hey guys, ive been growing in tents for a while and decided its
finally time to upgrade.

Ok, so here's the space (i previously had my tent here) i have available in the garage. dimensions of area is approximately 10' x 8', ceiling is rafters about 12 feet up or so, planned room will have 8 foot ceiling.





the garage is only partially insulated, most of it is not. temps in there can range from very hot during summer to pretty cold in the winter. in the past, i could only manage good grows during the fall/winter/early spring, once summer comes around, forget about it. it's just not worth the trouble of trying to keep temps in check in a tent. an insulated room with AC is what i need.

so i will be using those 3/4'' R-tech insulation boards that a lot of guys use to skin the frame.

i don't plan on using the entire space. my original plan was to construct a 6'x6'x8' room with two 600's over 3x3 trays. ive since decided to run a single 1k lamp (less electric), and so this is where i would like some help because i have to revise the room to be square to suite a single light instead of two over a rectangular area.

the 1k will be housed in a magnum xxxl hood over a 4x4 tray. i want to maximize as much of the lighting as as possible so i'm thinking of a 5'x5' area? for flowering and some space for me to comfortably water and move around outside of that. the room will primarily be for flowering. this is very rough sketch of what i came up with just now...forgive the crappiness lol. (noticed how im still stuck on a rectangle shape for the room even though i know square is more ideal.



i know that i could frame off the 5x5 space from the rest of the room to keep the light in it's intended footprint, but couldnt i simply use a poly or mylar curtain instead of walling off the area?

also, there is a metal bar used for the garage door that protrudes from the back wall, so im thinking i need to either build outside of that or around it.




the area has a carport, aluminum garage door on one side and on the other wall theres a small vent opening at the bottom as a fresh air source and exhaust the room from an opening i can cut out near the rafters.

there's also a bunch of electrical shit in the wall and behind that and outside is the breaker box. i'm sure i can learn how to wire up a few connections to power up the room.




soooo...what can i do to take full advantage of both the light and space i have? i would like to have this room up and running by october. ideas, suggestions, recommendations...anything is greatly appreciated. thanks guys and gals in advance.

thats a shitty garage. someone converted it already... but didnt bother removing the garage door? probably a brick veneer and they were too stupid to blend new brick in.

shitty garage.


anyway if you dont have some base line carpentry skills you are going to need to learn a bit first. i always reccomend getting some books used on amazon and starting there.

you are going to need about 500 bucks worth of tools... miter saw and stand, trywall tools, air compressor and nail gun.
cordless drill.

probably some other shit i can think of at the moment.

first you have no ceiling.

you need to hang some joists. you will prbably have to disassemble the garage door track for access... and you are going to need to cut back the ends of the joist at an angle owing to the hip roof.

the ceiling will need to run into the headers that span your garage door opening.

then u drywall and reinstall the garage door runners.



then u need to

then u need some sort of air sealing regime for the garage door, or you need to erect a wall against the garage door.

anyway if you are askiing these questions in the first place you should probably read a bit about remodeling etc first.

What size is your tent? Maybe just get a bigger one or use it, but cover the outside walls with at least the 1 inch foam panels. R-5 for every inch I believe.. Seal that baby up, leave the front sides panels so they are removable with velcro, to get through the zipper doors.. And hang a window AC through one side, set it on a table or something.

Garage door tracks in the way? Np, just jam them right through the tent and hang your lights so they hanging on garage door track rollers, lol might as well use them. Go ahead and install a garage door opener up there too, use it for a light rail!

Anyways ya rigid foam panels and a few studs can make do for a nice little fortress, use big washers around your screws to fasten them. Metal tape sucks for inside corners so just use cheap elasto caulk it works better.

Personally...I always think security is first and foremost. Smell and the noise from fans and whooshing air are usually the biggest factors. Only way to silence that is thick, dense insulation. The other perk of that is temperatures are easier to hold and maintain. It also gives the option to run a truly sealed area.

I've always been a fan of the "room inside a room" approach. That means, full and proper framing of the interior space.

Framed out properly...and since you are running 1k in flower and have tall ceilings, this could be a really nice spot.

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Since you are looking at a 5 x 5 flower area, I'd consider going with a 3' x 5' and going with 2 of the new CDM 315w systems like greenbeams. It would be comparable to having run 2 x 600w and even less power yet.

The additional 5' x 5' in front of the flowering area could be used for a lung / trimming / drying area - which is something far too many people don't think about.

Even if going the 1k route, I'd still use that remaining 3 x 5 as a drying space / lung room, since it isn't needed for the veg area.



dank.Frank

dank.frank said:

Personally...I always think security is first and foremost. Smell and the noise from fans and whooshing air are usually the biggest factors. Only way to silence that is thick, dense insulation. The other perk of that is temperatures are easier to hold and maintain. It also gives the option to run a truly sealed area.

I've always been a fan of the "room inside a room" approach. That means, full and proper framing of the interior space.

Framed out properly...and since you are running 1k in flower and have tall ceilings, this could be a really nice spot.

-----------------------------------

Since you are looking at a 5 x 5 flower area, I'd consider going with a 3' x 5' and going with 2 of the new CDM 315w systems like greenbeams. It would be comparable to having run 2 x 600w and even less power yet.

The additional 5' x 5' in front of the flowering area could be used for a lung / trimming / drying area - which is something far too many people don't think about.

Even if going the 1k route, I'd still use that remaining 3 x 5 as a drying space / lung room, since it isn't needed for the veg area.



dank.Frank

Click to expand...

thanks for the response dank.frank! are these the lighting systems youre referring to?

https://www.cycloptics.com/store

it looks like a parabolic reflector with CMH bulb? i already have a xxxl magnum hood and lumatek 1k to work with, but i do see myself getting another light in the future and these look interesting.

i hadn't even thought of using the remaining space for drying/lung room.

@ Drop That Sound it was just an old 3x3 off brand tent i got off amazon. i thought of insulating the tent itself, but it just seems like more trouble than it's worth.

i'm still trying to decide on what the final shape of the room inside the room is going to be. the one light thing is what's throwing my designs off...

anyhow, here's a rough sketch of the area, so you guys can get a better idea of what i have to work with.



the drawing itself is of the entire garage space, plus a room that serves as an office directly next to the space that's available. but i can only use the measured off section of it.

it's a shame that the wife won't let me use the office space instead....would make things much easier...but oh well either way i'm going to have a grow dedicated room

A lot of people do a garage conversion for whatever use, and leave the garage door in place so as not to change the outside look of the house. I've always thought that even if you can match the brick eggs ackley [unlikely], it still looks tacky. First thing is to drill a hole in the door track and put a padlock in the hole for security. Then insulate, insulate, insulate. Good luck. -granger

Granger2 said:

A lot of people do a garage conversion for whatever use, and leave the garage door in place so as not to change the outside look of the house. I've always thought that even if you can match the brick eggs ackley [unlikely], it still looks tacky. First thing is to drill a hole in the door track and put a padlock in the hole for security. Then insulate, insulate, insulate. Good luck. -granger

Click to expand...

the key to matching brick is the acid washing of the old brick and careful matching of the grout.

the problem is... you dont see the good jobs if that makes any sense. all you see are the shitty bad jobs where the bricks and grout are plain as day different.

its true that with some bricks... intermediate weather especially, that its almost impossible closely match them owing to how savagely they weather... but most bricks you can find very close matches.

if you cant get a good match from a brick supplier you can use brick dyes... its done all the time.

if you cant find a brick that matches and you dont want to dye brick you can use an accent detail to transition between the two bricks... it visually breaks up the trasition and it does not look so bad.

im talking about BRICK accents mind you... not awful gaudy quions... never put a quion on a single story house with a hip roof PLEASE. they look awful and you yourself will look like a tasteless philistine. quions are for a very specific type of home... tudorish 2+ stories tall with a very high gables, stone or brick cladding.

if you put a quion on a stucco clad home, just please kill yourself.

this is what im talking about though:




will they ever pass up close magnifying glass scrutiny? no way... but with various brick stains and proper re grouting u can almost always get close enough.

the biggest and hardest to solve problems are when people want new brick work to match existing old and weathered brick.... thats where u run into "weathering" chemicals and all sorts of tricks of the trade...
but normally when you are matching in some new bricks, u just clean all of the brick and repoint if necessary as a part of the new brick addition.

i promise you a real mason... like 95% of the time can match old brick, its just not one of those things home owners like or know how to do. a home owner DIY'er is just going to home depot looking at the single pallet of bricks they have on offer and shrugging in dismay as they dont match at all.

you need to go to a suplier and ask them for the color catalogues of the various lines they carry. if they dont carry them at the stone yard, then tell them your architect needs the color pallets... they can usually arrange for the manufacturers to ship them at little to no cost to yourself.

after you match the color to a sample, then you order some sample material in the various grades on offer... corner bricks sill bricks etc.

then you place an order. its no different from shingles... or floor tiles or landscape blocking.... its just that cheapie DIY types are not willing to do the work involved and hire the mason to do it properly. and thats how you end up with a half baked garage conversion like this one.

if it were me.... I'd frame in and insulate a 6 ft x 6ft x 7 ft box, fully insulated, ceiling and floor too. I'd build a 2ft uninsulated box on top with the exhaust fan inside it sucking air out the top of the grow space and venting thru carbon filters built in to the 2 ft top box. passive intakes with h.epa filters in all 4 corners and a fan below the light blowing straight up. Perfect and super simple.

then I'd hang a 1000W vertical and put 9 plants around it vegged to 14 inches tall or so and let em flower. have a look at my ice hut grow in the link below. It worked so well I am duplicating the space but with 2x4 and plywood. Pulled just over a pound handwatering in soiless mix and the bud is top notch.
Made me rethink all my plans actually and my garage has been getting a makeover all summer.

Replace garage door with a big 8x5 bay window, just replacing bricks up to about waist height, and add another wall inside with a door to the new room. Surprise the wife with a new better office overlooking the street