Starting a room

I now have a spare bedroom upstairs to convert to my grow room.

I'm planning on running 2 600s vertically and a 400 for veg.

The room is ~ 10 x 10 x 9' with a closet

The problem is, the room has carpet. i was thinking of laying down a huge tarp that would run ~10" up the wall so that any spillage would remain on the tarp.

Would the tarp be sufficient or do i really have to rip out the carpet?

Is standard dry wall ok? or would that need to be replaced with the green/blue dry wall. This is property that i care about and mold is a concern. Not sure how much of a concern, considering its dry and hot where i am.

I'm also debating between whether to supplement c02 or not. In order to have a "sealed room" would i have to build a room within a room or would the room itself be considered "sealed" (when the doors/windows are taken care of. More worried about the floor not being airtight)

I've been trying to get through the PPK thread and think i will be going that route. I have been considering this for quite a while and was ready to do the rdwc brute method until i stumbled onto the PPK thread.

I think i'm finally over my fear of posting on here. Cheers!

Welcome brother!

I'm not familiar with PPK but I am very familiar with growing vertically. Sounds like you have plenty of room. I run 2 600's bare bulb in coco without CO2. I used to have a CO2 generator, but go without one now. There's other members who can give you better advise on that topic. Just wanted to say congrats on your first post.

Good luck and happy growing!

i dont like tarps for water protection. pond liner or shower liner works well tho.

I like to use panda poly an all my walls and floors held up with T50 staples and gorilla tape. its lightproof/waterproof. works for me

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

panda poly looks great. definitely pond liner for the floors. Is panda poly the material to use on the walls?

There is a lot of information I am trying to digest right now as construction will begin soon. I have a basic idea of what I want and I'm pretty sure i'll be handy enough to do whats required.

I was thinking of building a room within a room. I stumbled on the "lung room" idea and was wondering if anyone was using it? Most of the posts seemed dated. The basic idea being that the a/c and all the other control units are outside of the actual grow.

The grow area would be a box framed with 2x4's with plywood and then covered with panda poly. The dimmensions would be approximately 6' x 5' x 7'. Would the 7' height be a problem?

Summer temperatures are consistentantly above 105. I definitely need an a/c unit for that room but would i need to supplement with c02?

If i don't supplement with c02 how would you guys suggest that i do my ventilation system? I was reading that people exhaust into the attic. I was worried about mildew/mold and was definitely worried about Flir. I will have a dehumidifier, a/c, and eventually c02.

I guess ventilation would go something like a/c exhausts through the window. Holes in the wall with intake and exhaust fans into adjoining rooms and/or through the ceiling. Will have to give this some more thought.

-Is 7' enough room for this wonderful plant to flourish in flower?
-Would i need to supplement with c02 or would the plants get enough from me sucking air from the rest of the house? I was thinking of drawing air from the adjoining bedrooms using passive intake and a fan for exhaust into the attic or out the window. Is flir a concern when blowing this hot air out the window? (considering i'm running 1200 for flower and 600 for veg)
-Is mildew/mold a concern for me if i want to exhaust into the attic? Or is the worry only there in colder climates where condensation occurs?

phew, that was a lot! so many questions..

That was a long post..

Mostly concerned about whether or not there is sufficient c02 in the house to do a passive intake. Do i simply have to cut holes near the bottom of the lung room so that air will flow in from the adjacent bedroom? And would a 7' tall flower space be too limited?

Will venting into a hot attic pose any problems in terms of mildew/mold?

Jumped the gun on two clones. Alien OG and blue dream. The blue dream showed some signs of the tobacco virus (hooked leaves). I trashed it before i took any pictures (didn't want it to spread).

Vent directly to the outside or condensation occurs in your attic and after awhile you will start to fuck shit up. Paint your walls flat white. Attaching anything like Mylar, panda plastic or reflectix creates a breeding ground for black mold.

Find yourself a good soil mix in the Organic soil forum and start there IMHO this is the most forgiving for new growers.

I always urge new growers to start with a 400w light. Use it for veg later after you've gotten over the 'first grow' hump.

It's a lot cheaper to learn and there's a lot less waste when the inevitable issues crop up.

The other advantage is that you have a MUCH better idea of how you'd like to scale up when you've already done a crop.

Stay Safe!

RanchoDeluxe said:

Vent directly to the outside or condensation occurs in your attic and after awhile you will start to fuck shit up. Paint your walls flat white. Attaching anything like Mylar, panda plastic or reflectix creates a breeding ground for black mold.

Find yourself a good soil mix in the Organic soil forum and start there IMHO this is the most forgiving for new growers.

Click to expand...

that was exactly what i was worried about. how come a lot of the grows on the forums disregard the mold issue? Do they use something in conjunction with the panda/mylar to prevent mold?

i guess i will only lining the grow box and not the lung room with panda poly.

@hydro-soil
I understand the whole idea of walking before running.. but the costs aren't that much more for six plants vs 1 plant. Alternatively the first grow could be viewed as a learning grow and with 6 plants i can learn more about the process cause different plants have different issues.

Mind is pretty set on six plants for flower with 2 600 and a 400 for veg/mother and t5 for clones. Will see how the first couple grows go before i consider adding a horizontal 1k.

Home depot trip today for paint and primer!

Huge difference in time, electricity and hassles.

Don't underestimate simplicity, when you're first starting something new.

Go do what you're going to do though. Just a suggestion.

Stay Safe!

" Soleus PH4-13R-01 13,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner, Heater, Dehumidifier and Fan "

Does anyone use this ac? I like the price mainly and that it has the dehumidifier in it too.


I gave it some thought and i might do a 1 light two plant run to test it out as hydro suggested. Will probably end up doing six plants though.

One light, six plants... sounds great.

Dunno about A/C and other combos... but I much prefer separate units myself. Really bites to have 3 pieces of equipment disappear, all because one component craps out. Although, if it's known for being a solid unit for years... I'd say go for it.

Stay Safe!

Yep gotta agree..Separate units FTW..Had a portable so-called all in one..Freaking dehuy would just not work..Had to purchase a separate unit,,Since then scrap the all in one and now mini-split, Dehuy, portable heat etc..

Dude- I live in Montana. Humidity was down to 9% the other day. I never have to use a dehumidifier. If I wanted to buy one I would have to do so online because even the big box stores do not carry them in my area.

That being said, a friend of my lined the walls of his room with reflectix and when we tore it down recently the entire wall was covered with black mold. So if you tack this to a wall in your grow box it is the same as tacking it to your wall.

Portable a/c's suck. I only needed to use one two months out of the year at my old place. It shit the bed after two years....so it died after 4 months of actual use. Lots of threads on this in the growroom design and equipment thread. Mini-split or do it yourself.

Before you get that far take some advice from HydroSoil. Then take a good look at your plants. Take another look at your power bill. Then take a look at your harvest. Was it worth it?? Start small. Keep it simple. You'll get there eventually.

I actually thought me doing 6 plants with two vertical lights was "starting small" given the space i have to work with.

From what i understand with vertical growing is that you have to create that canopy. The vertical grows i read up on were all ~6 plants around a light and then you train the plants so that there is an even canopy.

Was planning on the soleus right now cause of the price point. was looking at the mr slim but i think i'm going to save that for when i do the bigger grow. What i was planning on doing was buying the machine and then the extended warranty (i know i know, you're never supposed to buy those). Cause that would put me at the 2-3 year mark and then i could upgrade to a mr slim

The Soleus PH4-13R-01 is dual hosed which from what i understand is perfect for what i need. That and there were reviews on amazon about people using this machine and needed to constantly empty the bucket is new york (its not nearly that humid where I'm at).

@hydro-soil which dehumidifier do you use?

@RanchoDeluxe that black mold is especially what i'm afraid of. The plan now is to paint the lung room flat white (also veg room) and then cover the inside of the grow box with panda poly. I wonder if there is a chemical, that will kill/prevent mold, that i can coat the plywood with before i put on the panda poly

2886 I feel for your confusion, it can be overwhelming with so many ways to grow a simple plant.
what I hear you describing in terms of building a plywood box in a bedroom sounds
very labor intensive as well as more expensive than a grow tent. why not veg in the closet with a drape pulled
over the door to lightproof it from the bedroom. paint the bedroom white hang lights and grow.

you don't even need a tent but they make it easy to regulate the light cycle and control odor.

build something custom once you figure out what you need for your space.

You are about to learn many things about how growing and how loud, warm, smelly,
scary growing can be. you can set up a successful grow in a tent in a day.

you should educate yourself about condensation and humidity and the possibility
of it causing problems in your attic. wikipedia or google dew point
and condensation and you can learn about how and why moisture leaves air.
I pump 1200 cfm through my attic constantly during warm weather.
when it gets cold I duct into living space and save on heat.

weed is not that fussy. I only use passive intakes no AC, no dehumidifiers,no CO2, just lots of filtered air and I get great results.
edit: I reread and saw you have 105 degree temps, whew! depending on how strong the ac is in your home you might be able to run your lights at night and just duct the filtered growroom air into the rest of the house. 1200 watts is not that much heat.
I'd try it before you add a portable ac.

pond liner is nice but expensive, 2 layers of 6 mil vapor barrier plastic will protect the carpet also.

there is a great british guide on youtube that shows how to turn a bedroom into a grow room from top to bottom.
it starts about 1 minute in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqWx1jDHGo8

it's really easy to overcomplicate this stuff while missing the basics.

good luck!

2886 said:

@hydro-soil which dehumidifier do you use?

Click to expand...

Never used one. Sorry. Lived almost my entire life in <30% humidity. Lots of ventilation has always worked well for me.

Nearly got killed by black mold once though... I give that stuff a wiiiiiide berth.

Stay Safe!

You don't need panda if you're going to paint. A good high quality flat paint will perform better than panda and you don't have to worry about moisture being trapped behind the plastic. Panda exists for the "quick and easy" but not always best.

Yes pond liner is nice and works well but yes its a little expensive. Plastic also works fine. I bought a huge roll of black plastic that I use for everything. Its also as easy as six cinder blocks holding up a piece of plywood like a table with plastic on it with a 6" lip to catch drips. Done. Then you even have nutrient/supply storage under the table.

Definitely vent to the outside if you can, save yourself the headaches later. Yes to just cutting a vent whole in the bottom of the wall between the lung and vent room. Just make sure to have air coming into the lung room from somewhere else also. Gotta keep that air flowin.. rule of thumb: have at least 12"x12" of passive intake for every 300cfm of exhaust. You also want to run your lights at night to help fight the heat. 10pm to 10am seems to be the sweet spot for the lowest average temps but YMMV. And a lung room isn't a necessity. just a luxury.

However, if I were you, for your first grow I would keep it as simple as possible while you're learning the plants and their needs. Ditch the a/c idea, sealed room, lung room, and co2. You don't need it.. yes its "possible" to increase yields some with a perfectly dialed setup... but you won't have one for awhile. Just get a properly sized extraction fan and carbon filter and you'll have all the co2 you need. Keep in mind.. if co2 was a no-brainer then everyone would be using it.. but I'd say way less than half the people use it probably closer to 15%+/-.. pro or not.

As for the dehumidifier.. well that depends on a few things. What are you going to do about smell? I haven't seen much about it and this is very important. That said, some people leave an extraction exhaust fan running 24/7 to keep negative pressure (suction) in the room so stank doesn't escape through cracks. So if you do that, you will probably have no issues with RH because the air will keep turning over in the room and it *shouldn't* build up.

If you do have higher RH, then definitely get a decent size dehuey, maybe a 30 pint give or take. When you are in the middle of flowering, the plants throw out tons of humidity at night when the lights are off. So it all depends on what you're exhaust is doing. For me, I want to save the life of my carbon filters so I turn OFF my main exhaust fan at night, and I keep only a 180cfm running 24/7 for negative pressure. For me, this is not enough to keep the humidity down during lights off (it can get up to 90% or more) so I have my dehuey on a timer that kicks on an hour after lights off, and kicks off an hour before lights on. I also leave a small oscillating fan running 24/7 just to stir the air and help fight PM (powdery mildew)

And lastly.. keep it as simple as you can. The problem now is.. you're probably a pretty smart guy and it probably seems like you can just read up and be good to go. The problem is though, you don't know what you don't know.. and you won't know until you get a few grows under your belt. Every room and environment is different. People will give you all sorts of good advice, but it may not be good advice for your particular situation. Start small with as minimal investment in equipment as possible. Then as you become more experienced, you will learn how to maximize your own environment and what the plants need in your space. Trust me.. save yourself the hassle of complication. Just do the one light, and six smaller plants. Smaller plants are easier than larger ones and you can still play with some different genetics if you want. With only one light.. you likely won't have to fight the heat just yet so you can focus on healthy plants.

hope this helps

Tobacco mosaic? Hooked leaves, do you mean the tips were curling in, like a claw?