Grow room build advice needed

Hello, new here and loving the site. I have been growing for a little while now and I have been doing it ghetto style. I am ready to build a grow room because I am tired of using my laundry room.

I have a 400w and a 175w mh for veg and I have a 1000w for flower. I am wanting to build two rooms for the two phases.

I have a big room that use to be a garage on the side of my house. It stays cool all year long (65* max) so keeping things cool will not be a problem, keeping things warm in the winter will be another story.

The room has a window with plywood covering it (was that way when I moved in) with a 14" fan blowing outside.

I am looking for advice on room size for the 1000w flower room and how to place fans for the air cooled hood. I also have been looking trying to figure out how people cool a room without vented hoods.

So far I am thinking 6x8 for both rooms. I have been thinking about two fans for the flower room, one for the hood and one to exchange air in the room. For the veg room I was thinking one fan blowing out and giving a negative pressure in the room.

What do you use for doors on these rooms? I have normal interior doors I could use but do I need a door with a threshold?

Any thought or advice would be great. I want to start building this this weekend.

Thank you very much in advance

wow you got a lot of questions in there lol. im a little stoned but ill try and answer what i can.

on the note of you keeping your room warm in the winter can be as easy as a small space heater if needed. HID lights put off a good amount of heat as is. also might be able to just turn your exhaust fans and remove the glass around your bulb. that'll warm the room up quick!

as for room sizes with your lights ide probably go with a 6x6 for flower and a little smaller for your veg room. maybe 4x4 or smaller even if you dont really need all that space.

fans and the ducting for the air cooled lights are pretty easy. you want to suck the air out of the light rather than try and push it through and your fan can be anywhere between the light and the end of the ducting. people cooling rooms without air cooled lights usually run a A/C or large exhaust fan pulling the air out of the entire room. in my opinion air cooled hoods are the only way to go.

the fan system you are thinking of using for your flower room would work and so would the system for the veg room as well as long as you provided holes somewhere in the room for fresh air to come in if your going to be pulling a negative pressure on the room.

your door material will vary depending on what you build your rooms out of. can be anything as simple as a tarp with a zipper kit attached to a full blown door with some weather stripping in the jam to keep from smell leaking out and light leaking in.

hope this helps and welcome to the forum!

Yes, that helps a lot. The only reason I am thinking 6x8 is so I have room to move things around in the room without moving things out. I was thinking 6x6 for the flower room but was wondering if the extra two feet would be a mistake. I was thinking the same with the veg room but figured the space would be nice.

I live in colorado so I'm not too terribly worried about smell. I figured if it gets too bad ill get a carbon filter for the flower room.

My mom claims she can smell it well before she gets to my door. I don't smell it. I've had cop friends over also and they don't say a word.

As far as temp of the room I was looking at the fan controller that adjust by temp. I figured that'd be killer for winter.

Thank you again for the advice. It helps me ease my mind. Lol

I would construct a room with 2x4s and black/white poly. you can buy the stuff in rolls. set up a 5x5 grow space plus room to move around for your veg and a 6x6 for flower plus whatever room you need for moving around. you can youtube jorge cervantes ultimate grow and watch the part where he sets up the room indoors. heat should not be a problem as you can turn on and off vent fans and add a heater. if it is a problem you can add an ac. always have multiple thermometer/hygrometer in the room. if humidity is above 55 all the time then you need a dehumidifier. just make sure the flower room is super light tight. you can buy tent zippers at a grow store just for that. under those lights you should be able to veg for 2 months if you top a bunch (4 or so times depending on strain) then flower and have a cycle going with 5 to 6 plants under each light cycle. what medium do you use? what nutrients?

grassroots420 said:

I would construct a room with 2x4s and black/white poly. you can buy the stuff in rolls. set up a 5x5 grow space plus room to move around for your veg and a 6x6 for flower plus whatever room you need for moving around. you can youtube jorge cervantes ultimate grow and watch the part where he sets up the room indoors. heat should not be a problem as you can turn on and off vent fans and add a heater. if it is a problem you can add an ac. always have multiple thermometer/hygrometer in the room. if humidity is above 55 all the time then you need a dehumidifier. just make sure the flower room is super light tight. you can buy tent zippers at a grow store just for that. under those lights you should be able to veg for 2 months if you top a bunch (4 or so times depending on strain) then flower and have a cycle going with 5 to 6 plants under each light cycle. what medium do you use? what nutrients?

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I started using botanicare slacker coco about a month ago and I really like it, I actually prefer it over the ffof that I was using. I use the entire line of ff nutes with a supplement of cal/mag+ and blackstrap. That's all I have used so I can't really say if anything is better or not. I am growing banana kush and ak47 right now.

As of now I transfer the ladies into a closet and use the 400 for flower. I have it in a 2x2 closet so I only get one plant at a time in there. I did yield 7 zips off the last ak. I can't wait for the banana to flower, she is a monster and she hasn't vegged for a month yet.

I was considering building a plenum to run a box fan into a 20x20 filter and just cycle it in the veg room every now and again. I am only worried about the -20*to -30* nights we get all through January and part of February. I have these nice little space heaters that work well. If I put one in the back room (30x1 it maintains 70* during those cold nights so I figure if I set the thermostat on them in each room and have one in the main area I should be able to maintain a descent temp.

I have never built a room or had out much thought into it so any advice or problems you have encountered are welcome.

How in the world did you get 7 ounces of one plant in a 2x2 space under a 400 watt hps? did you veg it for 3 months?? . I really like coco. I use a mixture 1 to 1 of botanicare coco and promix with mychrozia. Shit grows super nice. i like coco on its own but you have to water pretty much every day and use a stronger nutrient solution. that coco does seem to really like calmag and the blackstrap is always good. theres a product by soul synthetics called big swell. that has molasses and other good bloom enhancers in it that are good. I really wouldnt worry about smell from the veg. the flower room needs to have something though. buy a canfilter and hook a duct fan on top and just blow the air in the room. should eliminate all smell on the outside.

I have a 4000 watt flower room thats prob about 14x14 and its laid out with 4 quadrants and a little cross section in the middle to walk and water. I run a close loop system with ducting coming from the outside through my lights and back outside. i have a floor unit ac and an environmental controler that i hook the ac and dehumidifier and co2 generator to. i use 7 gallon pots with 5 each light. I use heavy 16 base with roots accelerator from house and garden and orcha for roots. i have big swell and then the rest is the advanced nutrient line up plus a calmag. works real well for me. but i would watch that jorge video on grow room construction and then keep growing man. best of luck and happy harvest

grassroots420 said:

How in the world did you get 7 ounces of one plant in a 2x2 space under a 400 watt hps? did you veg it for 3 months??

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I did veg for about six weeks. I didn't use the 400. I use the 1000 and was carrying it in and out of the dark room daily. It was a lot of work and why I am ready to build this room.

Thank you all for the input I have received.

Phucked said:

Yes, that helps a lot. The only reason I am thinking 6x8 is so I have room to move things around in the room without moving things out. I was thinking 6x6 for the flower room but was wondering if the extra two feet would be a mistake. I was thinking the same with the veg room but figured the space would be nice.

I live in colorado so I'm not too terribly worried about smell. I figured if it gets too bad ill get a carbon filter for the flower room.

My mom claims she can smell it well before she gets to my door. I don't smell it. I've had cop friends over also and they don't say a word.

As far as temp of the room I was looking at the fan controller that adjust by temp. I figured that'd be killer for winter.

Thank you again for the advice. It helps me ease my mind. Lol

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only reason i say use a 6x6 rather than a 6x8 is light looses its intensity VERY fast in a very short distance. you loose half your light power in only a foot or so from the light and it continues to drop from there. so with that extra distance your light would have to travel bouncing off the wall and back to your plants there would be a lot of wasted light. granted i have seen some AMAZING bud come from HUGE rooms with a lot of extra space in them but they also always had at least 4,000 watts in those rooms.

ya i thought about that fan speed controller after i posted saying unplug your exhaust fan and dont run air cooled in the winter. fan speed controller would be a much better idea

Ahhh that explains it. well good for you for pulling so much out of one plant. how many times did u top it? im asuming you did not use a screen if you were moving it. Yea a room will be much easier. i just built a veg room a few months a go so i wouldnt have to wait between harvests and i could harvest half the room instead of all at once. If you veg less you can improve the number of harvests per year as well. but thats a whole different discusion. Sounds like you have a good idea of what your doing. wish you the best . post up pics of the room for better answers to specifics.

drolove: i didnt know that the lumens decreased so quickly with such little extra space. i have to measure my room again and make sure of the dimensions. i only have my plants under a 4x4 or 5x5 light footprint per each light. i dont think i have too much extra space. ive always wondered if covering all the walls of my grow room would make a noticible diference in yield. do you have any opinion on that?

i would invenst in an air cooled hood for both stages of growth and if you have extra cash buy a 1000 watt hortilux blue metal halide bulb. its about 200 bucks but i garuntee you will love it and see more nodes. Also run a 1000 hps under flower or get 2. more lights the better lol.

Well I went to the grow store and the lumber yard today. I bought a 10'x100' roll of panda. I also bought a hurricane fan for my hood. I had my dad pick me up some fittings for the duct work and some insulated flex while he was at Home Depot. I got the framing all buttoned up tonight and I framed it 6x7 for the inside dimensions. I wanted a bit of room to be able to move things around in there. I have a 40" door I am using so that will be nice for moving things in and out. I am going to drywall the inside tomorrow and work on getting the panda up.

I am thinking about putting a weatherstrip around the jamb of the door and a sweep on the bottom to reduce the light from coming in or out. Is that recommended?

I decided I am going to do a negative pressure room for the veg room and have my fan suck air from the ceiling, through the hood and out of the room into the main room. I am going to do an 8" inlet with a duct running down and just above the floor. Will this work?

So my plan is to get the room set up and run it for a couple days to monitor how the temp is in the room.

My brother has a ton of 1000w lights so if I need another ill buy another from him.

I will see if I can figure out how to post pictures tomorrow

grassroots420 said:

Ahhh that explains it. well good for you for pulling so much out of one plant. how many times did u top it? im asuming you did not use a screen if you were moving it. Yea a room will be much easier. i just built a veg room a few months a go so i wouldnt have to wait between harvests and i could harvest half the room instead of all at once. If you veg less you can improve the number of harvests per year as well. but thats a whole different discusion. Sounds like you have a good idea of what your doing. wish you the best . post up pics of the room for better answers to specifics.

drolove: i didnt know that the lumens decreased so quickly with such little extra space. i have to measure my room again and make sure of the dimensions. i only have my plants under a 4x4 or 5x5 light footprint per each light. i dont think i have too much extra space. ive always wondered if covering all the walls of my grow room would make a noticible diference in yield. do you have any opinion on that?

i would invenst in an air cooled hood for both stages of growth and if you have extra cash buy a 1000 watt hortilux blue metal halide bulb. its about 200 bucks but i garuntee you will love it and see more nodes. Also run a 1000 hps under flower or get 2. more lights the better lol.

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I topped the plant so many times. I was pushing the plant and seeing how much it would take. One plant didn't take the stress too well, I tried defoliation on that plant and the buds were all thin and airy. They sucked bad so it will all become bho. The other plant was fim'd topped and super cropped. It was a weird plant and grew wide in one direction, even when I broke and bent the branches to go another. It was about 4.5' wide one direction and 2' the other.

I have never done sog so I have 10 clones growing under t5 right now. I want to veg them for two weeks, after I see roots, in 3 gallon pots and then roll them into flower. I love trying new things. It keeps it even more interesting. Lol

right on man. keep the lights on and keep the cycles turning lol. best of luck

if you are interested in maximizing your light output invest in a mover. Money well spent imvho.

You can cover approximately a 4x8 area very well with a light mover and your 1000w and a good hood.

I like the intellidrives cuz you can set the pause time at the ends to give them more soak time. You can also used vented hoods with the movers if you are willing to put in a little work to set it up right.

I like movers but if i had space for a mover i would just put 2 lights instead of one. or 4. I really think 4 1000 watt hps all with a 4x4 footprint and a cross section in between the light to walk around and water.

Well it's all up and running. I left the girls in there last night and that is their day cycle. The temp maintained 76 all night with less than 50% humidity. It is hovering around 45%. I am trying to figure out how to post a picture