Commercial Growspace Advice Needed: Partitioning, Lighting, etc.

[straightdank420]

Hey ICers. I'm trying to venture into legal commercial cannabis production and I could use advice from some of you guys that go big. The space is a warehouse. It measures at 8,000 sq. feet, of which I plan to use 6,000 sq. feet of it for flowering space. My first obstacle is how to hang my lighting. The warehouse itself has a dome-shaped ceiling that's at least 18' high. So my question is: what are my options for hanging my lighting from ceilings like these. I've always looked at images of commercial grows where their lighting is chained to a ceiling. What are those chains formally called if I wanted to find them?

One idea I had was using the piping and pvc extensions used for grow tents to create a height limit. The logic here being that, if I created an artificial ceiling with the piping and pvc inputs, I could then use LED lighting exclusively in my flowering area, instead of having to chain a succession of hps lights ridiculously high from the celling. Thoughts?

Outside of a flowering area, I'm also going to need an area to veg/propagate and an area to dry. The complication here is that the warehouse space is not partitioned off all all; its straight up open. I'm assuming that partitioning space for these functions would be a matter of building rooms with inputs from Home Depot/Lowes. what inputs am I looking for? Can anyone recommend a tutorial source (youtube vid) on how to build rooms?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[mowood3479]

Lots of ways to do it.
some people build enclosed rooms... easier to seperate lighting, hvac, and most importantly pests vs a wide open space.

there are some good warehouse build out threads on here
rb56 (I think was his handle) had a cool warehouse build out thread.

also, Ime with legal operations total code compliance is crucial.
lighting, hvac, proper fire rating for materials, enclosed fixtures, fires suppression, alarms... all of which requires inspection from state inspectors who are generally bureaucratic douches (imho)
(your area may vary idk)

 

[straightdank420]

mowood3479 thanks for the input. I have a in-house electrician to help me with power consumption and I've got a contractor to consult regarding environmental control.

Are there any resources, guides etc , that describe all the factors I need to consider?

The most I've ever worked with 1,000 sq. foot basement grow, so I dont want f' up my chance with this opportunity.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Wow. Where to start.

Really? Chains? You've got a shit ton of research to do.

I suggest you find a lawyer to do all the legal and regulatory legwork, then a company and architect with experience to built it out for you.

Think real hard about the 2000/6000 setup. Why not split your production cycle by quarters to make it more manageable? That means more smaller rooms you can cycle through.

You mention veg and flower. What about feed/tanks? Room layout? CO2 (trust me, you need this), drying, curing, supplies. It's a full time job researching how you're going to swing that.

 

[straightdank420]

TychoMonolyth Thanks for the insight. And, yeah, you're definitely on point.. I really underestimated what this undertaking would require. Doing lots of reading and viewing tutorials since I started this thread. Really informative

 

[CrushnYuba]

This is one of those threads that nothing comes out of. This is really the wrong place to be asking as very few members here have large spaces. Get a consultant if you are serious.
there are allot of threads just like this. They don't go anywhere.
You need to frame out multiple flowering rooms anyway for lots of reasons. It's the least of your trouble.

Check out steel studs. Easy to throw up walls.