Ganja show some love to so cal peeps please I as much as I love the trips to sac and the Bay to pick up genetics i'm getting sick of that drive lol.
The dream at my place this year was pulled 10/13-10/21. Mounds did take a lil longer to ripen and fade than those 400's. I must not have the cut you are referring to, Backyard Farmer. I think that was still Nomaads actually. But I didn't keep it..no more dream for me.
Does any one in California know of ways to build a steel framed green house with concrete footings with out drawing a permit? The frame kit I want to get isn't an engineered structure , and the county I am in will hammer me for building a 1000+ Sq ft green house with out drawing a permit. I don't have a problem paying the permit fee, I spoke to the building inspector and he told me it'd cost $1500 ...the problem is that to get a permit you need building plans and structural engineering drawings & calculations for snow and wind load and a site plan ... The manufacturing company only supplies a wet stamped set of plans for a frame that is a design I don't really care for and their stamped plans cost $1500.
I have my own structural engineer I can use to do up a set of drawings and calcs for me and even at his rate of $100 /hr I can't see it taking him 15 hours to do a 30x48 and 20x60 structural drawing / calculation, but getting the building plans and materials list to give to my engineer from the manufacturer is problematic because their salesmen come off like they are stoner bros a little bit.
Maybe I'll try dealing with their commercial sales department.
This reply may need to be posted elsewhere- Feel free
To your first question, there is no way to circumvent the permit process if you plan to pour footings. Its the first in a long line of county designed "traps" when building a detached structure and whether or not it requires a permit.
Detached structures come in 2 forms: permanent- (attached to the earth/property) and non-permanent -(portable). Anything attached to a concrete foundation/slab is considered permanent and therefore requires a permit. The only wiggle room is within the max allowed square footage before a permit is required which in Ca counties is 100 to 120 sq ft or if you are able to claim the structure as "Agriculture Exempt". Its deff worth checking into whether you qualify for the Ag exemption.
Over the years, Ca counties have managed to figure out how to scarf up permit fees on portable buildings, even tho they sit on skids, piers etc (non-attached and therefore non-permanent) by using the max sq footage restrictions. We can thank portable storage building companies like Tough Shed for that. They sell larger than 120 sq ft "portable" buildings and without mention, pretty much leave it up to the customer to fight it out with the county if a neighbor turns you in for non-permit violations.
Purchasing plans or a complete structure with plans whether it be on-line, ordering thru magazines or DIY self-help books can and usually are the start of big headaches, when it comes to trottin them on down to your local building dept. The plans, while appearing technical and architecturally complete, are cookie cutter at best. There is no way any company can devise a universal set of plans to adhere to the structural requirements of all 50 states on an individual basis ie; In Florida, mold and rot resistant materials are required. In Texas, extreme and common shifting sand requires ridiculous over the top foundation measures and in Cali...it's all about incorporating earthquake proof measures into the structure amongst a bazillion other things only Cali could come up with...
A large greenhouse is one of the most difficult structures to get thru any Ca county permit process without major hassles, even if you have pretty plans. First, it doesnt really fall into a standard or typical, black and white or even relatable category which leaves you at the mercy of your plan checker who will invariably try to apply standard building codes to cover his ass, which for the most part, wont apply to what you want to build. The truth is, a greenhouse is nothing more than a metal or wood frame with either a plastic film or rigid panels and as such, to the county boys, its like looking at a 2 headed goat...
The Ca politics: In the past, erecting a large greenhouse on your property wasnt a big deal. Most counties, unless a complaint was filed, didnt give them much scrutiny unless you were trying to operate a commercial biz and even then, the biggest concern was creating traffic to and from. But, but, but...when the counties took over controlling medical marijuana by creating cultivation ordinances, the greenhouse came on the county radar and it quickly became another source of permit fees, especially in counties where outdoor cultivation was banned and outdoor growing was limited to only detached structures or...a greenhouse.
More politics- and this is the part that sucks...If you file for a greenhouse permit in most Nor Cal counties nowadays, and even if your drawings are golden, a red flag immediately comes up as to whether or not your are planning on growing medical marijuana. Whether you are required to state, on your permit, you plan to grow mj or not, the county now knows you have a greenhouse. In my county, if you pull a greenhouse permit, there is no way you will convince them youre planning on growing vegetables, even tho that may be what you intend to do. Its sort of a greenhouse owner racial profiling thing...lol I
More suck- If I pull a med mj greenhouse permit in my county, which now has a complete outdoor cultivation ban in effect, the greenhouse is required to have a county approved filtration system which also means a county approved electrical system(a separate permit), no more than 1 -1000 watt lite, along with misc requirements: perimeter fencing w/ locking gate, security door on greenhouse not to mention minimum property line setback distances, site plans, erosion controls, not to mention...how much water I plan on using and what chems may be involved.
In retro, you will discover getting the greenhouse structure itself approved will most likely just be the beginning of your county attempting to get all up in your med biz...CC
On a general note, all counties post permit fee amounts on their individual websites for almost anything you plan to build, add-on, remodel etc. Bldg inspectors, as a rule, are doing pretty good just to find your property and know something about what it is they are supposed to be inspecting ...Just sayin
I dry the fuck out of it and deal with the moisture content before it goes to market. You can't store it for a long time with it being moist.
Im gonna try out some boveda humidity packs on my next harvest.