Building a room in an attic... your thoughts

[DankNugz420]

Heres what ive got this time...

After flooring in the available space im left with roughly a 4' by 5' space with just barely over 6.5 feet of height!

1. I plan on framing the space with two by fours
2. Installing an air-tight door
3. Air-conditioner/heater

Would you do a totally sealed room or have intakes and exhaust?!?

I was thinking of going sealed...?

 

[Aeroguerilla]

go buy a grow tent, much easier

 

[DankNugz420]

shit! you guys might wanna see pics!!

 

[DankNugz420]

go buy a grow tent, much easier

i was considering this...

and it does seem much easier... lol

 

[fireman]

Tents are awesome. My theory is its like investing in a portable grow room, which it obviously is, so once you figure out the best way to use it you will have it and can take it wherever you may move too isntead of having to leave it behind. If you cant house it but a friend can throw it at their place and show em whats up. They are a great investment since it takes all of the grow room planning out and lets you worry more about the plants this time around. I use a 5x5 hut to veg in and couldnt live without it. It also getting a run as a Hash tent right now got 6 5 gals full of soil it i am gonna use to make hash out of.

DO It.

Fireman

 

[DankNugz420]

ok so i guess ill just throw a 5' by 5' tent in...

1000w HPS...

should the reflector have 8" ports being pulled thru an 8" fan?
or would a 6" High Output be enough?


im also going to throw a big ass can filter with whatever fan matches its cfm rating for exhausting.

so i guess for an air conditioner/heater ill have to get one of these...?
http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-Air-Conditioners-Fans-Dehumidifiers-Air-Conditioners-Portable/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5Zba5m/R-100628733/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[skram]

Yeah tent all the way! So much less hassle, and as previously said so portable.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

I used to build expanded polystyrene "Igloos" in lofts, exhausting up the Chimney...that way you know no heatseeking Chopper Cops will be bothering you. Tents may look nice and shiny, but they are going to be far more affected by the environment around, becoming both hotter and colder than you ideally want when a homemade Igloo is more stable.

 

[Bush Grower]

A tent in the attic is going to get wayyyyyy hot/cold depending on were you live.

Because you will need insulation for you tent, in my opinion it will be easier to go ahead and frame it up the way you were talking originally (with 2x4s). If this grow room was in your house I'd say go with the tent-- but it would be a hassle getting one to run in an attic IMO.

 

[madpenguin]

Yea, Your going to want to frame and insulate it (insulate like mad). Going sealed as well sounds nice at first but having fresh air intakes from a sofit area really helps reduce AC usage. And as someone said earlier, if you can find a chimney or hot water tank exhaust pipe, venting out that is ideal because if you ever do get FLIR'ed, no one will suspect anything.

Attic grows will always require lots of money to set up and dial in your environment, but once you do, it's probably the safest area to grow in.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

I used to build expanded polystyrene "Igloos" in lofts

I did the same thing; built a closet in an outbuilding - 1"x4" framing, 2" extruded foam panels. The foam is easy to work with; it's easy to cut with an electric sabre saw. It's also light and provides good insulation.

 

[DankNugz420]

do you have any photos or diagrams of these Igloos?

 

[SpasticGramps]

The attic is a real pain to get dialed in I think unless you built the house yourself. Which just happens to be my case! Below are some pics of the buildout. The ENTIRE house was framed in with Tech Shield. It's a radiant barrier that radiates 85% of the suns heat. I then blew foam in throughout the ceiling in the attic. This all equals to R60 in the attic and R24 throughout the rest of the house. I live in the deep south and it can be 100 degrees outside and it doesn't get above 80 in the attic with NO A/C yet!! It's beyond awesome. And I'm suspecting that FLIR will have a tough time picking up anything. Here are the pics.

This is a picture from when you walk into the attic door. There are two large rooms. The bathroom, the dry and cure room, and in the back is the veg room.

Picture in the second large room. Bathroom is to the right. To the immediate left is the dry and cure room, and that entry way in the back is the veg room.

The veg room. Notice the dummy walls. It says cool in there too! I could only get half of it in the picture.

Insulation in the dummy walls.

I'll post some more pictures tonight. The sheet rock is up and getting floated and the ventilation system is in.

 

[skram]

Great space SpasticGramps, top class grow room you'll have there!

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

do you have any photos or diagrams of these Igloos?

No, but if you look at spasticgramps posts I am not sure you need to !

Insulation is King, Tents are not what you need up there.

 

[Lazyman]

Here's why I typically steer folks away from attic grows for most situations:

1) Attics typically have no plumbing. How are you going to get water in and out?
2) Attics typically have very little power, how are you going to power 20-30 amps worth of gear?
3) Attics are usually right over living quarters, if there's a leak from your grow, whose head will it rain upon?
4) Most attics are sweltering hot (see aforementioned comments on insulation) how are you going to move large volumes of air in as well as out?

I know these conditions don't apply to all attics (such as spasticgramps) but for 9 out of 10 attics these are very real and often insurmountable problems.

Can you use your garage instead?

 

[SpasticGramps]

Here's why I typically steer folks away from attic grows for most situations:

1) Attics typically have no plumbing. How are you going to get water in and out?
2) Attics typically have very little power, how are you going to power 20-30 amps worth of gear?
3) Attics are usually right over living quarters, if there's a leak from your grow, whose head will it rain upon?
4) Most attics are sweltering hot (see aforementioned comments on insulation) how are you going to move large volumes of air in as well as out?

I know these conditions don't apply to all attics (such as spasticgramps) but for 9 out of 10 attics these are very real and often insurmountable problems.

Can you use your garage instead?

I absolutely agree. If you can't build out your attic from the start I think you are climbing an uphill battle with maintaining your environment, which is the #1 key for healthy plants. Not that it can't be done, but you are putting yourself at a disadvantage to begin with.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Here's why I typically steer folks away from attic grows for most situations:

1) Attics typically have no plumbing. How are you going to get water in and out?
2) Attics typically have very little power, how are you going to power 20-30 amps worth of gear?
3) Attics are usually right over living quarters, if there's a leak from your grow, whose head will it rain upon?
4) Most attics are sweltering hot (see aforementioned comments on insulation) how are you going to move large volumes of air in as well as out?

I know these conditions don't apply to all attics (such as spasticgramps) but for 9 out of 10 attics these are very real and often insurmountable problems.

Can you use your garage instead?

All very true, but when needs must... here is what I did, with a lot of help and inspiration from my friend P, as ever.

1] You can buy plumbing fittings that let you bolt into an existing copper water pipe, so I had a tap fitted. For a drain, we plumbed in the hard ABS sink drain pipe, taking it down alongside the Central Heating pipes and in to the back of my bathroom sink, no visitors ever spotted anything....Water supply and drain on site, just where you need them.
2] Put in a new ring supply circuit, properly wired with the fatest Twin and Earth available.
3] Membrane or Pool liner "Swimming pool"....I remember sneaking into my room at night to do something, then realising the Pool Liner had done its job....
4] Chimney stack ... remove 4 bricks [UK 1930 Semis and Victorian houses, many times, never destroyed anything] ... stuff your exhaust up there.

 

[SpasticGramps]

The whole flooding in the attic thing is a big big concern, because chances are if you are doing hydro you are going to flood, unless you've researched every angel and even then. Of course this depends on the system, etc, etc. If you can have drain lines running from your rez, control bucket, or whatever into sewer somehow or outside or something that would be a major step to prevention. YOu also have to think about the circumfance of the drain hose and the potential pressure if you were too flood.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Spot on Gramps, the one thing I did not have was the swimming pool rigged with a drain. Height was a real issue and I could not raise my growroom floor enough to fit drainage in underneath, it would be a great thing to do though.