First Hard Structure Room Guidance

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I am looking for design guidance for a free standing insulated room I would like to build in a garage that is powered by solar. So far I have a few indoor tent grows under my belt at my old house. In that case I just had a 4x4 tent with a single 1000w HPS in my garage and was able to get 2 harvest per year in the winter if I timed it right because it was impossible to control the heat from late April-Halloween. Now that I won't be renting and have solar I want to build a completely insulated room with a mini split so I can keep it running year round.

I'm thinking of building a 6x10 grow room off of an existing insulated garage wall. I will start out with a single 1000w on one side and eventually add another 1000w to the other side so I can get on a staggered harvest schedule. I'm going to go with Subcools style of veg, supercrop, and then flower 4 plants under each 1000w light and stagger the harvest of each light by roughly 4 weeks or so. I believe and am pretty sure he harvest more often but I will only have 2 lights rather than 4 like sub uses in his vids. I also plan to use a super soil type recipe for my growing style. Not the exact one that Sub uses but one that is based off of his principles and some different ingredients that I have had great results with in my outdoor organic gardens over the last few seasons.

The main thing I need is help with the structural design and or just a point in the right direction if the info is already out here. I'm no carpenter but I can follow directions. I don't want to jerry rig something together and have something that I overlooked in the build comeback to bite me later.

I'm a combat vet that found MMJ after I was in my 30's and after 5 deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. It has helped me in ways that I can't even describe. The most therapeutic for me though is the gardening aspect. It is just like a mission over seas. You backwards plan from the end to the beginning. You build your soil and then you execute your mission/grow. All while having to readjust on the fly sometimes to problems that come up and still finish what you started. I plan on documenting my build and my grows to include my soil mixes and any and all changes along the way both on this site as well as on Youtube with the hopes of reaching other veterans that need an alternative to the pills they are being prescribed. That is what initially drew me to Subs methods where just being able to add water and minimal sugars / carbs. For a lot of our vets with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries this method will not only give them great organic meds but also an Easier to learn method to hopefully get them involved in their own gardening therapy that they can be confident in from the beginning and not have to worry about the multiple feedings or how much of each to put in what and when. Not saying that we can't do that or that in any way our veterans can't but speaking for my situation this style helps tremendously.

I'm located in NorCal also if that plays any significance in any advice out there...

Thanks in advance!

Your building one wall or three? Maybe two?, by the sound of it. So to do this you need a tape measure, pencil, chalk line, framing square (the small kind not a T square), big box of 3" framing nails, level, and a hilti gun for shooting the walls to the floor.

Step one. Decide where you want it. Measure and make sure your room plan is square. Snap lines on the floor, up the walls, and along the ceiling for the inside or outside of the wall. It doesnt really matter as long as their straight and you use a 4 foot level to trace up the wall. This parts easy.

Then you need a top plate and a bottom plate for the walls. If the walls ten feet, cut two pieces exactly ten feet. Then stand them both up next to each other on the side of the 2x4 that measures 1.5 inches. Standing on the skinny side right Like this || not this = So now place the two boards on your ten foot line. You will now "lay out" the top of the boards with the tape measure, pencil, and framing square. Then when the stud marks have been made, you will spread the boards apart, nail the studs into the top and bottom plate, and stand the wall.

So now comes the hard part. Marking out where all the studs go. If you want simple then two foot centers is the best. Insulation comes in two foot widths and the ply wood or sheet rock that youll be puting up is 8 feet long as well, so two foot centers works.

Lets get started. So the top and bottom plate are on the line standing up like this ||. The end of the wall on both sides will have a stud so start at one side and make an x on the top of both of the boards. Then move down the tape and make a line at two feet...minus three quarters of an inch. Then continue marking every two feet....minus three quarters of an inch. (Half the width of a 2x4 so the sheeting is right in the middle of the stud). If your not following up to this point theres no point in continueing lol. Anyway. Mark out your two foot centers and use the square to make sure the line is across the top and bottom plate and the x is on both top and bottom plate on the same side of the line every time.

Now measure to the ceiling, if its an 8 foot ceiling then youll need to cut the studs at 8 feet minus three inches for the top and bottom plate to fit in there too. Usually the ceiling or the floor isnt straight.....like always. So what i do is take two small pieces of 2x4, put them on the ground like the plates, and measure every two feet from floor to celing. Write these measurements down from left to right. Then cut the studs. You dont want them super tight when your standing the wall so leave an 1/8 inch gap if you can.

So you have the top and bottom plates marked and the studs cut and laid down where they go. The top plate has been moved away from the bottom plate so the studs are between them and ready to be nailed in to make the wall. Flush them up and make sure theyre straight up and down and hammer the wall together.

Now stand it. Make sure its on the line. Top and bottom. Hilti gun them into the concrete floor, or nail them into a wood floor. And nail them into the rafters up top after youve made sure its plumb and on the lines. Next make the other wall the same way, just make an L stud for the ends of the walls. The L stud is kinda self explanitory, its an L made by nailing two studs together and its used to link walls together because it gives you something to nail the walls together. It wont work without it and it has to be on the end of the walls when linking two walls together. Let me know if your having issues.

Unless you are handy with a hammer and tools id pay someone. Just went through this and there is no way I would ever be able to finish the whole thing alone in a short time span.

Build this special room in a corner. Probably obvious but you never know. Then reselling the home it's a selling point for dry storage or whatever. I shacked in this gals house this summer who had done just that.Even had a 5200BTU refrigerated AC exhausting into the closed garage. She no longer grows so uses it to store tons of silk yarns.

Suggest hiring help framing it. Tell them it's a storage room.

Thanks everyone for the quick advice. I found a contractor this morning for the build out. I will keep everyone posted. I plan on documenting the build / interior set up and first few grows for sure.

CombatVet420 said:

Thanks everyone for the quick advice. I found a contractor this morning for the build out. I will keep everyone posted. I plan on documenting the build / interior set up and first few grows for sure.

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You will be glad you.hired someone when you see how much work it is.