New Attic Grow room

[TriggerFinger]

Well I decided to move my grow room out from under
the basement stairs and into the Attic.

Apart from a few random questions I havn't made many
posts so i'll try keeping this thread updated. Everything
i've learned about growing has come from this site, and
I hope that this will be a worthy contribution.


My old grow room was in the basement. 4x4x7, 1000w hps

The room is decent because of the hieght but is very hard to
get to and work on, hard to keep cool (investing in a cool tube),
noticable to guests, inlaws, cops, ect and ultimatley is infested
with mold from behind the drywall on the exterior walls.

On my second grow this kept happening

After a lot of work and some money I transformed the attic
from completely unusable into good storage space and future
grow room. I added an attic stair, new spray on foam insulation
on roof instead of floor, and an osb plywood floor.

There is about 4.5 feet of clearance at the peak of the attic and
I plan on making the room between the two crossbeams. That
will give me a footprint of about 7' x 9' (the 7' is from back to
front in this pic).

I plan on using regular tarp purchased from Home depot to
enclose the room and then line the back and two sides with
Mylar. I have ordered some panda plastic and two zippers to
make one big door in front.

Here is my progess so far on the tarp work. I had to shave a
lot of the foam to get to the studs and then I just stapled the
tarp up. I plan on mirroring this on the other side and then closing
up the back. Also, I cut the far crossbar down and extended the
room to the verticle post, I really hope I havn't compromised the
strength of the roof.

Well this is what I have so far, I plan on doing more work today so maybe i'll put some more pics up tonight.

Thanks for reading!

 

[bazoomer]

nice 1 Trigger,wot the fek is all that foam ? did you have to do that ?, i just got norm felt and tiles above me,must av been a bitch to do !, bet it will be a million degrees in there in summer though !the beams are a bitch, i cut and moved 4 of mine, hope to fek the roof dont blow off !!

 

[Sure Shot]

Good luck with your room man.
Hey if your have CH/AC you could just branch off your existing ducting and cool your light via A/C. Works really good in the summer for me. Your going to have to do something about heat in there I'm sure. If I were you I would put anywhere from 2-4 1000w lights in there. I don't think you need mylar I would just use the Black/White plastic.That room has potential bro. Please update us on how it's going.
Here is my laboratory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzD9pRXhvxI

 

[coll]

looks like your on the righ track, those attic grows have potential, you have allot more to work with than a bedroom tent but takes allot if work to prep this sort of space, im excited for you.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Thanks guys, I'll post some more pics tonight. That foam is
great stuff, sprayed on as a liquid then expands to 30x its size,
a buddy of mine does that for a living got a real good deal it keeps
the house alot warmer.

I wish I had central air conditioning to do that, do you think that even
with a cool tube it will still be too hot?

 

[Sure Shot]

Thanks guys, I'll post some more pics tonight.

I wish I had central air conditioning to do that, do you think that even
with a cool tube it will still be too hot?

You should be O.K if you exhaust your hood out of the attic. Maybe you could get one of those whirly bird vents for your roof and just vent straight up and out. If you intake your air from inside the house your guaranteed a boost in CO2 content.

 

[burlingo]

lookin' good!

my attic grow turned out sweet!

like you mine didn't start out in the attic. i thought it was unusable. all it needs is some work!

 

[dusty26]

hmmm... lookin good so far.. 2 things tho.. how tall is it in there ? are you gonna have enough height to grow ? and second... how are ou going to bring in new air and where are you going to exhaust the old air to ?

 

[Herbzman]

Hey man.. nice to see another attic grow from scratch. I'm doing the same thing right now with a similar sized attic... (first grow)

yes... the beams are a bitch, but im not gonna risk moving mine.. yet... surely they must be there for a reason?

Just a few questions.. Are you planning to do SOG? - as your height space is limited. I figured that the height of the pot and the extension on the reflectors might leave you with little plant space (my first problem).

Also, as for venting please show detialed pics of how you will set it up.. I've been trying to get my head around how I'm going to have an intake and exaust and whether they will link straight throught the attic to outdoors or intake and exaust through the house, or a combo.

Oh yeah, and how important is insulation on the walls? I heard Silver Mylar is very heat reflective.. will it do?

Peace

 

[panselmo1989]

What's up with the 95 degree closet? could that be why your plants drooped like that? anyway, your attic looks good.

 

[OregonMeds]

Looked like his old plants had to be consitantly watered too often as well.

Anyway you are doing the same thing I have done several times now. Let me give you a tip: every single plumbing vent in that attic is a potential drain to install a small sink, and running a plumbing line up through at wall from the basement is not as hard as it may seem and certainly easier than toting water up and down stairs or bringing in a hose or using a pump and hose.

Matter of fact if you want to cheat, you can run a garden hose (hope high quality and well connected) up through a wall, and leave it in that new little sink in case the sprayer on the end drips or whatever.

You can also install a tub or shower base, for easy work doing things like flushing plants. (use a strainer, don't clog up your lines with loads of dirt)
Even if you get a clog it's nothing a plunger won't fix though.

Happy growing...

 

[TriggerFinger]

Here are a few more pictures of my progress so far. Just finished
putting up the other side and half of the back, I'm going to leave
the other side open for now to make it easier to work on the ventilation.
I just realized that the verticle post has to get cut down to allow
the tubing for the light to go through.

This is my Valueline 4" inline duct blower. I bought it at a local
hydro shop, it was cheap and is noisy but it has always run good.
I dropped it pretty hard once too and had no damage, little hard
to mount, mine works good but probably not how its meant to.

I will mount the bracket of the fan to the crossbeam and go
straight into a 4" to 6" increaser and then into 6" flex tube through
the wall of the room. The fan fits just right between the top of
the crossbeam and the foam. The dryer vent hose on it now was
the muffler for the intake, if the fan can't be heard from underneath
i'd like to leave it off for maximum air since its only a 171 CFM.
The noise level is significant though with no muffller. I got an idea
from this site to run the exhaust from the light down into the house,
free heat. I'd like to keep the room air tight, always wanted to get
a c02 tank eventually.

Now I need to find a cooltube that is adaptable with my C.A.P ballast.
I like the idea too of running a garden hose up to the attic, maybe
get an adapter for the kitchen sink. I might even do that for my
saltwater tank downstairs in the basement too. I was using a hand
pump sprayer with an extension wand from home depot, made
watering a lot easier in the tight space. I did have to water a lot
because the temps were so high in the closet. The height at the
peak is only 4' 3", not sure what style of growing i'm gonna do,
i'm starting from seed. I might train the plants to the side and roof
then have a few younger shorter ones in the middle. I really don't
want to veg in this room using this light though, I have plenty of
space for a seperate area.

 

[gogrow]

nice 1 Trigger,wot the fek is all that foam ? did you have to do that ?, i just got norm felt and tiles above me,must av been a bitch to do !, bet it will be a million degrees in there in summer though !the beams are a bitch, i cut and moved 4 of mine, hope to fek the roof dont blow off !!

that foam is kick ass stuff.... his attic wont be hot in the summer; if he did the whole thing, it will only be about 10degrees hotter than the house in the middle of summer...

freakin awesome room bro

 

[BloodShot420]

that is lookin' pretty badass - its definitely starting to take shape!! Inspire me!

subscribed

 

[Willy Nilly]

You got some reall issues coming at you soon. HEAT and A fat ELECTRIC bill come Summer. In order to cool that room you gonna have to move Alaska in there. I hope and wish you the best of luck. it looks good and i admire the workman like attitude, but you won't be ale to escape the heat up there.... maybe you'll consider taking the summer off?

 

[Herbzman]

I hope heat's not gonna be a problem for you man... and also then I will be in the same situation

How are you going to put a vent through the wall of the attic, surely it will be bricked up? Stupid question maybe?

 

[TriggerFinger]

The guy who installed the insulation said that because the foam is on the roof and not the floor it should keep the attic only a few degrees hotter than the house itself, just like gogrow said. Hot air ( and cold air in the winter) cant get trapped up there like a normal attic. Hopes he's right because then it probably would get too hot and would be too expensive to keep cool. I was thinking about making a vent in the celing of the spare bedroom to vent the hot air from the light.

 

[gogrow]

The guy who installed the insulation said that because the foam is on the roof and not the floor it should keep the attic only a few degrees hotter than the house itself, just like gogrow said. Hot air ( and cold air in the winter) cant get trapped up there like a normal attic. Hopes he's right because then it probably would get too hot and would be too expensive to keep cool. I was thinking about making a vent in the celing of the spare bedroom to vent the hot air from the light.

exactly... like i said; i've worked in houses insulated with the foam when i did electrical work... in the middle of louisiana summer, the attic would only be about 10degrees hotter than the rest of the house... good investment

 

[OregonMeds]

Yes that spray foam is excellent stuff I would reccomend that same setup to anyone.

I'm pretty sure you'll be ok with the heat even in summer as long as you change how you were venting that hood. You were getting very low efficiency with that hooked up the way it was, which would explain it being over 90f in the picture.

You need to use a 6" duct all the way and not reduce it like you were, and the fan should be pulling air not pushing it. Fan should be near the outlet wall, then 6" hose to light. Trying to blow the way it was, through duct, then through the light, then duct with two extreme bends way over 90 degrees and reducer you probably had well under 50% efficiency.

Straight as you can with the ducting too.

 

[Herbzman]

Thanks guys, I'll post some more pics tonight. That foam is
great stuff, sprayed on as a liquid then expands to 30x its size,
a buddy of mine does that for a living got a real good deal it keeps
the house alot warmer.

Where can I get that foam and roughly how expensive is it? Looks like an easy insulation solution lol

If my attic has floor insulation but no ceiling insulation, would it be a better idea to re-position it on the ceiling? Im trying to keep costs down. The only problem though is that if I add insulation to the ceiling which is currently that black stuff and tiles, it will reduce my height so much (already limited) and it wouldnt even be worth growing anything.

I think I read up somewhere that heat signature isn't as important for grows using less than 2000w lighting.. and mine will be 600-1200w.. So based on that, how important is insulation for me in a slightly smaller attic?

Oh yeah..How are you going to get air intake? Through the house or the walls/ceiling of attic? Looking good though.