Creating a room in an existing garage

[redslayer187]

So I have bare 2x4s showing with the plywood on the outside with siding over that. My thoughts are to get some drywall and attach it to the 2x4s.
1) Should I get any insulation for sound or climate control?
The room will be built inside the garage. I am going to build the frame onto the existing garage. It will be like building a little box in the garage and I will then cut a hole in the ceiling up into the space above the garage to vent any hot air. Here is where my main problem comes in. I don't have a window so the window AC I have will need to be built inside my grow room. I am thinking about splitting the grow room space and having the exhaust part of the AC on one side. I don't know if exhausting out of this room into the space above will be enough for heat since the AC can get hot.

I was also thinking I could exhaust the grow room space that would come from my air cooled hood into that same room with the AC exhaust. I don't really have the money to blow on CO2 but you gotta do what you gotta do. So I am worried if doing the room this way will mess up fresh air flow.

Any suggestions or examples would be awesome. Ask away?

The grow space I was thinking would be 4' wide 8' long 8' tall or maybe a little less on the height.

 

[Big Brother]

With Grow anything you have to figure out basicaly what you wish and want to grow, and the space that you have to grow in, I am pretty much in the same situatiion that you are in. I right deciding on the size of my green house or green houses for the delmina is to get a big green house or two get a small 10x 12 to grow in, so with your space you need to decide either Indica or sativa for sativa you will need more growing room for I have seen them as big a sycamores, if you insulate you will not have to spend much on heated in it the winter and the drywall white will be good reflected surface, Lighting is another area to discus, you need at least 50 watts of metal hallide per sqaure foot and 60 to 65 watts of High presure sodium brightness per sqaure foot, pick a spot and spread out your arms in a t formation with your feet togeher and that is about the diameter of growth area per plant w/about 6 inches to foot a space between each plant.

 

[Soft Smoke]

I am going to jump in here and ask a few questions and give some suggestions.

1) Plan out the layout fo rtables, buckets, resevoirs, etc, etc., see how they line up with your garage ceiling trusses. your trusses run in paralell about 24" apart. You can really give yourself some extra vertical space by creating a "well" for your lights top recess into so at full retract they are flush with your ceiling. This should give you an extra foot or so vertically.

2) Insulation is cheap and well worth every penny. The higher the R value of your walls and ceiling, the less outside ambient temperature will affect your grow area. This will mean that your AC unit will work much less hard to cool things down in the summer and your light may well keep the temps stable during winter. This will also dramatically help with noise control.

3) If you make your grow room a "room within a room" you can seal it quite effectively reducing contamination by pests, spores, pollen, and light to nearly zero. Double walls = double insulation = double efficiency.

4) a sealed room would also let you EFFECTIVELY use CO2 during veg to bump the growth rates and help your plants deal with any temp elevations you may have during summer afternoons. (CO2 allows the plant metabolism to run a little hotter without bringing on stress).

5) It should be very easy to contruct a seperate mechanical room with flow thru venting (for Temp Control) for your mechanical equipment that you dont want adding heat to your grow room. Things like a chiller, RO unit, ballasts, even resevoirs and pumps can be kept out here depending on your design.

6) If you are going hydro, may I suggest a recirc DWC like Blazeoneup's. You will have the square footage and the vertical space to grow some nice sized plants, and no system does that quite as fast or as hands free as a RDWC. (IMO)

Just keep in mind that you are creating an environment for an organism that thrives in the same basic climate as you. Make the grow room as if you were going to be spending your life in it. Every penny and drop of sweat you spend here will really payoff later. The nicer and more spacious a growing environment your babies have will reduce stresses that hurt yield.

What grow method are you planning to use? soil or hydro? what type?
What kind of lighting and what wattage?
What strain?
How much vert height do you need for this strain and grow method?
trees or SOG?
Do you have adequate electrical?

I really envy you your space. Good luck!

SS

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

yes yes, i will be following this one closely as i had the idea to convert part of my garage, but have since changed my mind, i will be building a bigger closet in side my garage though. wanna double my grow. 20+ plants in soil should not be that hard to take care of IMO.

 

[chosen]

Straight up Franken!!!!
Power to the People...

 

[redslayer187]

Well some more details. I have an existing 600 digital that I plan on using and I already have an aircooled hood and 6 inch vortex. I am going to take some pictures tonight of the bare space to show you what I am looking at. I figure I will throw some insulation on the side that is facing the walls of the garage. With the exhaust room how should I set that up. Should I take the air from the grow space and vent that back into the exhaust side (since it is cooler) and also have passive air intake on the exhaust side? I will try to draw up what I am thinking to see if it will work.

I would rather not use CO2 because it will be another expense to incur. I would rather put it in at a latter date after I got the room and climate set up without variation so I am not fighting with the CO2 and any new things that will come with that. I grow in a peat/perlite mix so now hydro. Although the option to go that way would be nice. Keep the suggestions flowing.

Soft smoke if you have an idea on how the mechnical room should work let me know that I think is my biggest concern. I used to run my cab in a room that I would just keep cool enough and had passive air intake but I don't think it will be as viable because the way the garage is setup. So I am going to have to build the AC into the room I am just concerned about the heat it will put off.

For electricity I am still undecided it is kind of going to be a pain to run a new line but I am thinking 2-15 amp lines will provide me plenty and I have two openings for fuses on my current box. My biggest thing is making it so when I leave the unit it will be the same when I came in which can be done since the garage can be patched and drywall fixed easily enough. Here is a rough blueprint of the setup.

 

[redslayer187]

Here are some pics of the space. The dimensions aren't quite 4' foot wide but no biggie.

 

[redslayer187]

So I have been thinking about electricity, and since this is a rental and I want to be able to take the room apart when I leave I am just going to run a couple of 20A lines out to the garage instead of the sub-panel. Also I have included a shot of my main breaker panel and I think if I get a couple of those double pole 20A like the ones in the box already that will give me at least 4 20A lines I can run. Let me know if I am wrong but I ran a couple of 15A lines at my old place and it worked perfect. Any suggestions, ideas, or anything is much appreciated.

 

[Guest]

You should be fine with 4 20 amp circuits easy. You can take a look at my current grow where I am closing in a room. It's similar to yours, but 3 walls had drywall and insulation already. It's not the garage, but it's room behind the garage that at one time was a porch. Much construction going on. I should have my mediumless recirc. DWC up and running in a week or two tops.

At the same time, I have a friend closing in a garage area to do the same thing. I'll pass on any ideas I get from him.

 

[redslayer187]

Thanks for stopping by S2D I will be taking a look at some of your ideas. Thanks for the input.

 

[ThereIsHope]

Here are some pics of the space. The dimensions aren't quite 4' foot wide but no biggie.

Just a heads up most people do not know.

Your garage slab is more than likely a seperate slab from the foundation of the home. These are called free floating slab systems. The thing you need to keep in mind is that this slab will move up and down depending on the soils expansive index.

The problem here is if you build a room on top of that slab and you have your walls tied into existing walls and ceiling, you could end up with structural damages when the slab "pumps" or moves up and down.

You need to be careful on how you tie your walls into the existing systems.
It is sometimes not just as simple as throwing up a wall and presto it is done.

Heads up brother !!!

 

[texasluv]

Nice setup. Very similar to mine. I have a 10' x 10' room built into the back corner of my garage. Build a box around the back part of a window AC unit and vent that into the room over the garage too. Very easy to do, I think there is a guide on how to do it in the DIY thread.

 

[Guest]

like texasluv said, just box in a window a/c and duct the air out through ducting or some other kind of chimney system.

I understand that you don't want to purchase co2 equipment and all that right now, but its fairly importnat in how you design your rooom. If using CO2, you'll most likely be cooling with the A/C (as opposed to high air-exchange rate within the room) and sealing the thing up really well.
If drawing outside air, the a/c will be a little less effective, run harder, you won't have to seal up the room quite as well because your negative pressure in the room should pull air in through any cracks.

how many btu's is your a/c good for?

if temps are a big concern, running lights as much at night as possible can help.

I noticed you have a 6" fan and an aircooled light......
so are you going to have a second fan to either cool the light or cool the room (whichever duty your current fan isn't doing)?

keep in mind that if you seal up the room with no CO2 in there and just cool with the A/C, your growth rates will be lower than normal because the CO2 will always be being used up and never replentished.

 

[redslayer187]

Hey everyone thanks for stopping by and giving comments. I don't think I am going to worry about the slab moving too much but I will take that into account when I start framing it out. Since this is a rental I don't want anything that is permanent so I have a little play room.

IrishSoCo I have one 6" that I will run inside the room and scrub the air. I am going to get another fan that will pull air from the outside and through the air cooled hood then into the mechanical room to be exhausted. Although that might change depending on how the climate in the room stays. I have been looking at C02 and it is an investment I can see myself making sometime so now it is just whether I do it now or later.

 

[PurplePotion]

Get the room finished? Doing the same thing this week.. interested to hear any issues your ran into.