Feedback needed on grow room idea...

[Helix]

I am new around here and wanted to start out with a thread about the idea that I have. I am new to this, and have not even put my system together, which I will get to in a moment. Anyways, I have been blessed and have come into some property that I will be living on, and am going to have a building built.

And now, "The Shop".

MSPaint action, free of charge!




20x20x"Whatever the standard height of a building like this is. I will be on concrete with a moisture barrier, it will also be in some trees inside of our yard, with a privacy fence we are putting up. I should mention that THIS IS NOT >>>NOT<<< for making money, this is so I don't have to deal with low quality scamming chumps on the street, I've dealt with idiots for almost two decades, and I'm sick of it.

Ok, the green area is going to be where I work on everything "legal". This portion of the building will have standard insulation, the whole building will have NO windows unless someone can explain to me why this would be a bad idea, naturally I don't want to draw ANY kind of attention. The blue area is going to be a "storage" area, but in reality it will be a buffer zone, I will store stuff in it to make it look good...this area will have standard insulation and noise supporessent (dynamat, or equiv). I have also read about a small unit that hospitals use to kill smells, you put a "disc" into it, and it lasts to upwards of 120 days, one of those will go in here, on very low.

The red area is where the magic happens. This room has standard insulation, sound suppressant, and to top it off, nomex on walls and ceiling, then the mylar film. There will be two automatic fire exinguishers for this room. All electrical systems will be AFCI's. I am going to wire this crap up myself, so I don't have to answer any questions, as there will be (I'm thinking) 4 30-Amp 110 mains to this room, 2 15-amp 110 for the buffer room, and smattering of 110 and 220 for my "regular" work area.

Since this building will conform to a standard "building" it will have the peaked roof, so there will be some space above the ceiling, I am going to insulate the stuffin out of this, but this is where my exhaust is going to go before it leaves out of the standard ventilation that will be up there. There will be a carbon scrubber, and sound suppressing muffler up there also. I want this to be as quiet as humanly possible and still maintain the correct level of fresh air cycling. Where I live humidity can be a pain, so there will be a portable A/C and dehumidifier put in also, their exhausts will also leave via the ceiling into the roof.

I am thinking that my grow room will be 10 x 8. The rest of the measurements will come out of their own accord, I'm more interested in having enough room for my cloner, main grow and all the goodies. I thinking bio-bucket, or DWC however, while I'm still educating myself on that, I want to see what some of you think about my setup.

And now, about the doors, the main door will be your standard solid core steel door in metal frame. Killer locks, but nothing out of the ordinary (can anyone recommend anything?)

The buffer door will be ordinary also, but I don't want to put a deadbolt on this one to make it look wierd, so I'm thinking a mag-lock so it won't be visible. The grow room door will be sealed up with weather stripping and approiate coverings on the inside of the door. This will also have a mag-lock, it will be a solid core door in a solid frame. Getting this part together might not be feasible, because how do I have somone put in these doors without raising suspicion? I guess I could have them finish out the frame, and hang them myself, huh?

Next part is how much lighting. Now, I'm thinking 1kw with a mover, but I'm not sure about this one quite yet. I don't want to grow 6.23 meteric tonnes worth, but am looking for a good yield, I know this can vary with MANY different factors, but I would like to be able to be "comfortable" between grows. I don't want to wind up with a huge surplus, a little bit of one is good, but not major weight, this is just for my sanity. Also, myself, and my S/O are the only ones that know about this, we are married, and she is cool with this and is the type that doesn't divuldge information on a whim, espically about something like this. This extra person beyond me is unavoidable, however I have enough faith in her not to say something bad. The two people that know about it, is never going to grow in number.

The little dots in the corners of the rooms? Full color video cameras, that way I can look in and see what is going on without having to disturb anything. I am thinking about going with a growtronix setup as that will allow me to control and monitor the different aspects of my grow room and grow, and I have a smartphone and want to be able to access my network and look in on the status of the growtronix system and be able to see "snapshots" of what is going on (of course this will be hidden and require more security to get through, I am thinking this is doable, but am wonder if any of you out there have any suggestions...

Of course, for security reasons I won't give out my location, aside from being in the USA...hooray...land of the free.

I only have one question for now and that is, lights and nutes, I am thinking about going to another state to buy this stuff, but am afraid (of couse!) so what would be a good way to obtain this stuff without looking suspicious. Aside from going in and saying "hey I want to grow some killer grass, what should I buy..HURRRR". Maybe buying one thing from one place and another thing from another place? I can hit 5 states with some difficulity...

Sorry for the length, but I'm really chomping at the bit to get my project started, and of course you will be seeing me around here more often...

 

[Big Bud Bear]

Man, you sure made me jealous. I plan on doing someday when i own a house in a remote area. My current house is great, only issue is I reside with my sister, so anything big may be noticed and questioned some day. When I get my own I plan on doing something like this.

 

[Big Bud Bear]

Not having windows would look shady, depending on the area. I live in condensed suburbs.

 

[Helix]

Hmmm, good point and I see what kind of questions could be raised over something like that. I guess I could always put them in the "front" part of building, cover them up real good on the inside and lock them shut. There are a few other little items that I will add to it, but for now that is my basic idea.

I think once I get there and start the building I will start a journal from the very start to the very finish, would be worthy reading if anything else

 

[Guest]

If you have a good hydro place nearby I wouldnt hesitate to buy my stuff there,I spent thousands initially all at the same place and they love me for it,thats what they're there for anyway.Leaving the state to buy legal equipment is just going way overboard I would say,some thing to think about..Also if you want to keep any kind of yield going for yourself,you want two different areas one for vegging and clones and one for flowering.You can have just one room but while you're flowering everything out you wont be vegging anything its just a lot more time until next harvest.Just another thing to consider.

 

[Helix]

Well, now see this is why I finally got up enough nerve to start a thread... The room can be modified in any configuration I see fit, so I'm stacking up these ideas right along with the ones that I have already laid out, and I figure, somewhere in the moddle is where I will end up, and have a good, secure, thing going for myself...

 

[pieceofmyheart]

Wow. This sounds fantastic.
If you put windows up front, get some black out type blinds and hang them. Guess that would make it look more normal.

 

[princessbaked]

looking good, I concur on the windows, and the seperate vegging part.
Otherwise I too am jealous

 

[Guest]

You have to have 1 area that can go totally dark with no light leaks,in the veg/clone room a light leak wont ruin you but it will in the flower room.

 

[Sauce]

I don't think having no windows looks shady. People (who would need to enter your yard) aren't going to think: "No windows....there must be an operation going in there." However if you add a window and some one breaks in and the cops show up, things won't be good. Without windows it would just look like a shed, which I believe it basically what it's going to be.

As for a veg/clone area, even a cabinet or small sectioned off area would work fine. All you really need is a small space for moms and to root clones. You can have a larger area for long term vegging if you want but all you need is clones that can be flowered with little to no veg time.

And a 1kw will get you about 1-3 lbs every 2 months depending on your skills, environment, strain, luck, fuck-ups or not, etc. You should be able to pull 2 lbs off of a kw, 1 lb if you fuck up, and 3 lbs if you're really good (over 1g/w).

 

[MTF-Sandman]

I agree...it's pretty common for workshops and metal buildings to not have any windows for security reasons.

A cabinet in the buffer room will be plenty for a couple of moms and some clones and will be pretty stealthy incase someone happens to see inside there.

What's the desired yields you want to pull outta this setup?

If you just want a lb of bud, then a 6'x6' room with a 1K will pretty much guarantee it as long as nothing catastrophic goes wrong during flowering. An elbow every 2 months makes for some nice quantities of stash and will take care of your best friends as well

 

[Helix]

What I may wind up doing is putting the cabinet in the same room, I want to keep everything contained in that room. I know that can present some "challanges" but I'm confident that a light proof solution can be reached for my vegging babies.

I really appreciate the help, its going to take a lot to get this set up, and like I said earlier, when I start on it (first of Sept) I am going to begin a journal from start to finish as I really want to add something to the community as long as my security is good...

 

[Guest]

you can also do a "flip flop" for the flower areas, 12 hours for one lamp, 12 hours for the other lamp, running on ONE ballast seems like $$$ is no issue for you, and seems like you are an electrical pro. however you mentioned AFCI's... i would use GFCI's also. they save lives, AFCI's prevent fires...... lol electricity is nuts. be safe.. but all this for One Kiliwatt? damn, i ran 2400watts in my college pad. EDIT, im sorry that sounded kind of rude... to each his own.. and i just read that you don't sell.. just seems like a big initial investment.

 

[Helix]

you can also do a "flip flop" for the flower areas, 12 hours for one lamp, 12 hours for the other lamp, running on ONE ballast seems like $$$ is no issue for you, and seems like you are an electrical pro. however you mentioned AFCI's... i would use GFCI's also. they save lives, AFCI's prevent fires...... lol electricity is nuts. be safe.. but all this for One Kiliwatt? damn, i ran 2400watts in my college pad. EDIT, im sorry that sounded kind of rude... to each his own.. and i just read that you don't sell.. just seems like a big initial investment.

Rude, nah bro...I'm here to learn, not to worry about the fact that my initial idea on something are always going to be either overkill or under par. I find that the idea once put into actual practice falls somewhere in the middle.

My dad did basic crap around the house electrical wise, I've seen him install a panel, run wiring and its really not that hard if you follow the wiring diagrams, and I'm always mindful of the dangers. I can do this myself and save some cash and not have to potentially answer any questions. As the kw thing, I was thinking that it would be 1kw veg and 1kw flower - so I guess you would consider that 2kw, correct? My bad.

1 circuit for Veg lamp.
1 circuit for Flower lamp.
1 circuit for blower and A/C
1 circuit for Dehumidifer and all other extras

This give me some breathing room, and I'm not taxing any of the circuits too much. Now I did misunderstand the deal with AFCI - I though it already had GFCI type functions built in...oops. I do other work with some high voltage equipment so that is another reason I will have lots of circuits else where.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not rich but am willing to sink the money and time into the project, I won't be able to do it all at once and that is ok, I'm not in a big hurry. 99.98% of the time for the growing populace out there, this would be somewhat overkill. But I'm thinking about that 0.02% chance that something eats it hard, and there is a fire, or major damage and questions get asked which I don't want to have to answer, I want this to be as safe as possible, so I don't have to deal with deadbeats anymore.

 

[ChaoticEntity]

20ft x 20ft is never going to look like a shed, it will look strange not to have any windows. What you can do to avoid any issues is to put in a series of wider but very narrow windows towards the roofline. the windows are like 6-8 inches tall x 2-3 ft wide, they've let the hot air out of your workshop, you can put the roof for the growroom just below the level of the windows and it'll just stealth it out a bit more.


Also for your main workshop you're going to want light, and nothing beats natural light, you can get tons of light in there just by using a semitransparent roofing material, you can't see through them and thery let in some light.

Are you ever going to move? you need to make the building as functional as possible, that back room especially, it needs to be able to used for other things then growing pot.


I suppose the cheapest and easiest way to do it would to be a "disposable" room, basically build the 20x20 and put a roof on it, then frame out a small room for the grow, put up insulation/drywall, make it light tight and quiet, then if the day comes that you need to dismantle you can box up your gear and just tear it down, no trace of it at all.

The more normal you make it the less suspicious anyone will be, just be security smart, heavy gague steel door, nice deadbolt, put windows out of reach and don't have anything around that people could climb up to get to the windows, but have some windows. Use a translucent roofing material(the corrigated plastic stuff) to let some natural light in for the shop.

I've built a shop(not pot related) for my grandfather, he had a lot of tools, you name it and he had it, we ran 3 plugs per wall and each wall had it's own dedicated 20amp(for 2 plugs), as well as the 3rd plug being wired for 220 (12 outlets total 8 120's on 4x20amp and 4x220's all on the same circut at 40amp, one plug on each wall)

that was just enough power if there was 2 guys in there running some of the bigger stuff, hell he had a table saw that pulled 12amps by itself(that thing could saw ANYTHING) in other words don't underestimate your power needs, caculate it before you start anything.

 

[Helix]

Those are some good ideas. We won't be moving for at least ten years, so I don't have to worry about that. Really the only reason that I was thinking no windows was because of security, however, you're not going to climb through a window like that. I really don't know if I like the idea of transparent roofing material or skylights, this would bite into cooling the place, would it not?

I am just getting to the stage of writing everything down, and won't really be proceding with this until I have everything worked out for sure as I do not want to make a costly mistake.