Turning a shoddy shed into a groovy ganja growroom

[Bud Wiser UK]

Ah, I remember now..! It all came back to me this afternoon whilst woodworking.
The main reason I was going down the CO2 route wasn't for increased yields ... it was for minimal ventilation.

You see, the only 2 reasons you need to ventilate are:
1). to remove all the moisture in the air that the plants have transpirated and
2). to replenish the CO2 needed by the plant.
Water and gas, simple.

The problem I'm facing is this ...
What happens when warm moist air meets really fucking cold air? ... answer: steam.
Coming from a house, it's not really noticed because all household central-heating systems chuck out steam from a vent.
But this could be a problem coming from a garden shed mid-winter ... I don't want the neighbours calling 911 / 999 thinking my shed's on fire (easily done)..!

Hence my CO2 logic ... by using a dehumidifier (oh look, I happen to own one of those!) and injecting CO2, the only venting requirement would come at lights-out, which would be when most normal peeps are safely tucked-up and it's totally pitch-black dark outside anyway. The idea was to vent at night only ... with the added advantages of not needing a filter because it wouldn't be needed, and also saving on heating bills in the process. Three birds with one gas.

 

[G.Leave]

Hey bud..firstly thanks so much for joining here and for posting this thread. Its pure gold for guys wanting to build in a similar space!! Instead of smacking you with a thousand likes I am going to hit you with a big old shot of rep! I cant wait until you get this sucker fired up and plants are growin'!!

 

[Bud Wiser UK]

Hey bud..firstly thanks so much for joining here and for posting this thread. Its pure gold for guys wanting to build in a similar space!! Instead of smacking you with a thousand likes I am going to hit you with a big old shot of rep! I cant wait until you get this sucker fired up and plants are growin'!!

@912GreenSkell
Not too far away now, ol' Uncle @derek420colorado 's got me all fired up..! he he ...
Electrics are finished, vegging chamber's built, insulation's sitting in the greenhouse waiting.
Amazon have a lot of weird deliveries to deliver; soil's on it's way, so are the Airpots, fans, ducting, T5 lights, thermostats and plastic things that use gravity.

Decided to go with Mars Hydro II's .. 2 x 400 watt to start. I have a lot of testing to do, and the rest has cost me an arm and a leg so keepin' it affordable at the moment.
Kind LEDs can come next year ... need to recoup some money first.

4-6 plants to start, not decided yet whether to go 'auto' or 'photo' ..?
Have shitloads of beans of both.

New camera, Canon XS420 - daughter's Xmas present .. just playing with it ... he he:

My new Nikon's on it's way ...

 

[G.Leave]

@912GreenSkell
Not too far away now, ol' Uncle @derek420colorado 's got me all fired up..! he he ...
Electrics are finished, vegging chamber's built, insulation's sitting in the greenhouse waiting.
Amazon have a lot of weird deliveries to deliver; soil's on it's way, so are the Airpots, fans, ducting, T5 lights, thermostats and plastic things that use gravity.

Decided to go with Mars Hydro II's .. 2 x 400 watt to start. I have a lot of testing to do, and the rest has cost me an arm and a leg so keepin' it affordable at the moment.
Kind LEDs can come next year ... need to recoup some money first.

4-6 plants to start, not decided yet whether to go 'auto' or 'photo' ..?
Have shitloads of beans of both.

New camera, daughter's Xmas present .. just playing with it ... he he:
View attachment 660808
My new Nikon's on it's way ...

Awesome man!! Great looking bud and great pic! Will you be firing up a new journal thread once your are starting plants? If so please tag me once you got the supplies!

 

[Bud Wiser UK]

Oops, you're on the ball, aren't you?
Of course ... sharing is caring.
I'll be plantin' and rantin' very soon ..!
It's gone beyond obsession .... new territory for the psycho-analysts methinks.

 

[derek420colorado]

Autos all the way my friend, you will not be disappointed

 

[Bud Wiser UK]

@derek420colorado ... I totally agree, and when the shed's all up and running smoothly, that's what I'll be growing all the time.
I was thinking about the first test run, I don't want to waste any of my quality auto beans.
I need some guinea-pig plants first, who knows what shed-growing horrors await me ... and I'm expecting to make a few errors of my own in round one..!

I was also thinking that a 12/12 light cycle would be easier for me to monitor on a daily basis.
Once I've successfully completed a simple grow, I can ramp-up the light cycle to 18/6 or even 20/4 and throw in some autos, by which time I'll have worked out shit like watering, venting, heating and humidity.
We'll see ......

 

[Bud Wiser UK]

In the meantime, new camera in hand, here's where I'm at ...

I've built a vegging / cloning / seedling / whatever-you-want-to-call-it chamber.
It'll have T5 flourescents, and I've gone for a purpose-built unit with 4 x 2ft tubes.
The dimensions are about 3' 6" x 3' 6" x 2' ... plenty of room to play with:

I fitted the Airtec insulation/reflection material first, made sense. Plus I wanted to get a feel for what it was like to work with.
Answer: a dream..!
The bottom shelving I salvaged from the old 'workbench' that was in the original shed. You'll have to go back to page one of this thread to see it's origins.
The socket is linked to a 'control block' ... more on that later.

To the left of the whatever-you-want-to-call-it chamber will be the drying area:

I'll either build some racks in there or just string some line up, but we've got to grow some weed first before that becomes an issue.
I want the vegging chamber finished so I can start ... it'll take a week to pop some beans, another 3 weeks to veg them ... so I've got a month to finish off the main growroom whilst they're 'cooking' ... and that's plenty, so yesterday wouldn't have been soon enough. Haven't decided on how I'm going to enclose the space yet, maybe just a simple roller-blind?

Anyway, here's the 'control block' ...

I'll be adding timers to the LED, Fan, Vent and T5 sockets shortly.
I've used a 6-gang individually-switched surge-protected block. Worth paying a bit extra to safeguard those expensive and sensitive LED's, don't you think?
I thought having an internal work-light might come in handy too, especially for inspecting plants ... purple LEDs aren't very good at showing up deficiencies, there are special goggles you can buy, but they're an unnecessary expense when a simple household lightbulb will do adequately.

Here's a view from the inside:

Wires everywhere. But all neat, thought-out and soon-to-be-hidden by all the insulation and Airtec.
The shelf's to accommodate a 12" oscillating desk fan ... opted for one large as opposed to two small fans ... decided one was adequate for the space, considering the air-circulation capabilities of the BioGreen.
The fan will be drilled and screwed to the shelf, with a layer of rubber matting under the base to help cancel vibration noise.

I've stapled some black industrial-grade plastic sheeting to the external walls:

Wood's porous, and the external walls don't have any weather-protection, so the plastic sheeting will hopefully help to create a moisture-barrier between the wooden walls and the internal insulation layers.
The switched socket on the right will be for the BioGreen, the unswitched one higher up on the left is for the 4" air-intake fan, you can just see the intake hole behind it just waiting for some ducting to be fitted.

I managed to blag a wooden transport-pallet from my local wood merchant .. considering how much I've spent with him, I should fucking think so.
It's been mould treated and disinfected, and the idea is to raise the pots off the ground so that warm air can circulate ... easily replaceable when it starts to 'fail' ... these things are everywhere here in the UK, you find them stacked up outside supermarkets and builder's yards and are easily 'borrowed'..!

Now, back to the vegging chamber area quickly ...

I like flexibility (mainly because I'm a stoner and making decisions is tough!) so I installed a 'cabriolet' option to the vegging chamber...

Open:

Closed:

Don't know how much ventilation I'll need yet. Plus I'm probably going to fit a couple of tubular heaters underneath the bottom shelf to warm up the chamber and help keep the young roots nice and warm.
All this warm air will hopefully then get sucked into the main grow room via this vent:

That's all for now, folks..!
Insulation will be going up this week, I have deliveries coming thick and fast, the floor still to do, and I'm just itching to get growing..!!!!

Busy Bud :smoking:

 

[woody]

Coming on nicely mate. I take it your handy enough with electrics- thats the bit im useless at. Looking forward to seeing your 1st grow in here

 

[Bud Wiser UK]

@sanguine ... thx dude, I haven't electrocuted myself so far, thankfully.
I'm looking forward to it to ... theory's all well and good, so's carpentry and wiring, but the proof's in the growing..!!