Live in old house, walls are cement......

I was planning on venting into hold in the walls but i found out my walls are made of cement. how would i vent then? im using a closet with no windows, and even the ceiling appears to be cement. im sure its not too thick but its at least a inch thick. the house was built in 1953. how am i supposed to vent? i guess the only option is save up for a tent....

or you can get a drill... a cement drill... like the big bertha ones, drill holes in a circular patern (as big as you want the vent hole ) like tack welds just space them all around the hole you want, then once you have enough holes take a hammer to it... its just cement, your a human, you can win trust me... ive had to put vent holes for dryers through walls and thats all we to make the outline of the hole with a drill and then take a hammer to it... its like scoring.

you just have to patch it up again with cement after your done. unless you like holes in your walls. like the kool-aid guy.

Spasticsmoke said:

or you can get a drill... a cement drill... like the big bertha ones, drill holes in a circular patern (as big as you want the vent hole ) like tack welds just space them all around the hole you want, then once you have enough holes take a hammer to it... its just cement, your a human, you can win trust me... ive had to put vent holes for dryers through walls and thats all we to make the outline of the hole with a drill and then take a hammer to it... its like scoring.

you just have to patch it up again with cement after your done. unless you like holes in your walls. like the kool-aid guy.

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thanks but how do i know whats behind the cement, i dont wanna break anything in the house. i have no construction experience/handyman stuff at all so i just wanna make sure what im doing before i do it. do you think the whole wall is cement or just layered with it on the outside?

its mostly likely not cement but plaster/with a wire mesh backing which can be a pain in the ass to get thru and or repair. If its possible take the door(s) off the closet and put up plywood so you can cut holes for venting in it

theres only one door, could i have the exhaust and intake going on the same side? plus how would i get into the grow room?

put your intake in the bottom and exhaust fan at near the top... you would make it so you could move the makeshift door/vent so you could get in

i have never used alot of ventilation, can i just use about 3-4 computer fans for each? so like 8 computer fans?

realy depends on what kinda light you are going to be using anything over a 250w you will probably need more/ better fans

all i have is the 250 watt now but i did have plans of going bigger in the future but i guess not. dang old house but o well

if you use the duct work that bassicly every big grow on here has, the stuff is flexable so you can have the intake/exhaust on the door and still be able to open it, there is a guy on here who did just that for his grow... if its unfesable to go through the walls then i guess that would be your only method.

as far as the walls go though, if its and older house its probibaly an oldschool cinderblock if its not rocks... in my basement there is a stone wall for the foundation, which we went over with cement.. if you don't have any handyman. general construction knowlage it may be a little over your head to go drilling through the wall especially if you don't know what your drilling through... look at the corners of the same wall, if its a clean 90 all the way up your most likely dealing with some form of cinderblock, if the lines are wavy though it could be a pure cement wall... what gave you the idea it was only in inch thick.. is this load beading (ie on the perimiter of the building/under a joyct)

ill try to look for that picture of the other dude setup with the door duct work.

yeah i can't find those pictures, i saw it on new post... so its bassicly imposible to find... if i remember correctly the guy was growing pitbull strain.. and i think trainwreck along with some others... and in one of the pictures he had an intake fan on the bottom with a gurbber baby piece of cardboard as some getto duct work, but it looked proffesional... maybe somone will read this and post you the link on his set up.

well i took some pictures, i know its not that helpful but who knows lol i dont. the outside of my house appears to be cinder blocks yes. heres some pics of the grow area

yeah if you say the outside is cinderblocks than the inside is aswell... if your still thinking of venting through the wall this can either be good for you or bad. as far as making the holes its going to be easy using the method i told you about before, BUT getting the hole in the right spot could be a little tricky. you don't want to have the hole in the middle of where two cinderblocks meet... only becuase it will look messy. you can go outside your house, find out the height of each block and mark them out from the floor line (typicly the floor line butts up with a levle of cinderblock for the support of the floor). then as i described outline the vent hole you want in smaller holes from your drill (like scoring) you can even keep drilling inbetween each privious drill mark untill you bassicly cut it out with a drill. (although time consuming).

once you get through one side of the cinderblock depending upon the construction of the house you have two options...
some times with cinderblock construction they fill each cinderblock with cement, bassicly making a solid cement wall, other times they just use cinderblocks as bricks.. with a morter inbetween.
you will know what kind you have after the first drill hole, either it will be an inch of pushing through the wall of the cinderblock... or the whole lenght of the bit of pushing, with a filled cinderblock

if your cinderblocks are hollow (ie an area where hurricanes and other shit arn;t a factor so the houses dont have to withstand those pressures) you would only have to get through one side of the cinderblock and you could vent into the walls of your house, as it would be a channel up to your attic which is commonly capped (not airtight)

if they are solid, you gotta go all the way through obviously.. and you need to have something on the exterior of your house that dosn't look like someone just poke a hole through there wall and there is air coming out of it... kinda shady.. look into the dryer caps they use on the exterior.

hope this helps.

yea it helps, i think this is just too much work for me and i wouldnt want my rents asking me what i did and whats in the closet, i think ill just stick with the 250 watt till i can afford a tent where i can just vent into the room. or maybe my friend who is good with the stuff will visit and we will figure it out. thanks for the help though, im just not comfortable with my skills to do anything.

ok well i grew some balls and just decided to drill through and see what it was like. it seems to be just a like half inch to an inch wall of cement. and then there is nothing behind for like 2 inches and then something solid. i tok some pics for no reason. do you think i can vent into the wall?



the other side(outside wall) has space in between as well i found out.

where do you intend for the exaust air to go? Are you going to vent it to the outside? ( you probably shouldnt pump warm moist skunky air between the walls you will get mold and all sots of issues,

i decided to just wait till this harvest is done, get some cash and buy a XL tent, inline fans and a 1k light. The 250 is fine for now with my 3 fans in there.

it's plaster, behind it are wooden slats, behind that are the studs. as for venting into it, there's not really anywhere for the air to go...

yea thats what i decided, so im gonna just get the tent and vent into the room.

ok ive done alot of remodeling. is it a multi story house? is your closet bottom floor middle top? is their an attic or a crawl space?

as to your walls, plaster that old should be white probly semi powdery by now and easily crumblable between fingers. or if its been remodeled it could be cement board which ive seen people use to even out plaster and help the new stuff stick, could also be fireboard, fireboard that old will be concrete and asbestos so dont breath the dust

oh yeah, lath and plaster (usually horsehair plaster) will kill your drill bits, either draw a circle and chisel the plaster away (a flathead screwdriver works fine for this) then drill, or buy super cheap bits

if your on the top floor make a hole in the cieling just big enough to fit your finger through. then feel around poke a stick see how much room you think their is, if its clear cut a 3-4 inch hole, and vent.

if your on a middle floor, your kinda screwed. just vent heat to the room and make an ozone generator, T5 12inch Florescent fixture 16-24$ T5 12inch UV bulb 6-20$

venting into your wall is a bad idea.to start with if the cavity is sealed the fan will pressurize it slightly causing air resistance, this will cause back preassure on your fan, which will make is more noisy, and sometimes it can fry the bearings because of their inability to deal with lateral thrust, and if moisture gets behind that plaster it will be very very bad (im talking full on mold infestations and RAPID plaster decay). if its not plaster you can vent into the wall, PROVIDING that space between studs runs entirely unobstructed either to your attic or your basement, this mean no fireblocks no insulation etc.
then go into your attic or basement and cut another hole DOWN into the wall, between the same set of studs (you remebered to measure right? you most likely will not be able to make even a 3 or 4 inch hole so i would suggest a series of 1-1 1/2 inch holes (also if its near an outside edge drilling down will be almost impossible without a right angle drill, so you have to drill at an angle). if you dont know where to drill heres the cheaters way, take a long 1/8th drill bit, drill as close to the wall as you can STRAIGHT up into the attic measure then distance from wall to hole and write that down, then shove a peice of brightly colored wire through the hole go into the attic and find your wire, now that you know where the edge of the wall is, just measure, lath+plaster 1/2-3/4 thick house from 53 might actually have studs 4 inches deep, measure to make sure, then make your holes. heat rises so the attic is better than the basement, in the attic convection combined with the venturi effect will help draw the heat up
if your on the bottom floor vent down a house from 53 probly does not have a concrete slab so there should already be alot of moist dark air down there. but crawlspace venting keeps any smells kinda localized to your house. so again youll need an ozone generator down there (on the upside the ozone will kill the mold and mildew in your crawlspace

ok that should be enough for now