Grow room concrete floor

[Jovanna]

I am converting a basement room to a grow room. I would like to rip out of the carpeting and paint the floor. I have a number of questions I am trying to answer. Does it need to be a light color rather than black. I like the idea of using KILZ or an acrylic rubber like paint that is available. Will this work or do I have to line the floor with plastic. Remember its concrete spills and dirt are not going to hurt anything. I hate the idea of working/walking on plastic film. However, if I must I will go with pond liner as I know I can get a heavy rubber like one.

Thanks J

 

[dansbuds]

one thing you have to worry about with concrete floors is coldness , once concrete gets cold it stays cold for a long time .& thats not good for the plants !!!! you'd better better off building a subfloor over it with some foam board insulation under it & then paint the floor white or get some pond liner if your going to have alot of runoff .

just my

 

[vostok]

^^^ ..is very true! whats your winter temps like..?
You can continue to cement or seal the floor,put some plastic sheeting down(pond liner is good) or as many here keep your pots of the floor on 2x4" blocks.

If going to so much work, install a drain ...it will raise your grow room status to 5 star ....lol

 

[mojave green]

What is the temp of the ground 6 feet under?
i wouldn't seal it.

 

[IndoorAddict]

I built a table 16 inches tall to keep things off the basement floor. Also makes things easier to work with, plus I can put something under my table to catch runoff.

 

[SirStynkalot]

This is actually a question I've been fighting with for about a month now. I'm working for a commercial grow op and we're trying to figure out just how much HVAC we can cut from a concrete slab. I'll have hard data for that in a few months, but for the time being the best I can say is that there are energy rebates available in the southern US for building in with concrete slabs and we get fined up north for doing it. So that'll make a big difference for your HVAC.

As far as colors goes, white is the color of choice for grow rooms. Every lumen counts. You can build out for whatever you want to do with wastewater, but you're limited with light intensity. Take advantage of whatever you can if you can afford it. Painting the floors is a low priority item, though.

Also, I know a guy who was growing in his basement using air cooled hoods and just relying on the concrete slab to make up the difference. He ran 4x 1000 watters with no problems. I'm pretty far north though, so you never know.

As far as microclimate control goes, just keep those things at least a foot off the ground and have good airflow in your room and you're fine. You need some barrier to insulate. in my experience when the root balls are on cold concrete they won't grow well past about 3 inches above the floor. Either you provide the insulation or the plants will. Your choice.

Hope that helped!

 

[Jovanna]

Wow you guys really set me straight on this. I am in Michigan and should be thinking about the temperature of the floor. I am going to use pond liner. I saw the tip on a different thread about nailing together a 2x4 frame to keep the pond liner back from where the door opens into the room. I am going to put the plants on stands up off the floor.

Does it matter if that the pond liner is black?

Thanks So Much !!

 

[Jovanna]

Seems like everyone is using pond liner . Isn't it black? Mentors say just use the white and black poly. I hate the thought of walking on that.

 

[dansbuds]

no it doesn't matter if its black , the lights not going to penetrate that far anyways , so reflecting it back up is no concern .

 

[DrFever]

What is the temp of the ground 6 feet under?
i wouldn't seal it.

Warm but if your drawing fresh air in lights off that floor will get cold
IMO i would not place a sub floor that is prefect place for mold specially when humidity will naturally climb leave it concrete but buy some tarps cover floor or membrane , or poly have it go up the sides of wall 6 = 12 " so if you have a leak by accident your flood is contained
secondly is raise the pots or totes above the floor
2x4"s or what ever allowing warm air to be under your pots , if your growing in totes / garbage cans with casters / Wheels might be another option for you ???? and another route to think about
Most importantly is what your goals are
you plan to have outside fresh air in ??? If so one thing l learned is cold outside air coming into a hot room = raining in your room Your walls will be dripping in condensation and floors will be soaking wet , and with that the concrete walls will grow mold BLACK MOLD
So if you plan on bringing in Fresh outside air your going to need to make a box outside with a heater to warm up air prior to coming in your room
Hope this helps cheers

 

[LifeLess]

How cold is your basement? Heated in the winter and cooled in the summer? Once you start using the lights in the room it will heat things up. I dont think youll have any issues putting the pots directly on the floor. Im in the same situation and havent had any problems. Im on a slab floor in a room in my garage. Outside temps were as low as-15f. Youll find the lights will heat things up.

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

I am going to put the plants on stands up off the floor.

Do you even need a pond liner? What would it be protecting... the concrete floor? Or could spilled water wick up drywall?

 

[nukklehead]

Midwest basement small time guy here. Use 6-10 3 gallon hempys.
With 1K

Have concrete floor with pitch to drain. Basement is heated/cooled but still has cold floors in winter. Passive intake to exhaust.

Buckets are round. Each fall cut out pieces of decent quality Polystyrene (round) and place under buckets. By spring the discs
are in pretty bad shape and dispose as not needed anymore..

Wont help on a large scale but thats the way I keep my buckets
off the floor and warm in the winter fwiw. KISS

Nuk

 

[J-zee]

How about a kiddie pool and shop vac to suck ur water out? Had a friend do it at his place, simple snd pretty full proof,

 

[dansbuds]

Do you even need a pond liner? What would it be protecting... the concrete floor? Or could spilled water wick up drywall?

yes sheetrock could wick up water , plus it takes longer to dry on concrete floors cuz of the cold . not to mention mold build up etc ..... its better to get any runoff out of the room asap .
i use botanicare 3 x 3 trays & a shop vac to get the runoff out .

 

[dragunn]

I know they make a 90 mill roof liner that's white.while a top of the line pond liner might be 45 mill.

if your there for a long time id spend double for the roof liner.

 

[SmokinErb22]

I believe DHF suggested to me that I paint the floor with a moldicide type paint, maybe made for bathrooms or something. I'd have to find out what it was exactly.

I'm also in a basement. Used to keep everything 6"+ off the ground, but lately I just toss it on the cold concrete. Haven't really seen any negative effects as a result. Mine's just painted white and black/white poly on the walls. Sloped floor for drainage, so I just let my run-off run to the basement drain. Although, I water with very minimal run-off. 2%, tops.

 

[RedBeardy5]

I am in the middle of buying and setting up in a garage with concrete floors. I was going to paint the floor with epoxy paint but am leaning towards vinyl garage and workshop flooring. You can get it a homedepot for about $1-$2 a sq.ft. I found some that come in 10ft wide by 40ft long.

 

[queequeg152]

outside the most brutally cold climate...retrofitting insulation onto the basement slab rarely makes sense financially speaking... however you CAN do it, if you really want to.
with an insulated floor you could justify a heated sub floor as well.

there are SIP like panels you can purchase for this task, they lock together like like engineered flooring.
however the cheaper alternative is to lay down foam boards with lumber ontop for the subfloor.

if you have no intention of ever building out this basement into a proper living space, i would just throw down some cheap laminate ashesive floor tiles.

they come up very easily with a scrapper blade and tile chipper.

the cheap peal and stick stuff is like 50 cents a square.

 

[nukklehead]

Que and smokin erb pretty much summed it up.

If the basement is climate controlled there is really not much
floor insulation necessary for a concrete floor. If it is not, then you are probably looking at a whole new gorilla that should be dealt with
while building a "dedicated" grow room if you know what I mean?

Basement floors are 6 ft or so underground. Unless you are dealing
with perma frost in alaska... ?? ( just an example) It should be no big deal if your growroom is at ambient temps.