Building underground grow room. Safety Concerns.

[sillybillygum]

I would like to build a 4'x4' flowering room underground. I need to detect undergound power lines by myself as I'm keeping it on the down low. How far does a metal detector penetrate the soil?

How deep can you dig before you have to worry about the walls caving in? I will need to dig around 7.5' deep so i can have 6' ceilings and space for the slab and soil on top for insulation.

How would you go about pouring a concrete ceiling? How thick would it need to be? It would be horrible if it collapsed under the weight of the soil or someone standing on it.

 

[FrankRizzo]

Ever consider just getting a small shipping container? I don't think what you want to do is really a diy type thing. Feel free to prove me wrong

 

[I N Hail]

1,,Power Co. will mark it for free(here they do) tell them you'll be working on your septic line',you'll come home there will be Painted lines and Flags marking the power lines,

2,, depends on your soil.

3,,Corrugated metal< Rebar 5/8in.,4inches of congrete.



O but i agree with rizzo

 

[StealthDragon]

I would be very careful, there's alot of things to consider when building under ground level, erosion, materials decaying, changes in temperature which could create cracks and water leaks...etc..I agree with rizzo as well, get some kind of prebuilt container that's meant to withstand corrosion and stuff...

If you do decide to build it yourself, I would try to find some documented builds of private bomb/storm shelters. and yeh, definitely have the power company come and mark for you too...good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm no expert in any of these areas.. just my

 

[gomer]

How do you plan to get into the room and move around?

 

[buddymate]

Get one of these.........Or failing this do a google on Leepys big dig,he is a UK guy who has built a great underground room beneath a shed in his garden.

http://www.hydroponic-growrooms.co.uk/page48.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIkuZSFPHpM

 

[mrred]

i wouldnt waste all that energy for just a 4x4, might as well go alot bigger if youre going thru all that trouble, i'd do it completely out of concrete too, steel will rust

 

[Lilly456]

I used to have an 8'x8' underground growroom beneath a garden shed.It was one of the best growrooms I ever had.The ceilings were 10' high and a little trap door under a rug was the entrance.I lived in the shed at the time and nobody even knew I grew weed.The walls were all concrete blocks with the holes all filled with concrete, the ceiling was 12" of fiberglass insulation and the ventilation went through a pvc pipe 4" in diameter out through a hole in the ceiling and underground into the woods full of poison ivy behind the shed.I had 2, 1000W lamps and two big trays of rockwool slabs.People used to come over all the time and I went undetected for quite some time.I lived in the shack when I divorced my 1st wife and she was 2500 miles away....those were the days..... Call up digsafe and they'll come over for free and mark any underground lines, they'll be there and gone in 1/2 hr then bring in a backhoe and start her up.

 

[ugmjfarmer]

I dug one with a friend once. I let him reinforce the hole we dug. I think it caved in even with massive reinforcement after a few weeks. It was a pain doing it. If you are found digging this hole and building this room you could be in over your head with code enforcement.

 

[lvmcgoo]

I would go for a connex box or a small shed reinforced

 

[Alienate420]

This is why I want to buy a property with a cave or an old mine. Tennessee has more caves than any other state, apparently. Of course, most of them aren't hooked up with electricity...so then I need a cave with enough waterflow for hydro-electric...and poof...I'm in fantasy land, money-wise. Maybe burrowing into the side of a cliff...

 

[cellardweller]

When I was a kid we built an underground fort. It was probably 15'x15'x7'high..in one summer four of us dug the hole, buillt the floor, walls and roof out of 2x4s and 1/2" plywood. The door to get in was a hinged hatch on top. We back-filled everything with dirt and covered the top in dirt and limbs and groundcover and shit. Even went so far as to plant bushes and shit on it too.
Now I was prolly 12-13 years old when we built this thing, and we were still using it to smoke and drink in when I was 18-19, and still in somewhat decent shape just a few years ago..though it's not somewhere I would want my kid playin in now.

 

[Mist]

This is not a small undertaking. Depending on where you live you could have many problems other than just caving it. There are issues like water and the depth of the frost layer to consider. If you built too close to your house and it caved in it could compromise the foundation of your house and cause it to crack and your house collapse. Or you could get a large rain storm and flood the hole.
The only time I have seen this actually work was with some guys on OG years ago and they built a 15X30 room that was about 14ft. deep/tall out in the middle of nowhere. But they had huge red iron I-beams for the framework and then covered that with 1/4" corrogated steel panels all the way around and over the top. And that was all welded in place. They also had a couple backhoes to do the job.
I would say that it is just not very safe to try on a small scale and what are you going to tell someone that see's you digging this huge hole?
Oh yea, what if you run into rock? What is the ground like where you live?
Either way, good luck with your chamber.

 

[mrred]

http://www.survivalring.org/pdf/build_a_blast_shelter.pdf

google bomb or fallout shelter and you will find tons of info

 

[Medical]

You will need to to dig a foot or two of extra depth and fill it with pit run gravel to allow drainage.
It would be easier to get yourself a Seacan shipping container or large wooden shed build a grow room in one end and use the entrance end as a garden shed. No one will question you about coming and going from your garden shed daily!

 

[buddymate]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11455&page=1&pp=15&userid=4715

 

[fish83]

I duuno what to say man...but I have always thought about what you wanna do....I wish you the best....go bigger than 4x4 though....thats for sure...

 

[Lazyman]

I don't think this is a DIY project, structural engineers need to be consulted for loads, beam thicknesses, water handling and grading are all serious issues and a miscalculation could get you killed. Either pay an engineer to design you one, or buy a house with a basement.

 

[ItsAllOver]

Lots of good info here. This thread reminds me of how much I'd really like to do this once I purchase a house/land of my own. I think it would be cool to have a house that was totally underground-some space facing south for solar collection.
I'd like to build into a south facing hill. This way, you can excavate a nice grow area deep into the hill in the back of the house and it'd stay cool all year round, ready for some serious action. The only problem is fuckin code enforcement inspections. They'd see what you were up to, I'd suppose. I guess you could act like the room back there was a bedroom/storage or something, then of course make sure the wall the code inspectors see could be easily turned into a recessed book shelf and set that sucker up on a swivel. There are some cool youtube videos of hide-aways set up like this. I think I could pull it off.

Ah I'm going off on a tangent because I'm excited.

Anyway, OP, make sure you are on the ball about this one, you wouldn't want to have it fail on you!

 

[Eminem]

a 4x4 underground grow really doesnt seem worth it. You could easily hide that in the house for much less money than digging a 4x4 hole.