Help a newb with ventiliation

hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
OK, so my grow space is a closet in my finished basement. Normally I can leave my closet doors open since it is my home office, but I have to shut the door at night and when people are around because of the lights.

So it's been ok, but I really would like to improve things and get a vent installed in the ceiling of the closet that connects into the air vent in my office if possible.

So I've never done anything much like this before so treat me as a total newb, although I am pretty handy. How do I go about this, and how much will it cost?

My main question involves where to I cut the hole (with out knowing if the existing air duct goes near the closet, it's farily close like 3 feet away. How do I actually get up into the space between the basement and the floor above and connect up the duct work etc..? I assume once I cut a hole I can see better what's going on up there...

Also, assuming I have to cut a hole in the ceiling of my office too, how hard is it then to repair that so it looks like the rest of the ceiling?

Maybe then I can finally buy a real HPS setup... Thanks!
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
If possible take up the some of the floor boards above the basement, see which way the joists are running, hopefully the joists run in a way that allows you to run a duct parallel to them and to an exterior wall. Do not cut through joists.
Get a hole cutter for brick, if your house is made of brick.
Cut a hole through the external wall and put a bathroom vent cover on the outside. (pilot hole from inside, cut from outside to in)
Then use a duct from there ran along your floor space between the joist.
If your ceiling is plaster board (sheet rock I think you call it) then draw a circle from above and machine gun it with a drill, cut that hole with a serrated knife made for cutting board or a small saw blade. Feed your ducting through into your grow room to your fan.

Reason to do it from above is so you can avoid pipe work and wiring.
To make good after its no longer needed (when you sell the house) holes inside the house are easily patched up by putting in a small piece of wood screwed in the ceiling cavity and attaching a similar size piece of plaster board to fil the hole, then use a filler and sand down and repaint.
To later repair a hole in the brick work you would want to keep the core you cut out and mortar it back in or patch in with a half brick.

Everything seems complicated when you've never done it before, in reality house construction isn't complicated at all.
 
hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
Purpsmagurps said:
and why you running for HPS in a closet? should be looking at quantum boards
Click to expand...
Fair enough, how hot do they get? Right now I'm running two 300 watt ViparSpectra's in 4x4 veg tent, and three more out in the flower space. Yielded half pound last grow which made me super happy since that half pound is all for me and my family.. But I do think I can squeeze a lot more out of the strains I grow...
 
hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
coreywebster said:
If possible take up the some of the floor boards above the basement, see which way the joists are running, hopefully the joists run in a way that allows you to run a duct parallel to them and to an exterior wall. Do not cut through joists.
Get a hole cutter for brick, if your house is made of brick.
Cut a hole through the external wall and put a bathroom vent cover on the outside. (pilot hole from inside, cut from outside to in)
Then use a duct from there ran along your floor space between the joist.
If your ceiling is plaster board (sheet rock I think you call it) then draw a circle from above and machine gun it with a drill, cut that hole with a serrated knife made for cutting board or a small saw blade. Feed your ducting through into your grow room to your fan.

Reason to do it from above is so you can avoid pipe work and wiring.
To make good after its no longer needed (when you sell the house) holes inside the house are easily patched up by putting in a small piece of wood screwed in the ceiling cavity and attaching a similar size piece of plaster board to fil the hole, then use a filler and sand down and repaint.
To later repair a hole in the brick work you would want to keep the core you cut out and mortar it back in or patch in with a half brick.

Everything seems complicated when you've never done it before, in reality house construction isn't complicated at all.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the details! I was afraid you'd say that lol... Don't really want to come in from above... However, if I stick with LED's, I may be ok as is. This closet does back up right to a bathroom which has a vent that runs straight out through the garage. I'd love to hook into that, but sounds like maybe this is too big of a job for me to take on... Last time I tried to fix our air-conditioner unit by myself and I screwed up the whole thing- so I'm a little shy, even though I'm sure it really is easy.
 
Purpsmagurps

Purpsmagurps

Well-Known Member
hawse said:
Fair enough, how hot do they get? Right now I'm running two 300 watt ViparSpectra's in 4x4 veg tent, and three more out in the flower space. Yielded half pound last grow which made me super happy since that half pound is all for me and my family.. But I do think I can squeeze a lot more out of the strains I grow...
Click to expand...
not hot at all really.
 
blowincherrypie

blowincherrypie

Well-Known Member
hawse said:
Fair enough, how hot do they get? Right now I'm running two 300 watt ViparSpectra's in 4x4 veg tent, and three more out in the flower space. Yielded half pound last grow which made me super happy since that half pound is all for me and my family.. But I do think I can squeeze a lot more out of the strains I grow...
Click to expand...
4x4 veg tent :o How big is your flower area?

hawse said:
Thanks for the details! I was afraid you'd say that lol... Don't really want to come in from above... However, if I stick with LED's, I may be ok as is. This closet does back up right to a bathroom which has a vent that runs straight out through the garage. I'd love to hook into that, but sounds like maybe this is too big of a job for me to take on... Last time I tried to fix our air-conditioner unit by myself and I screwed up the whole thing- so I'm a little shy, even though I'm sure it really is easy.
Click to expand...
do u have a bathroom down there?
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
A vipar sepctra 300w is only like 134w each light so your probably flowering with around 400w, you could knock that down to 260w Quantum board and have a 3rd less heat than your already dealing with. You wouldn't be losing any light and you would have a better spectrum.

Personally Im a firm believer in venting heat out and exchanging air properly. Especially if you own the house.
But I understand how it can be a frightening thought cutting holes in your house.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
As an after thought, I hear its common in the US to not use plaster to skim walls and ceilings as a finish and folks dry line their sheet rock? If that's the case you could use a stud finder to locate the beams/joists and cut a section out where you want to run duct, then you could patch that back up all done from below.
Im obviously not from that part of the world though :bigjoint:
 
hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
blowincherrypie said:
4x4 veg tent :o How big is your flower area?



do u have a bathroom down there?
Click to expand...
It's a big closet... Flower area is about 6 x 4 and 9 tall. The main reason I use a tent is just so I can have veg and flower in the same closet... Oh, and I did cut the PVC pipe a little bit so it would fit. So it's really more like 3 feet probably... I can veg three plants pretty nicely at one time, usually veg for a month.

And yeah the bathroom is right next door so I may look into going that route eventually.
 
hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
coreywebster said:
As an after thought, I hear its common in the US to not use plaster to skim walls and ceilings as a finish and folks dry line their sheet rock? If that's the case you could use a stud finder to locate the beams/joists and cut a section out where you want to run duct, then you could patch that back up all done from below.
Im obviously not from that part of the world though :bigjoint:
Click to expand...
Hmm, how could I tell?
 
blowincherrypie

blowincherrypie

Well-Known Member
hawse said:
It's a big closet... Flower area is about 6 x 4 and 9 tall. The main reason I use a tent is just so I can have veg and flower in the same closet... Oh, and I did cut the PVC pipe a little bit so it would fit. So it's really more like 3 feet probably... I can veg three plants pretty nicely at one time, usually veg for a month.

And yeah the bathroom is right next door so I may look into going that route eventually.
Click to expand...
does the bathroom have a fan/vent? If so tapping into that would probably be your easiest route imo
 
hawse

hawse

Well-Known Member
blowincherrypie said:
does the bathroom have a fan/vent? If so tapping into that would probably be your easiest route imo
Click to expand...
Yeah it does, I agree. The vent goes right out through the garage through our brick to the outside... The problem is that above this bathroom is our beautiful dining room with hardwood floors... Just don't wanna go there so I hope I can go from underneath...
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
You gota break a few eggs to make an omelette but yeah don't destroy a nice hardwood floor, that would be more like raping the chicken. :spew:
 
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