Best Way to Seal Off An Open Closet From Main Room?

[Bad Habits]

Hi Yall-

I am in the process of building a 10x13 sealed grow room, and am trying to figure out the best way to seal off an open closet space. I will be flowering in the main area of the room and vegging in the closet area.

This is the layout of the room:

The closet is 5 feet wide, 2.29 feet deep and 7.8 feet tall. There is currently no door separating the closet area from the main area.

I was initially thinking I could maybe find a grow tent that would fit in there, although it would be tricky given it would have to be damn near identical specs. I did find this tent which is a pretty close fit:

http://www.growwurks.com/growlab-gl80l-grow-room.aspx

Only problem is the ducting. The duct ports are on the sides of the tent, and given the 4'11" wide and my closet is 5' wide that obviously wouldn't wouldn't leave enough space to run the flexible ducting. Another problem with the tents is I've ready that a lot of them have light leaks contrary to their advertising.

If I could find something like just the front wall of the tent only and attach it to the walls and floor at the opening that would be awesome. Only thing is, I don't know if it's realistic to expect that I can veg a plant out fully with in a space that is only 2.29 feet deep, so I was thinking I might need to frame the closet out into the main area an extra 6-12" or so if that makes sense.

Any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bad Habits]

Couple other notes:

However I decide to seal it off, it will be necessary to have some ducting holes. At least 1-2 at the bottom for a fresh air intake and 1 at the top for an exhaust, so there will be an air exchange with the main part of the room which will have the AC unit in it.

Another point: if I build doors of some sort, I won't have the space to swing them open because I will have a table/tray right there with flowering plants on it. So any door would have to either slide like some closets have, or be zippered some way.

 

[Bad Habits]

Bump!! Surely someone has a good solution for this???

Here's a pic of the area for better visualization

 

[vostok]

Maybe a sliding glass door, ...just a passing thought

 

[Eureka Springs Organics]

Panda film, and light tight zippers. Cheap, and effective.

I would personally just frame in a door, and do it right. Wouldn't cost over $100

 

[Bad Habits]

Maybe a sliding glass door, ...just a passing thought

Why would you use glass over another material like wood out of curiosity? I'm also curious if a 2-way sliding door (like many closets have) would even be a possibility, given the right side of the closet has a very small frame, so I don't even know if it would be possible to fit the necessary tracking/frame there?

Panda film, and light tight zippers. Cheap, and effective.

I would personally just frame in a door, and do it right. Wouldn't cost over $100

Any idea where they sell "light tight" zippers?

RE framing the door - like I mentioned due to space issues I can't have a door that swings outwards as there won't be enough space, which really only leaves the sliding door possibility, which I addressed in the post above...

The panda film and zippers seems like a good idea, but I know if there were any cuts/slits that lead to light leakage without me realizing it that would cause major issue to with the plants in flower right outside.... obviously I could be diligent with checking it every night when the lights in the main room shut off, but I'm just wondering how durable that setup would really be. Maybe I should just drop the money on a grow tent and chop the front face off lol.

 

[johnkneefive]

Why would you use glass over another material like wood out of curiosity? I'm also curious if a 2-way sliding door (like many closets have) would even be a possibility, given the right side of the closet has a very small frame, so I don't even know if it would be possible to fit the necessary tracking/frame there?



Any idea where they sell "light tight" zippers?

RE framing the door - like I mentioned due to space issues I can't have a door that swings outwards as there won't be enough space, which really only leaves the sliding door possibility, which I addressed in the post above...

The panda film and zippers seems like a good idea, but I know if there were any cuts/slits that lead to light leakage without me realizing it that would cause major issue to with the plants in flower right outside.... obviously I could be diligent with checking it every night when the lights in the main room shut off, but I'm just wondering how durable that setup would really be. Maybe I should just drop the money on a grow tent and chop the front face off lol.

pretty much any hydro/grow store will carry them, can prob even find them on ebay.. http://www.valleyindoor.com/product.php?productid=866&cat=&page=1

 

[Bad Habits]

pretty much any hydro/grow store will carry them, can prob even find them on ebay.. http://www.valleyindoor.com/product.php?productid=866&cat=&page=1

Nice dude, Thanks!!

I guess if I did go the panda film/zipper route, it still leaves the issue of input/exhaust ducts. I'm really trying to avoid having to cut through the closet walls if possible.

Just brainstorming, I suppose I could attach a board to both the bottom and top at the opening of the closet, and cut vent holes through those? then have the panda film attach at the top/bottom of each respective board?

Trying to figure out he best way to do this with wreaking as little havoc on the original room as possible...

 

[draztik]

Any idea where they sell "light tight" zippers?

You can find them on ebay.

 

[noobs1988]

Im facing the same problem. I think my solution will have to be the hidden bookshelf door. but my problem was I needed the door to open towards you and not into the closet which makes it a little bit more difficult to build. But I did find some hidges for about $130 thatll work and a couple youtube videos. check out youtube.

 

[flyer81]

For my veg space like this I ended up framing in a prehung frame and door. I then used 4 elbows and 2 inline fans. I cut two holes in the door, one top and one bottom. And then put the fans in through the holes. One input and one output. I then put the elbows on each side of both fans. Oh, I also painted the insides of everything flat black to reduce the reflection of light. Works pretty good!

 

[JVonChron]

you could double layer the panda poly to be extra sure as walls, and do the zipper thing. I know you don't want to modify existing structure but you could cut hole in ceiling exhaust straight up...(rather inconspicuous place when you patch it)..intake at bottom, with flexi ducting that does more than 2 turns to block off light that would leak from closet->main room. . you could also seal closet entirely with zipper, get a tent that is a lil smaller and vents up, vent straight up and intake from within the room in a room you made with the tent and you would have no holes for intake either to potentially light leak. I don't see a plug in that closet if im seein it correct. gonna run a cord into it?

 

[Bad Habits]

Im facing the same problem. I think my solution will have to be the hidden bookshelf door. but my problem was I needed the door to open towards you and not into the closet which makes it a little bit more difficult to build. But I did find some hidges for about $130 thatll work and a couple youtube videos. check out youtube.

like I mentioned I don't have the space to have a door that swings inwards or outwards.. room is gonna be jam-packed. Also not trying to hide it by any means - the entire room is a grow room. Best of luck to ya bud. I'll definitely be interested to see it when it's done.

For my veg space like this I ended up framing in a prehung frame and door. I then used 4 elbows and 2 inline fans. I cut two holes in the door, one top and one bottom. And then put the fans in through the holes. One input and one output. I then put the elbows on each side of both fans. Oh, I also painted the insides of everything flat black to reduce the reflection of light. Works pretty good!

Nice dude. I'm guessing it was a normal door that either swung inwards or outwards? Again I can't do that because of space... I like the 4 elbow and 2 inline fan idea though.

How did you decide on what size of inline fans to use for the area? What kinda air exchange did you aim for, and is there a difference between the CFMs on your intake and outtake fans?

you could double layer the panda poly to be extra sure as walls, and do the zipper thing. I know you don't want to modify existing structure but you could cut hole in ceiling exhaust straight up...(rather inconspicuous place when you patch it)..intake at bottom, with flexi ducting that does more than 2 turns to block off light that would leak from closet->main room. . you could also seal closet entirely with zipper, get a tent that is a lil smaller and vents up, vent straight up and intake from within the room in a room you made with the tent and you would have no holes for intake either to potentially light leak. I don't see a plug in that closet if im seein it correct. gonna run a cord into it?

So if I double layered the panda poly, would I just tape them together at the seams or something, or would you do 2 completely seperated zippered doors, one behind another?

Well the room is gonna be completely sealed so I think exhausting into the attic would defeat that purpose consider the intake air is coming from the flower area.

Ya I was thinkin about using the grow tent I posted in the OP, only problem is I think it would force me to cut a hole in the left wall and/or top facing wall to be able to run the ducting because of the dimensions unfortunately. If I went the tent route it would have to be near perfect dimensions so I'm not wasting any veg space, and that's the closest tent I could find after some pretty extensive research.

Ya no outlet in the closet, was just gonna run a powerstrip into it - the hole needed for it would be tiny. Probably not even gonna cut into the preexisting wall - just gonna run the cord around the corner and cut the hole in the bottom of the wood I'll use to frame at the bottom of the closet most likely.



Any more advice would be much appreciated!