Sealing a closet with a bi-folding doors?

[Guest]

Hi Everyone!

I need to figure out a way to seal this closet. It has an opening in the roof to the attic. The side walls are going to be cut for ventilation. But I still have no clue how I'm going to manage to have a sealed door? Suggestions?? Lots of air pressure from these 600+cfm centrifugal fans, so no pandafilm doors

I will be using 7'x5' of the 7'x6'x8' closet.

2x1000W, air cooled -> to attic.. room will be extracting cool air from room through closet, scrubbing, and dumping back out into the room. So if I can manage the door to be actually 99% sealed, air pressure should handle the rest.

Closet doors...http://www.shutterscanada.ca/images/shutters_on_doors.jpg

 

[Banjoboy]

A couple sheets of thin plywood (the stuff that is used under vinal sheet flooring can't remeber the name)screwed or nailed to the back of the doors would take care of the louvers. Maybe some black paint so the plywood does not show through the louvers.
BB

The plwood I am thinking of is called luanne (sp?)

 

[Guest]

That wouldn't work too well. The edges of the door wouldn't be sealed. I'm thinking maybe using a sheet of plywood to basically seal the doorway from the inside of the closet, and have a small door cut out. The bi-folding doors would remain there normal, behind it is a wooden door.

 

[Guest]

you could try panda plastic with a tarp zipper or 2 if you dont want to deal with carpentry

 

[Banjoboy]

The sides can be sealed with foam weather striping. the top and bottom of a bifold would be the challange.
Is your fan sucking out (negitive presure) or blowing in (positive presure). Pos. presure will push the air out anycrack, crevice, hole or seem.
Neg. presure will suck in through any opening and out through odor control . Much easier to control then pos. presure. The room need not be perfectly sealed .

BB

 

[Guest]

I have bi-fold doors on my closet. I left them as they were and used a piece of sheet rock to close off the opening. But I have a regular door on the other side of the closet, which I use to go in and out of the closet. I used the sheet rock side for ventilation, darkroom vents. Also for the air intake to air cool my hood. I was going to use the sheetrock side as entrance. In which case, I would have cut an opening and used panda film to make a zipper door. But I'm oversized and going in and out a small zipper opening is a PIA. But I am fixing to re-do the closet (AGAIN) and I may re-do it putting the entrance on the bi-fold side as I have another option for ventilation. If only there was some sort of grow room design software. LOL

 

[Blunted22]

i agree with zor get some panda plastic or any thick plastic and put it on the inside of your door seal it completly and then get a tarp zipper (itll stick to the plastic) put a slice in your plastic and stick the zipper to it ( i think you slice first). Wallah totally sealed door with a zipper opening.

 

[Guest]

The bad part of the zipper, in my experience, is light leak. Mine glowed like it was radioactive. I had to put another layer over it using velcro. Maybe I did something wrong..shrug.

 

[Guest]

I think the safest would be something like Old Fool did, but with plywood. Then instead of opening a new door on another wall, make a door inside of the plywood. So I sort of walk in through an opening. There I can manage vents (intake), and a door for me. Mostly everything I'd have to mount and set up before the door goes up.

The wood would do the same job but be more structural safe/sound. It's a 3.5' wide door way, about 6.5' high.

 

[Guest]

The bad part of the zipper, in my experience, is light leak. Mine glowed like it was radioactive. I had to put another layer over it using velcro. Maybe I did something wrong..shrug.

Folks normally layer the panda film behind the zipper, so they unzip, and move aside a couple of offset strips of film that act as a light/air barrier (depending on your air pressure). Regardless though, humidity, or heat could give me problems with a solution like this.. with time ive learned get it done right the first time because there is plenty to work against down the road.

Btw guys, I had a much larger setup before in a part of a house that was undeveloped. Just windows and walls, I put up a 2x4 frame that was 10x10, solid ply roof, and half of a wall.. The rest of it was wrapped in panda. Looked creepy just a big black shiny box in an unfinished living room but it worked great. Air pressure though, was not my friend.

 

[george j warner]

yer the plywood sounds like a good idea white on the outside black on the inside then it wont look strange outside ... the staple black out sheeting on the inside to seal all light leeks

blackout also keeps bugs out !