shystie's socal attic build out

[shystie]

Hey icmag fam. I started building a 5x10 sealed room in my attic and thought why not post the progress. I have a few questions about my little plan, and would love some input from fellow attic growers.

I will be using 3 x 600w lights (240v), Co2, Dehumid, Dual-hose A/C, 14-18 pot e&f bucket system with a 55 gal res. I have already had the plumber install a cold water utility sink as well as a new breaker panel w/ dedicated power up to the room. 2x20amp 110 and 1 20amp 240 for the lights. It's so nice to have this kind of power right up to the room professionally wired.

I plan on running bubba, cheese, and an og cut i just got from a good friend. Mostly bubba will be going in here as its my fav for 10+ years now.

So my question is; by my calculation, my res filled up to about 40 gal will be around 325+lbs. Pretty heavy im thinking for an attic. what i did to spread the weight was to build a reinforced floor using 2x4s to spread amongst the trusses. Am I asking for it? The last thing I need is for the res to come flying down into the house. Anyway enough yapping...here are the pics



This used to be a closet haha. Now it's got a ladder that leads to a magic place.


Front view of the room


Sweet new sink


Where the girls will be. Excuse the mess. Just put primer to seal the wood


Other side of the room that will house the ac and the rezy


Enclosure built around the existing vent for the a/c


Gotta love the foam!




Thanks for checking me out

 

[FirstTracks]

Looking good so far!
can't wait to see the build progress.
you gonna stealth up that ladder/attic entrance?
Sounds like you plan to run it like a pro from the first run with what you're setting up and what you're running.

be well

 

[vaprpig]

A 40 gal. res. should be no problem weight wise, but an attic in socal with 3 600 w lights will be as hot as the surface of the sun. Is that a portable AC? If so you might want to do some searches about ac's here and re-think the type of ac to use. The portables don't work so well. Also think about air cooling those lights, you might not have a choice. Good luck.

 

[PharmaCan]

RE. your weight question - I seriously doubt that you have trusses making your attic. It wouldn't make any sense considering the 4x12 rafter shown in the photos. Probably you have conventional combo floor/ceiling joists. It looks like the attic was finished and used as a room at some time, so it's probably had plenty of weight on it in the past with no problems.

If you think about it, a lot of fat people weigh 325 lbs. and you seldom if ever hear of them spontaneously falling thru floors.

Good luck with your project!

PC

 

[shystie]

FirstTracks- the closet has a door that will be locked. It's a coat closet which in socal is not used that much.

vaprpig- I will be using either 1 8" vortex or 2 6's to cool the lights. So would you think a window a/c would be better to use? sucks cuz i just shelled out an assload of cash for this hydrofarm portable. It is a dual-hose so i assumed it would cool nicely while leaving the co2 in tact. I'll do some searching

pharmacan you are right it was built out for a little girls room by the prev. owner. good call on that one. really appreciate your insight

hopefully you guys take a seat and watch the progress. I plan to get this project up and running in the next 2 weeks

 

[riverrat]

Whats the BTU output in that A/C? I was running a 600 & a 400 on my previous grow and cooling it with a 5000 BTU window unit. I had a 6 inch can-fan pulling air through the lights and out of about a 6 x 8 walk in closet. I also had a 200 watt Flo light on the veg side of the room. My temps in the flower side was running at about 80F, bit higher than I'd like but the plants did fine. I had a bit higher temps on the veg side , it ran at about 83F or so.

If you insulate the ducts from the ac & pull air through the lights with the fans you'll likely be ok. A lot will depend on how hot it gets where you live and how well you've insulated your grow chamber.

RR

 

[vaprpig]

After doing my research here I went with a window unit(biggest I could find). I originally thought a portable would be perfect but apparently they don't last, maybe 1-2 yrs. Next year I'm getting a mini-split ac and keep the window unit installed as a backup. Like the others have said, insulate the hell out of everything, ,walls, ceilings, floors, ducts. Also maximize your air cooling for the lights.

 

[shystie]

the a/c unit is 12k btu. should be enough power for the 3 600's

 

[LiLWaynE]

I like magic places...

can't wait to see what kinda skills you got...

so far you are getting an A+ in the stealth department

ill be back to check on this... keep postin up pics man...

peace, LW

 

[AquaParot]

straight up sex

 

[FirstTracks]

whats goin on shystie?
ya gonna throw up some new pics for us all to ooo and aaah over?
I know how much time and energy a stealth buildup can take, so hopefully its coming along alright and you're not running into toooo many issues.


be well

 

[spiralsmurf]

hey shystie, i sent you a PM>

 

[shystie]

hell yeah firsttracks thanks for the kind words. i spent the last few days breaking down my old setup and getting all the gear over here. the res smelled like death and was pretty brutal cleaning it out. i did primer the floors and bought some tiles to lay down after another coat of killz. I also did another round of foam just to make sure to get the tightest seal for the room. Hopefully i'll get some more work done tomorrow and post some pics

oh and spiralsmurf...i have like no posts so i can't see your pm. sorry bro

 

[spiralsmurf]

oh basically, i have a few new, digital 600w 240v setups and i'm in socal so i was throwing that out to you to see if you're interested in them.

i've got them up on craigslist, here's the link and you can email me there if you're interested. http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/grd/971446976.html

 

[jdkronyk101]

the a/c unit is 12k btu. should be enough power for the 3 600's

ive used two of the same model should be enough. the only draw back is that the farther or more bends you put in the rear tubes the less efficient it works. they come with a good warranty, my first broke, but was promptly replaced. it broke at the rear intake and exaust tubes, so a straight shot 2-4' is best no bends if at all possible.
also the window adaptor that comes with it is really flimsy, you can find/make the sheetmetal counterpart in the a/c section of the hardware store. with a couple of screws and caulking the seal can be airtight.
it should be more than enough for that room,since you plan to air cool the hoods you should be golden.it can probably do it on the lowest setting, those things are badass for small setups.
one love
j.d.

 

[shystie]

quick update for ya guys. i got the lights up and wired. installed the small boy carbon/sediment water cleaner, co2, vortex to cool the lights, and the floor laid out and sealed. I should be up to do a dry run pretty soon.

3 ss1 240 ballasts, green air power center, and you can see a bit of the duct muffler on the bottom right that is yet to be installed



3x600 ss2 hoods, co2 sensor, and the new floor


water cleaner and co2 controller

 

[Phillthy]

the room looks great. cant wait to see what it becomes populated with. Nice job all the way around.

just to bust balls :wink: the osb on the floor in your first post says "this side down" LOL...

 

[shystie]

sorry for taking so long to post final pics, but late than never. 24 fresh cuts of OG

 

[Abja Roots]

Nice to see someone running the exact same ebb and gro.

A few questions.

1) How does your watering frequency vary throughout your cycle. For example how often are you watering them when they are as small as they are in the pic above, and how often do you water once you're in the midst of flower?

2)What kind of nutrients are you using, and what do you keep your ec/ppm and ph at. Thanks

Last thing is probably what others have said. I've always had more luck with the window units just venting into the room and then scrubbing and exhausting that air from the room. Those portables just seem to not crank as much or last as long.

Other than that it looks promising. Looking forward to seeing this. Congrats

 

[shystie]

Nice to see someone running the exact same ebb and gro.

A few questions.

1) How does your watering frequency vary throughout your cycle. For example how often are you watering them when they are as small as they are in the pic above, and how often do you water once you're in the midst of flower?

2)What kind of nutrients are you using, and what do you keep your ec/ppm and ph at. Thanks

Last thing is probably what others have said. I've always had more luck with the window units just venting into the room and then scrubbing and exhausting that air from the room. Those portables just seem to not crank as much or last as long.

Other than that it looks promising. Looking forward to seeing this. Congrats

in veg about 5-6 times and 4-5 times in flower. i use the super line with a lil magiCal and big bud and overdrive. ppm I have no clue because i've never ran this cut. I usually dont go over 1300 in bloom 800 veg

i know people dont like these a'c units but this one cools my whole room on the lowest setting with ease. i had one of those "window shaker" units and that thing could not keep up with my 3x600's. they sell this unit in almost every dro store in LA for a reason.