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The CannaBunker Begins
- Thread starter CannaBunkerMan
- Start date
Probably not as much as you'd think. The interior is only 14'x14'x9', and I have 6000 over a 12'x8' canopy. It's enough so that I can eat the occasional cola, just becuase I get the urge. Any canna-fan knows the pull to eat a sticky icky nug can be overwhelming at times. I say, don't fight it.
I know I'm in the hydro grows section, but if you keep with me, this will eventually turn into one. One of the reasons that I'm giving you a little by little is that I am CURRENTLY working on the bunker. It's neat seeing the contrast of how much I've actually completed. There's always something that needs to be done though. You always have 5 out of the 6 parts that you need. There will be days when I visit Home Depot 3 times. On a Tuesday. Before noon.
I'm actually on my second hydro setup. I started with 48 hydro buckets, but realized that a bucket system should not exceed about 6-8 plant sites. Too much can go wrong with more. Now I'm growing in 6" sewer pipe. Don't worry, I've been taking crappy washed out looking pictures all along.
I just need a few more posts.Canna-buisness makes money for the economy. I have a fistfull of Home Depot and hydro receipts as the proof. Whoever says canna-business couldn't save the economy has not seen the turn-over in my wallet. I have been re-investing into the build as I go, trying to buy local. Growing while still under construction has been a little challenging.
This'll help you fight it!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=162035
P.S. Fricken Schweet build!
this is fucking insane...cant believe one person did all that work..i would have killed myself in a rockslide of gravel and soil and been buried under there forever lol.
cant wait to see pics of that grow room too.....while you are tearing up shit under the house you shold also make some cool trapspots for cash and guns and other secret gangster shit.
cant wait to see pics of that grow room too.....while you are tearing up shit under the house you shold also make some cool trapspots for cash and guns and other secret gangster shit.
looking incredible bunkerman, i see you are in the northeast, as am i. once school is over, and i get a house, this is the exact thing i wanted to do. did you ever consider burying a shipping container like mg said? if so, any reason why you didnt? thanks a lot dude, can not wait to see what comes out of here.
i was wondering this too....seemed easier to dig a hole and drop a container in? but im sure maybe he already considered that and the logistics didnt work. gotta buy a container, get it trucked in somehow, get a crane to lower it in.. etc...
I did consider the cargo container thing, and in hindsight, it seems like a much better idea than when I decided not to use them. The 1st reason that I didn't was that I had originally planned on having 10' ceilings, to give me plenty of verticle room to play with. At the time, I thought it would draw too much attention. I am not out in the woods, even though it appears to be from the photos. Looking back on it, people are (or were) building all of the time, and a cargo container would not be scrutinized.
I could have probably used the excavator with some tow chains to urge the containers into their hole, after taking delivery. I even priced them out. About $1500 for a 40' contianer.
Remember the King of Rust? Well, he was behind that "professional" decission as well. He was the excavator operator for the two days that I had it. He expressed GRAVE concerns that it was impossible to go any deeper than 8' ceilings would allow without a collapse (after telling me it wouldn't be a problem during the planning phase). He also advised me to cut 4' off of one side, since he was worried about that too. Then he convinced me that I should rent the skid steer again to help move more dirt, so he could move faster. I found out in the end that he had a holiday weekend plan with his girlfriend, the Queen of Lust, and it was all about finishing in time for leaving. That was the last I would be employing his services.
Most of the capital investment surrounds the equipment inside of the structure. A rough totaling would be; $1000 cement, $1000 gravel + sand, $1000 blocks, $1000 excavator/machine rentals, $500 lumber for a total of about $5000. A 40' cargo container can be purchased and delivered for about $1500. Add excavator/machine rental and miscellaneous gravel/drainage, and for a 16'x40' underground structure the cost would be near $4000.
It is a little cheaper, especially if you consider time and cost per/ft2. Another factor is that I VASTLY underestimated the amount of work this would be. Actually, I may not have underestimated the size of the undertaking, but I completely overestimated the ammount of work that close friends would be willing to help me with.
I didn't plan on it being a solo endeavor, I actually had friends promise help after accepting help in return ahead of time. I tore down and rebuilt a moldy bathroom ceiling. I paid the King of Rust's DUI class fees. I helped someone move, and I rebuilt someone's engine. All that for about a solid 4 hours of help. What's wrong, you don't like mixing concrete? Well, I sure as hell don't enjoy cleaning your poop-dust filled moldy asbestos ceiling.
To all of the deal breaking mother-fuckers out there, you can eat it. Following through on your word is an important hallmark of any functional society.
I did get a somewhat higher quality structure that could take a nuke hit. However, hindsight is ... something or another, right?
I took the first and third pictures here, since I though it looked a lot like jair bars. Nothing like that to keep your mind spinning during your clandestine venture. It could also be seen as a metaphorical folely on my part, in a way building my own prison from nature above. I'm not going to start down this path, since it just makes me sad, then really angry.
If I remember correctly, this was about the same time the monsoon started. I covered the newly built plywood box with poly, and I went to town mixing concrete for the 1st slab. I could only mix 5 or 10 batches at a time (out of 550) without getting really tired. That was also about how much time I had to move the concrete before it started to harden. I poured the concrete down a shoot. The shoot didn't really end up working all of that well. I still needed to wrestle the concrete down. I ended up just putting down thick poly, and dumping the concrete onto it from above. I could pull on a corner of the sheet to shimmy the concrete back into the bunker, to the corner where the secondary entrance was. This was like wrestling a walrus. I wanted to pour the whole slab at once, but I soon found that to be impossible. I ended up making each slab out of about 5 days worth of pouring.
Well, I'm getting ahead of the pictures.
If I remember correctly, this was about the same time the monsoon started. I covered the newly built plywood box with poly, and I went to town mixing concrete for the 1st slab. I could only mix 5 or 10 batches at a time (out of 550) without getting really tired. That was also about how much time I had to move the concrete before it started to harden. I poured the concrete down a shoot. The shoot didn't really end up working all of that well. I still needed to wrestle the concrete down. I ended up just putting down thick poly, and dumping the concrete onto it from above. I could pull on a corner of the sheet to shimmy the concrete back into the bunker, to the corner where the secondary entrance was. This was like wrestling a walrus. I wanted to pour the whole slab at once, but I soon found that to be impossible. I ended up making each slab out of about 5 days worth of pouring.
Well, I'm getting ahead of the pictures.
It's a rare find to have good help, I find myself giving more than receiving most of the time; hopefully keeps our karma clean! Work is something that will separate the men from the boys, "Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" -Thomas Edison
Can't wait to see the finished bunker in operation!
Good luck, peace
Can't wait to see the finished bunker in operation!
Good luck, peace
To start the set off, you can see where I will be pouring the concrete into the structure. The temperorary trusses were built to help with the slab finishing, but were not copletely necessary.
In the middle, you can see the challenge I have ahead of me to build the primary entrance. This is the back of the bulkhead to the basement. I will be cutting the bottom half of the back panel out, and will be welding on fittings for the door mechanics.
The fourth picture shows the old septic pipe hole, and finally a peek into my basement. Hello? Is anyone out there? More porrage please! Hello? Hello?
In the middle, you can see the challenge I have ahead of me to build the primary entrance. This is the back of the bulkhead to the basement. I will be cutting the bottom half of the back panel out, and will be welding on fittings for the door mechanics.
The fourth picture shows the old septic pipe hole, and finally a peek into my basement. Hello? Is anyone out there? More porrage please! Hello? Hello?
Isn't it kind of nice to know that I actually succeeded, before starting to post pictures? A lot of people have a hard time finishing projects that take planning. I've finished the building a while ago, and have finished my second complete hydro setup. I have 5 harvests under the CannaBunker, and I'm working on #6 as I type. Okay, maybe not AS I type, but you get the point.
Here's another shot of the spacial relationship between the primary and secondary entrances. This is where the ballasts, AC, and ventillation ducts will converge.
Oh, crappy concrete shoot, how I miss you. How I wish that I never burnt you in that fire. May your ashes be peed on by my dog.
You'd be crazy to pour a concrete slab without some mesh. It keeps it from cracking, and it adds structural support to the bunker. I added a nice 10 mil poly vapor barrier inbetween the gravel and wire mesh.
Well, on the far end of the red ladder is the stairwell, and the slab's starting point. This is as far as the concrete will have to be moved. It will get easier from here. I think?
The last photo is a perspective shot up the concrete ramp to the surface. Timberlocks are great, and they can be reused!
EDIT: Looking back through these, I'm realizing that I missed some of the details of the photos, since I could only see the thumbnails. You can see the concrete trough that I built topside. The dimenstions are about 3'x3' and was 10" deep (2x10's). I'd just dump the wheelbarrow there, then push all the concrete into the square hole. When I was using the ramp, I lined it with poly sheeting. This let me get leverage on the concrete to direct it down.
Oh, crappy concrete shoot, how I miss you. How I wish that I never burnt you in that fire. May your ashes be peed on by my dog.
You'd be crazy to pour a concrete slab without some mesh. It keeps it from cracking, and it adds structural support to the bunker. I added a nice 10 mil poly vapor barrier inbetween the gravel and wire mesh.
Well, on the far end of the red ladder is the stairwell, and the slab's starting point. This is as far as the concrete will have to be moved. It will get easier from here. I think?
The last photo is a perspective shot up the concrete ramp to the surface. Timberlocks are great, and they can be reused!
EDIT: Looking back through these, I'm realizing that I missed some of the details of the photos, since I could only see the thumbnails. You can see the concrete trough that I built topside. The dimenstions are about 3'x3' and was 10" deep (2x10's). I'd just dump the wheelbarrow there, then push all the concrete into the square hole. When I was using the ramp, I lined it with poly sheeting. This let me get leverage on the concrete to direct it down.
Here are the last 5 images that I have before I need to upload more.
The white line represents where I need to pour the concrete so that I can have a nice sloping floor that can feed water to a corner drain. I used a laser level on a stake to do this. I marked level all around, then spray painted a proper slope onto the walls to use as a guide. This part of the build was about as bad as it got. This was horrible work. Another unintended consequence of skipping the ramp was that when the concrete hit the ground, it splattered EVERYWHERE. I waited to clean it off, and I shouldn't have. That was a 2 day cleanup that could have been avoided.
I used a 10'x10' piece of that 10 mil poly sheeting to collect the concrete from the shoot. That's what I used to shimmy it into the corners.
In the forth picture you can see where I placed a 5 gallon bucket in the corner to hole out a bottom drain. This is one of the nicest features of building underground. Where is anything going to leak to? Not your neighbors. Not into your basement. Not anywhere else but the corner drain! I've already left the water on overnight a few times. Other than being wasteful (electricity from well pump) nothing happend that requires any cleaning up.
The white line represents where I need to pour the concrete so that I can have a nice sloping floor that can feed water to a corner drain. I used a laser level on a stake to do this. I marked level all around, then spray painted a proper slope onto the walls to use as a guide. This part of the build was about as bad as it got. This was horrible work. Another unintended consequence of skipping the ramp was that when the concrete hit the ground, it splattered EVERYWHERE. I waited to clean it off, and I shouldn't have. That was a 2 day cleanup that could have been avoided.
I used a 10'x10' piece of that 10 mil poly sheeting to collect the concrete from the shoot. That's what I used to shimmy it into the corners.
In the forth picture you can see where I placed a 5 gallon bucket in the corner to hole out a bottom drain. This is one of the nicest features of building underground. Where is anything going to leak to? Not your neighbors. Not into your basement. Not anywhere else but the corner drain! I've already left the water on overnight a few times. Other than being wasteful (electricity from well pump) nothing happend that requires any cleaning up.
Thanks for the positive reenforcement, I don't get a lot of that. What I do get a lot of is, "Just be careful." and, "What if you get caught?" I believe that if you choose to do this kind of a thing, you have to accept the inherent risk, and the benefit has to be worth the cost. I believe in my personal freedoms more than I'm afraid to go to jail. Ir's totally not about the money for me. I don't want the complications of life that an excess of personal wealth entails.
However, this has been a full time job for 3 years. If anyone wants to know why good pot is so expensive, please forward them to this post. I broke even last week. Seriously.
I can't upload any more pictures until I get 50 posts. Without any questions, I guess it's story time.
When I first started digging around the bulkhead, and removing all of the dirt, I found a few things that brought me waaaaay back. I was raised in this house, so I've put in some time at this address. First, I found a little plastic person that went to a toy car that I had when I was 5. He's on my desk now. I also found a few thousand bricks that my father had used to fill in the holes dug by our first dog. I'm onto my fourth now, and my dad has been gone for 15 years. Little markers from the past that would have remained undisturbed and forgotten if it wasn't for the love of this sticky-icky little plant.
However, this has been a full time job for 3 years. If anyone wants to know why good pot is so expensive, please forward them to this post. I broke even last week. Seriously.
I can't upload any more pictures until I get 50 posts. Without any questions, I guess it's story time.
When I first started digging around the bulkhead, and removing all of the dirt, I found a few things that brought me waaaaay back. I was raised in this house, so I've put in some time at this address. First, I found a little plastic person that went to a toy car that I had when I was 5. He's on my desk now. I also found a few thousand bricks that my father had used to fill in the holes dug by our first dog. I'm onto my fourth now, and my dad has been gone for 15 years. Little markers from the past that would have remained undisturbed and forgotten if it wasn't for the love of this sticky-icky little plant.
My bedroom growing up had a secret passage in the back of the closet that connected my closet to my parents closet. Back then, it was magical to me. I've added on to my house a few times, and it always invites me to build some other secret nook or cranny. That love of secret constructions is probably the main reason I did this. I wish that we could post video, I'd post one of my Clue-style fireplace secret-passage opening (and closing). I have it powered by a garage door opener.
I have a button behind a picture that will slide the brick hearth wall behind the stove back to reveal my last secret grow. That room had some height problems, and I felt like quazi moto after a while. Now, I have the coolest walk-in closet in the world!
