Lets seal it.

[soil margin]

I'm looking for strategies/tactics/equipment/etc. people use to seal rooms in a professional manner. I really hate trying to run a room in what I consider an "open" environment.

I'm talking windows, doors, cracks in walls, ceilings, whatever. How do we light seal and air seal rooms in a way where outside contamination or disturbance is as unlikely as possible?

 

[Guest 150314]

Build a insulated room in side of a room, I use sheets of OSB and seal the cracks with foam sealant. Then poly plastic the whole thing twice tape the edges with tuck tape. If you don't have a concrete floor pond liner would be a good idea. Weather strip around the door .. if you look up urbangrower on youtube he has lots of videos about running sealed rooms

 

[kifmaster]

from my experience

from my experience

Build a insulated room in side of a room, I use sheets of OSB and seal the cracks with foam sealant. Then poly plastic the whole thing twice tape the edges with tuck tape. If you don't have a concrete floor pond liner would be a good idea. Weather strip around the door .. if you look up urbangrower on youtube he has lots of videos about running sealed rooms

I just don't trust poly with cracks / tape to seal the room.

I recently built a decent sized sealed room, 12x24 ft, out of a 2x4 framed shed.

We added r-13 insulation, a layer of fiberboard (although MDF or plywood would probably work better for noise its much pricier), and then a layer of sheetrock. Don't use drywall, sheetrock is mold resistant.

I taped and mudded the sheetrock and painted the entire room flat white. The tape and mud really does a good job to seal the room as far as walls and the ceiling goes. The paint also helps to seal any tiny cracks or crevices.

Use expanding foam for any serious cracks or gaps before you put your drywall up.

I used caulking around the entire room where the wall meets the floor and between the tiny cracks in the flooring panels. Then I used a product like EZ Coat, which is a rubberized paint for garage floors. A few generous coats of that on your floor and up your wall about 2" and your floor has a thin rubberized layer. For me this was a cleaner solution than using pond liner, which no local stores carried in a 12x24 solid piece.

I built a insulated frame for each of the shed's doors, which really helped insulate the sound coming from the room. Around the entire door frame where the doors meet the frame I used weather stripping, and also used rubber door sweeps on the tops and bottoms of the door. When I pull my door closed you can feel and hear the suction. The weather stripping is thick enough to where I have to apply some serious pressure for the door to close and latch, so I am confident the seal is pretty legit.

To test how effective my room-seal job was, I set up a fog machine and ran it for an hour. Shined a nice bright light at all the cracks and seams on the outside where any fog could potentially escape, and nothing was visible. I left the shed and turned the fog machine off. When I came back over an hour later and opened the doors the room was still full of fog.

IMO, a chemically bonded barier (ie paint, caulk, sealant) is gonna provide you with a better seal than plastic sheeting.

 

[soil margin]

Awesome stuff kifmaster, thanks for explaining your method.


One thing I have tried with some limited success is building an 'air-lock' or 'staging area' around the frame of a door that is facing outside. Wondering if anyone else has tried or uses something similar to this.

In the last attempt we used an extra 4x8 grow bag we had lying around, probably could have built something that would be much cheaper though. Looked something like this when we were done setting it up:

 

[Guest 150314]

I just don't trust poly with cracks / tape to seal the room.

I recently built a decent sized sealed room, 12x24 ft, out of a 2x4 framed shed.

We added r-13 insulation, a layer of fiberboard (although MDF or plywood would probably work better for noise its much pricier), and then a layer of sheetrock. Don't use drywall, sheetrock is mold resistant.

I taped and mudded the sheetrock and painted the entire room flat white. The tape and mud really does a good job to seal the room as far as walls and the ceiling goes. The paint also helps to seal any tiny cracks or crevices.

Use expanding foam for any serious cracks or gaps before you put your drywall up.

I used caulking around the entire room where the wall meets the floor and between the tiny cracks in the flooring panels. Then I used a product like EZ Coat, which is a rubberized paint for garage floors. A few generous coats of that on your floor and up your wall about 2" and your floor has a thin rubberized layer. For me this was a cleaner solution than using pond liner, which no local stores carried in a 12x24 solid piece.

I built a insulated frame for each of the shed's doors, which really helped insulate the sound coming from the room. Around the entire door frame where the doors meet the frame I used weather stripping, and also used rubber door sweeps on the tops and bottoms of the door. When I pull my door closed you can feel and hear the suction. The weather stripping is thick enough to where I have to apply some serious pressure for the door to close and latch, so I am confident the seal is pretty legit.

To test how effective my room-seal job was, I set up a fog machine and ran it for an hour. Shined a nice bright light at all the cracks and seams on the outside where any fog could potentially escape, and nothing was visible. I left the shed and turned the fog machine off. When I came back over an hour later and opened the doors the room was still full of fog.

IMO, a chemically bonded barier (ie paint, caulk, sealant) is gonna provide you with a better seal than plastic sheeting.

It's not just "poly with cracks and tape" I insulate the rooms with r12 between the OSB and the layers of plastic.. the only real difference is sheet rock and paint instead of poly plastic, you might not trust poly plastic but it works flawlessly. I have to dim the outtake fan to be able to open the door due to negative pressure in the room.. If you want the room to last it's probably a good idea to spend the time and money doing it properly in the way you stated.

I suggested the pondliner for rooms that don't have a concrete floor like a bedroom with carpet or hardwood flooring. Can't really apply EZ coat to a carpet..

 

[kifmaster]

It's not just "poly with cracks and tape" I insulate the rooms with r12 between the OSB and the layers of plastic.. the only real difference is sheet rock and paint instead of poly plastic, you might not trust poly plastic but it works flawlessly. I have to dim the outtake fan to be able to open the door due to negative pressure in the room.. If you want the room to last it's probably a good idea to spend the time and money doing it properly in the way you stated.

I suggested the pondliner for rooms that don't have a concrete floor like a bedroom with carpet or hardwood flooring. Can't really apply EZ coat to a carpet..

Good points. If I had to blow out a carpeted bedroom in a rental i would go your route.

As for airlocks, yes they work and help. Even though my room is sealed at the door and in the room, I have 2x4 framed entrance wrapped in panda film with poly zippers down the middle.

Allows you to enter your room without leaking light in or out and also you can run passive bug traps in there to help keep your room contaminate free.

 

[kifmaster]

You can use these stick on zippers with any poly material to make an airlock / light lock room.

http://www.discount-hydro.com/productdisp.php?pid=319&navid=33

 

[Guest 150314]

I like the panda zippers handy because they don't get sucked in like a door under pressure, you definitely know what your talking about. What do you use to cool the room you just built? I have something roughly the same size but I have always used intake and outtake instead of fully sealed system, I did the math and the extra yield from running co2 and sealed actually balances out money wise in electricity for me.

 

[kifmaster]

I like the panda zippers handy because they don't get sucked in like a door under pressure, you definitely know what your talking about. What do you use to cool the room you just built? I have something roughly the same size but I have always used intake and outtake instead of fully sealed system, I did the math and the extra yield from running co2 and sealed actually balances out money wise in electricity for me.

I am running a 4 ton packaged AC, 46k BTU I believe, cooling 11 1k watt bare bulbs.

I am gonna do a thread for my room soon, just need to clean up before I snap pics.

 

[Dislexus]

Weatherstripping around the door is a pain to remove if you ever move on...

Now I'm of a mind to go with a light wood frame with weatherstripping, then screw it into the door frame over the poly. Then a rectangular zipper door hatch on top of that.

 

[louie]

Really good info guys kifmaster and green mango. Kifmaster I would definitely like to see your setup once you get the thread rockin, sounds really efficient. All I can say is Great Stuff sealant foam is your friend when sealing a room.