Upgrading grow room to walk in cupboard - help needed!

[Rabidreject]

Hey guys,

If I am honest I usually do my grow journals on growdiary.com, however, I find that it's no where near as good as forums for asking questions and talking to other growers when help is needed.

 

OK so this is probably going to need a little background.  When I was living in my last flat I decided to convert a wooden wardrobe I had just bought into a small grow space.  It is very small space with a total floor space of around 1.5ft x 3 ft.   It was a temporary flat I was in at the time and I didn't know how long I would be there.  I was told 6 months to a year and it turned out to be on the shorter side of the estimation. I therefore had to do it in something subtle for when I moved, if I wanted to take it with me, which I did.

 

SO anyway I did one run of photoperiods for my first grow which turned out really nice considering I used some really cheap chinese COB LED chips that I turned into a 200w light of 3500k spectrum.  Considering I spend like 20 quid on them and some old CPU heatsinks I had laying around.  I harvested, packed my shit up and moved.

Moved into my new place, let the dust settle for a couple months then setup the cupboard again, this time I started off with 100w Cree COB CXB3590 led because I decomissioned my frankenstein 200w chinese cob liight when I moved thinking I had a better option, only for the cree 100w cob to die a couple weeks into flower so I had to replace it with what I could afford, which was a pre-built 100w COB light wtih 2x 50w 3500k cree cobs.  Also when I say a light ran at a certain wattage, I am talking about the true power draw, not those skewed wattage ratings the blurple sellers use.

Anyway, I am just coming to the end of the second run using this wardrobe.  This time I grew autoflowers and went with Royal Queen Seeds.  I picked two strains, Quick One and Royal Creamatic.  They look and smell fantastic!  Here are a couple of shots before we get to business....

 

 

Anyway, back to business....

When I moved into my new flat I realised straight away it had a walk in cupboard that looked pretty dammed good to turn into a new bigger grow room.  I have had some success using my cupboard, increasing yield on my second grow as I am gaining more patience in awaiting their goods!  

I have been looking for grow tents but the cupboard is a pretty awkward size of 101cm w x 212cm L x 236cm H.  I would either have to go with a smaller tent of 60x120x150 and this would allow me to vet into the room as a lung room, opening the door slightly for fresh air to enter and old to leave.

I could invest in a 1m W x2m L x 2m H tent and run the inlet air through the door and instal a gril on the door to make it more discreet.  This is my favourite option but tents of this size are like 200 quid and I just think thats quite a bit of money I could spend jus turning the room itself into the grow room.  I am pretty handy and therefore would add a bit of a wooden "frame" around the room with 2x4 pieces of wood to allow points to attatch lighting, extraction - Carbon filter, fan etc and to attach power points near the top of the grow space to limit exposure to water.

I plan on using the 4inch Can-Fan for extraction as I am using it at the moment and not even running It on half speed and it is bornerline too powerful still so im hoping it will be powerful enough to handle the new room.  

I do wonder exactly how I will attach it to the door for my air outtake though.  I will need to use one of them plastic grills in the door to the cupboard and run it through the space above the door (there is a section that used to have glass in it but is now covered up with MDF wood that I could discreetly fit the grill and in turn the fan to.  My question is, do I hang the actual carbon filter and fan from the inside 'frame' I am going to create and then attach it to the door with duct?  Surely attaching the fan itself to the door panel will create all sorts of vibration.  Also using duct will help with space when I try to open and close the door.

If the can-fan I have at the moment isn' powerful enough I will have to treat myself to a bigger, maybe 6 inch version of a similar fan, I could do with replacing the Carbon filter anyway but if I can get away without buying a new out take fan I will, for now.

I would also like to try to re-use my in-take fan, however, I will need to either add a second one, or if and when I replace my air outake fan, I would use the old can-fan as the new in-take fan.

Are you all keeping up so far?  There are no windows or anyhing to vet out of or in from and I will have o run a couple of power cords from my actual living space in my flat to the cupboard ill be using to grow.

 

At the moment I am not too concerned about the lighting or really anything much further than this point.  I need to clear out the room, Decorate it in shiny new white paint and add the 'frame' to the inside of it using 2x4 wood slats.  I will then need to sort out my environmental controls - sorting my air in-take and out-take and smell control.  

 

I think once I am at, or approaching that stage, then I can worry about what lighting, genetics, pots, soil, nutes etc etc etc

For now I am worried enough and daunted enough with the begginning stages of turning the whole room into a grow tent so I avoid spending 200 quid before I have even bought any equipment!

Let me know what you think and I will post a photograph of this mysterious room in the morning tomorrow when I can be bothered to get up off my fat, stoned ass!

Cheers guys

[Rabidreject]

ok so I have been having a think and I remembered when I was trying, and failing, to flower plans under CFL lights I came across some dude on youtube who has his setup (albeight using CFL's, where I will be using COB LED'S) similar to how I would like to setup my room.  

He has made some plant pot holders with a built in SCROG net and a built in brackets for the lights.  The link o one of his videos that shows his grow room setup prety well is here: 

 

 

So hopefully you get the idea (not that anyone is paying attention to this post I don't think) of the sort of 'frame' I was intending to build, although I will likely build mine into the side of the walls for easier access and to make it sturdier by a long way.

 

A question I was really hoping someone would be able o answer is whether I need to go round the edge of the door with anything to make it slightly more air-tight?  It isn't as if there is a bigger gap aound the edge of the door to most doors, however, most rooms also arnt having positive or negative pressure pu upon the 'door seal'.  If I do need to do his and someone knows what is the easiest thing to do this with please feel free to help me!

[highcontrast]

I'm guessing this is an 'owned' flat ? renting you want to be able to get something that size down quick so i would go with a tent in that instance.

 

i've always opted to build a room over just buying a tent, but on a smaller scale than your planning, if i'm honest i don't really understand the initial question. Sounds like your struggling to decide how best to bring in and remove air right ? 

 

walk in cupboard with no loft space above? 

[miserydrift]

i was 149 for a 2x1x2 tent bud as my cupboards same size as yours pretty much

[Guest]

On 27/03/2020 at 5:36 PM, miserydrift said:

i was 149 for a 2x1x2 tent bud as my cupboards same size as yours pretty much

Hi mate pm me that tent link plz if u have time 

[miserydrift]

sorry bud that was over a year ago i bought that i cannae mind where i got it from now @welshgorrilla

[Guest]

Just now, miserydrift said:

sorry bud that was over a year ago i bought that i cannae mind where i got it from now @welshgorrilla

Thats fine bud all sorted cheers for reply 

[miserydrift]

no problem bud glad u got sorted

 

[silvester growdrobe]

@Rabidreject

Have you considered two smaller tents side by side, that way you could have a veg tent and a flower tent?

It means you could buy one, have it running, while you save up a bit of cash for the second one.

If it was me, I'd prefer a tent in there for light leak reasons.

[Rabidreject]

Better late than never -

On 23/03/2021 at 5:27 PM, silvester growdrobe said:

@Rabidreject

Have you considered two smaller tents side by side, that way you could have a veg tent and a flower tent?

It means you could buy one, have it running, while you save up a bit of cash for the second one.

If it was me, I'd prefer a tent in there for light leak reasons.

 

I did this in the end but i only could afford a 120x60x180cm flower tent and a 60x60x80 veg tent so im back looking to upgrade again. The thing is the cupboard is an awkward size, just shy of 1m.  Also i would have ti mis-shape it in order to get in and out of it!

I dunno, im going to have a bit of a think.  Im just not managing to get a consistant supply of bud.  Actually iv not done too bad with this run and the bana blaze auto by dutch passion is almost done now.

I'm also in the process of building another light, which is what set off the scrap the tent, use the room idea.   I have a shit load of white paint and even if worst came to worst and they came round, i am a photographer as a job so i could say it's my dark room and you will ruine my photos if you open that door!