Building a 4x6 hidden room

[FunkBomb]

Wow man that is some very good construction work. That fake wall and door look about as stealthy as they can be. If I was down there I wouldn't have any idea there was a room behind there.

-Funk

 

[GetUpStandUp]

Ok, I hit a milestone here tonight. The door is workable and in place!! There's still some improvements to be made, but I can continue on past the door until I get some more magnets, lol.


So the first thing I'll show you is the door frame with the magnets attached. I used spade bits to drill recessed holes for the magnets.

The larger magnets at top are 7/8" diameter and are rated at 10 lbs holding force. The smaller magnets are 5/8" dia. and rated at 7 lbs holding force. I also plan to get 1" dia. 20 lbs magnets for the door on the inner wall, now that I have a sense for how strong they. These are all from K & J Magnetics, and their site is good - lots of options, good info, competitive prices from what I can tell and quick shipping.

When you have these magnets in your hand, they are very strong. But once they are mounted they are not perfectly close together (unless you're a wizard at building shit), and so they do not seem nearly as strong.

The large magnets at top can snap the door shut from a few inches, and they take a good push to open - but this is by no means any measure of security! I will be using a security electomagnet with 600 lbs holding force (or maybe 1200) to hold the door closed. The permanent magnets are simply backup.

I also plan to order more 5/8's magnets and drill the holes deeper to stack 2 magnets. That will increase their holding force significantly. I think having the four together in a plane also increases the total force, but not nearly as much as stacking along the magnetic axis will.

A couple of the larger magnets cracked from screwing them in too hard. Bummer. They warn you that they are very brittle, and they can go a little nutso when the come apart...


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Here's the door frame. I initially tried magnets on both sides. You can order them in pairs, N pole & S pole up. When stuck straight together the bond is much stronger, but on the door it was really impossible to line them up well enough, and sometimes you'd get repelling edges.

It worked far better to use metal plate. Again, you could make this thicker, or use different materials, to create a better bond.


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On the right side of the door I found I had a gap and could see the magnets. I pulled out the chisel and countersunk a rectangle for the plate. With the plate flush the gap is gone and you cannot see the magnets, but I'm not getting the best hold, either. I believe stacking the magnets 2 deep will fix this, but I have to be careful to not make it so strong the wife can't open it, ha!


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Here it is closed up with the middle stud just propped up in place. What do you think? Stealthy?


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Tomorrow I'll be laying base plates for the interior walls and building those out.

007, thats the shite, man what grow room officer! thats a good set up for a walk through to never be spotted or expected I would vote this a sticky just on follow thru, and worksmanship, the final product is A+.

 

[GetUpStandUp]

I have access to a Connie Chung cut that was a freebie in an order gifted to a friend who's running it outdoors. Some of the biggest leaves you ever seen, fat indica ones. Smells skunky.

I also could have a pack of both Chemmy Jones and Chemwreck Kush from Connoisseur Genetics, they are sitting at another friend's place waiting to be popped.

At some point I'd like to try some Alien gear, like Grenades or Lemon Alien Dawg. Fruity Pebbles etc sound nice, but some of that gear goes for outrageous prices.

I've also considered Killing Fields might try that at some point.

I have so little room to work with. I think what I'll try to set up is a vertical scrog, each pot with its own trelis so that I can easily move them, maybe have a staggered harvest and different strains. I've got a lazy susan bearing rated for like 1000 lbs so I might make a 4 foot circle with the plants rotating around the light - then I can turn it and access each plant from the corner of the room where I enter. But I'll just have to see what shapes up when the room is ready to rock and roll.

I always want to grow Larry OG, its been that good when I last smoked it, and miss it.

 

[budderfly]

A vertical lazy Susan sounds ideal, check out ichybods grows

Thanks! I found his thread and was looking at it. Good stuff!

It's seeing others members quality ideas executed that inspires me. Hopefully I've added some to the pool here for others to draw on.

looks great!lazy susan works nice.are you going to lay down pond liner?

Yes, or at least this stuff I believe it's a shower tub liner.. Sold on roles at Depot etc. I thought it might have been PVC though so I wasn't sure if that would be ok... but I can get 60" width which would go about 6" up the wall all around.

Wow man that is some very good construction work. That fake wall and door look about as stealthy as they can be. If I was down there I wouldn't have any idea there was a room behind there.

-Funk

Thanks! It's tough to judge if it stands out or not since I built it of course. I know several tells that would raise suspicion if caught by a sharp eye. And if someone is searching your place fully believing there's a grow, it's hard to know what they can find and not.. A nice big victorian house with a ornate bookshelf hidden door would be much more stealth potentially.. but you've got to work with what you've got..

007, thats the shite, man what grow room officer! thats a good set up for a walk through to never be spotted or expected I would vote this a sticky just on follow thru, and worksmanship, the final product is A+.

It will be better when there's a server rack in the laundry room, fans whirring, lights blinking..

But this is far from final product. I'm building the room within a room (for soundproofing). Once it's framed I have to stuff insulation, then wall up with OSB and 2 layers of drywall, mud, prime, paint. Then wire it up, hang equipment. Lots of road ahead still.

 

[Darth Fader]

Really cool. Thx for the thread mate.

Was wondering ... no extra cooling? - Just an intake to your room from the main house exit ducting?

 

[budderfly]

Alright, made some more good progress yesterday, but at the expensive of sleep. I'm going to have to rest today; I was getting so tired that I kept running into things accidentally and hurting myself. Don't even ask about my stubbed, purple toe.


So I framed up the inner room. Nothing too special.

Here's the soffit frame. You can just barely see it in the photo - but where I screwed 2x4's into the floor joists, what I did was cut a strip of the foam-backed MLV and put it between the 2x4's and joists in order to reduce transmitted vibrations. A little detail, but the little things add up.

Now I'll show you something cool! Roxul Safe-N-Sound insulation.

It's mineral wool insulation, and similar products are made by several companies. It's quite easy to work with, it can be cut easily with a bread knife like you see in the pic. It is a little messy, but not irritating like fiberglass.

Here's a couple shots of it installed. Many of these stud cavities are not standard width, only a couple are actually 16" oc. But the roxul is easy to cut not only to length but to width, or around obstacles.

If you stand in front of a covered part and bark a few words, then stand in front of an uncovered part and do the same, the difference is very drastic. The Roxul is most certainly absorbing a lot of sound.

Really cool. Thx for the thread mate.

Was wondering ... no extra cooling? - Just an intake to your room from the main house exit ducting?

There is a 6" intake and an 8" exhaust. The intake is powered by a 5" Solar & Palau TD-125 and the exhaust by a ValuLine 8" 750 cfm centrifugal drawing through a 8"x24" Phresh filter.

Should be more than enough air passing through the room.

 

[LyryC]

Legit! patiently waiting

 

[silver hawaiian]

Looks like you could start your cuts in that stuff!

Edit: Wow! Even building a soffit around the AC ducts on the inside of the room itself - quite a thorough job!

Love the vibration/sound dampening between the soffit and the joists also.

 

[Vhghost]

right on budderfly!!! i love every update post... so many good things that can be applied to many different setups.
great job!

 

[ProperSmoke]

Just read this thru and I am thoroughly intrigued. I will certainly be tuning in. Great job budderfly!!!

 

[GetUpStandUp]

Alright, made some more good progress yesterday, but at the expensive of sleep. I'm going to have to rest today; I was getting so tired that I kept running into things accidentally and hurting myself. Don't even ask about my stubbed, purple toe.


So I framed up the inner room. Nothing too special.

View Image


Here's the soffit frame. You can just barely see it in the photo - but where I screwed 2x4's into the floor joists, what I did was cut a strip of the foam-backed MLV and put it between the 2x4's and joists in order to reduce transmitted vibrations. A little detail, but the little things add up.

View Image



Now I'll show you something cool! Roxul Safe-N-Sound insulation.

It's mineral wool insulation, and similar products are made by several companies. It's quite easy to work with, it can be cut easily with a bread knife like you see in the pic. It is a little messy, but not irritating like fiberglass.

View Image


Here's a couple shots of it installed. Many of these stud cavities are not standard width, only a couple are actually 16" oc. But the roxul is easy to cut not only to length but to width, or around obstacles.

If you stand in front of a covered part and bark a few words, then stand in front of an uncovered part and do the same, the difference is very drastic. The Roxul is most certainly absorbing a lot of sound.

View Image

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There is a 6" intake and an 8" exhaust. The intake is powered by a 5" Solar & Palau TD-125 and the exhaust by a ValuLine 8" 750 cfm centrifugal drawing through a 8"x24" Phresh filter.

Should be more than enough air passing through the room.

Good pick on the insulation, great R rating, plus that stuff is way more fire retardant than the rest of the batting, its used more for the purpose for fire proofing, but is put up inbetween apartments in construction for sound as well, the only stuff you can find better is a black sheet of material, cant remember the name to save my life, but its expensive, and mainly goes in to sound theater rooms, I only seen it once.

 

[FunkBomb]

Your stealth room is really coming together. Your construction work is top notch too.

-Funk

 

[GetUpStandUp]

Pesonally, out of everything, and not saying any of it is bad at all, but I love the copper, and pvc pipe work, that idea alone, makes for someone to not expect to look at that spot at all. Its quite an idea that puts construction on the map again, even for small things like this, you are they only one here who has built a room using more than a desire to just do that. You set the bar up, as all needed now is a walk through from inspectors to pass code, I mean you got framing, insulation, duct fabrication, plumbing, etc, If you do mechanics too, youre the type of person I want workig on my car. Hell if all growers done this no one will get caught, so this man just handed a gem to us all for the benifit of all man kind, A+ work.

 

[City Twin]

Indeed. Excellent form and execution.

 

[JACKtheREFFER]

Hey there great work bud it is looking clean ,, keep it up

 

[testymctester]

Nice work! I used to have a hidden room in my basement too. Several family members, friends, and an inspector have been within a few feet of that garden in full flower and nobody noticed a thing. I let a couple buddies in on the secret when I did was finishing my last run. They couldn't believe it.
The Secret Garden

Your stealthiness takes it to a whole new level. You should have no problems.

 

[budderfly]

Pesonally, out of everything, and not saying any of it is bad at all, but I love the copper, and pvc pipe work, that idea alone, makes for someone to not expect to look at that spot at all. Its quite an idea that puts construction on the map again, even for small things like this, you are they only one here who has built a room using more than a desire to just do that. You set the bar up, as all needed now is a walk through from inspectors to pass code, I mean you got framing, insulation, duct fabrication, plumbing, etc, If you do mechanics too, youre the type of person I want workig on my car. Hell if all growers done this no one will get caught, so this man just handed a gem to us all for the benifit of all man kind, A+ work.

Thanks, I thought I had a winner win the duplicate (or close) wall idea occurred to me. I agree the plumbing really makes it look legit.

Good pick on the insulation, great R rating, plus that stuff is way more fire retardant than the rest of the batting, its used more for the purpose for fire proofing, but is put up inbetween apartments in construction for sound as well, the only stuff you can find better is a black sheet of material, cant remember the name to save my life, but its expensive, and mainly goes in to sound theater rooms, I only seen it once.

Yes, this stuff is very much fire proof. Check out their fire videos. Pretty impressive.

Nice work! I used to have a hidden room in my basement too. Several family members, friends, and an inspector have been within a few feet of that garden in full flower and nobody noticed a thing. I let a couple buddies in on the secret when I did was finishing my last run. They couldn't believe it.
The Secret Garden

Your stealthiness takes it to a whole new level. You should have no problems.

Nice setup. It's got to feel nice retiring a room in success!



Ok folks, so I don't have a ton of progress to show you yet. I've gotten some odds and ends done: Finished the door by green gluing on a second sheet of drywall and adding some furniture sliders to the bottom. In between the drywall I sandwiched a 6" x 18" x 1/8" steel plate for possible use as a magnetic handle to help maneuver the door. I painted the backside of the fake wall to help protect it from dings from the door. Put pink foam XPS insulation adjacent the back of the fake wall, trying to keep any heat signature down (foam is going above the ceiling too).

Anyways, I did finish off one part..

I stuffed every nook and cranny I could find with Roxul. The stuff is great! The room is so quiet inside. In between the joists I even put 3 layers (9" deep). I bought 4 packs of the stuff and I couldn't use it all, but I sure as hell tried.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I have a family thing all day, and then Monday I start back at a real day job, 9-5'ing it, salary. It's a good thing. Financial woes were an impetus behind this room and it will be much more chill if I'm not counting on it for the mortgage. This is hopefully the end to what has been a very disappointing year for my wife and I. Please send us good vibes we could use a couple wins here.

Hopefully I'll be wrapping this room up with the wiring by next weekend. Left to do is putting up the OSB, then 2 layers of drywall with green glue, mud, prime, paint, floor liner, electric, equipment, turn it on.

 

[qupee]

This thread is so full of win!!

 

[mmmcake]

This thread is so full of win!!

I second that

 

[LyryC]

Keep your head up pal. Life is a pain the ass. Surround yourself with positivity and look up to your Higher Power to help you through tough times. Everything happens for a reason, its just important to learn from the hard times instead of hide them away emotionally.

From the looks of your thread life will be grand with a little more time and work, 100% win.