Low-roofed loft - tent or convert?

[RUFUS HOUND]

also as @Lux_Interior has done with his intake from the house - put some tights or similar over the intake pipe to catch all dust hair etc so it doesnt end up in your tent.

[Lux_Interior]

6 hours ago, RUFUS HOUND said:

what size tent are you thinking about as they come in various heights - I have a 60x60xh140 which should fit in middle, youll get 2 or 3 plants in there no probs 

 

@Lux_Interior what are your lights shown in your loft grow pics ?

 

They are two Solarflare daisy chained Samsung chipped quantum boards.. 200W in total. Tureful Drivers. Good for a 4ft x 2ft flowering area. I'd consider buying another two & doubling up to 400W but we'll see what happens with leccy bills.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Lux_Interior
It made no sense before

[sinisterminister]

Cheers everyone, your tips are all really helpful. I've started building a frame which I intend to attach insulation and sheeting to, although I'll be insulating the loft first. If it ends up being too much of a pain in the arse (which it probably will be as I've never built anything like this in my life and the frame looks pretty ghetto so far) I'm gonna just get a loft tent and take the tops off the poles like Michael said.  I'm hoping to run the intake from the bedroom below the grow space and extraction will go out under the eaves hopefully. The grow space will be right next to the chimney which I could extract into in theory but I really don't trust it to not collapse if I take any bricks out. Gonna have to rely on a hose running from the bath tap for water and an extension lead through the ceiling for power.

 

I'm thinking of going for the Kratky method to start out. Would it be at all possible to train the roots so they grow more outward than down? I want to use a fairly shallow container to maximise vertical space if I can

[RUFUS HOUND]

use fabric 8 litre pots they're only about 20 cm high and they will keep your plant short by restricting the root growth.

cost about £1.50 each

what size tent are you planning and what tech are you getting ?

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by RUFUS HOUND

[Lux_Interior]

5 hours ago, sinisterminister said:

If it ends up being too much of a pain in the arse (which it probably will be as I've never built anything like this in my life and the frame looks pretty ghetto so far

 

I think you will get better bang for buck going D.I.Y, tailor made. I'm no builder either, but we've all seen Blue Peter. Sticky back plastic. Here's one I made earlier all that jazz.

 

Have faith!

 

 

[RUFUS HOUND]

you dont need to go to the expense of doing the whole loft, unless you want to do it anyway.

A tent or an enclosure will be vastly cheaper and quicker. If space is awkward, better off diy and then you can have it built to occupy the space as best you can, you can screw you frame to the rafters, joists etc to make it more stable, then line out with foil covered insulation like kingspan or you could line your frame with reflective mylar or such like and insulate with 100mm rockwool roll between the wood frame.

personally I wouldnt risk knocking holes in chimney stacks, its too dangerous if you dont have a clue and vent via your roof with a tile vent or idea below.

If yours is anything like mine it will have mineral felt under the tiles, cut a rectangle out of this 2" larger than your vent/exit pipe, squash your pipe into an oval and poke it in the hole and tape up - this will blow the "stale air" between the felt and the tiles and it will escape through the joins of the exterior tiles,  stealthy like 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by RUFUS HOUND

[RUFUS HOUND]

nearly forgot - power- youll want at least a double socket to run a 6 gang extension or 2, never plug an extension into an extension - get a lecky in first if your not that way inclined/knowledgeable, its actually illegal if you do it yourself, if not passed by a qualified person but as we arent to concerned with the legality of things its more for safety - you dont want your house catching on fire.

[sinisterminister]

3 hours ago, RUFUS HOUND said:

you dont need to go to the expense of doing the whole loft, unless you want to do it anyway.

A tent or an enclosure will be vastly cheaper and quicker. If space is awkward, better off diy and then you can have it built to occupy the space as best you can, you can screw you frame to the rafters, joists etc to make it more stable, then line out with foil covered insulation like kingspan or you could line your frame with reflective mylar or such like and insulate with 100mm rockwool roll between the wood frame.

personally I wouldnt risk knocking holes in chimney stacks, its too dangerous if you dont have a clue and vent via your roof with a tile vent or idea below.

If yours is anything like mine it will have mineral felt under the tiles, cut a rectangle out of this 2" larger than your vent/exit pipe, squash your pipe into an oval and poke it in the hole and tape up - this will blow the "stale air" between the felt and the tiles and it will escape through the joins of the exterior tiles,  stealthy like 

 

Yeah I think I'll do something like this then. Think I'll go for Kingspan panels for insulating the frame so what sort of depth should I be looking for?

 

There's no felt underneath the tiles. To be honest I have no idea how rain doesn't get in as I can see tiny cracks of daylight between some of them but I've been up there when it was raining and nothing got in. Do you reckon I'd be able to get away sealing the extraction duct against one of the gaps? I was going to try to run it out under the eaves if possible otherwise. The house next door is about 5ft lower than mine so I don't think they'll be able to smell it assuming the extracted air will rise.

 

I'm drawing up plans for it so I'll post them when I'm done

[MidgeSmith]

On 02/09/2022 at 6:49 PM, sinisterminister said:

I want to use a fairly shallow container to maximise vertical space if I can

Like Rufus said, yeah absolutely it works.  You cant really see it from the picture of my nano grow, but I grew mine in shallow plastic baskets to maximise available height in the propagator and the plants seemed really happy to spread their roots out laterally rather than vertically.  The 20cm height that Rufus mentioned is probably as low as  you can go, but that'll be plenty high enough if they are wide:)

[RUFUS HOUND]

I think your loft sounds like it would have excellent air exchange (read leaky) and it would probably be ok to vent inside your loft space via a carbon filter of course  - you could always crack a tile open and point your vent at it. 

 

As for thickness depends how deep are your rafters but as thick as you can afford - a good way is using 50mm, cut to fit  into the rafters vertically, then using another sheet board across horizontally foil tape all joins

 

I believe others have used trough style planters but bigger roots = bigger plants but you can always do plenty of LST or scrog will keep them short regardless.

[sinisterminister]

On 9/3/2022 at 8:41 PM, MidgeSmith said:

Like Rufus said, yeah absolutely it works.  You cant really see it from the picture of my nano grow, but I grew mine in shallow plastic baskets to maximise available height in the propagator and the plants seemed really happy to spread their roots out laterally rather than vertically.  The 20cm height that Rufus mentioned is probably as low as  you can go, but that'll be plenty high enough if they are wide:)

 

That's a huge relief, my space is also limited by my budget (can't afford to spend loads on extra lamps) so it's really good that you can get decent yields. 

On 9/3/2022 at 11:48 PM, RUFUS HOUND said:

I think your loft sounds like it would have excellent air exchange (read leaky) and it would probably be ok to vent inside your loft space via a carbon filter of course  - you could always crack a tile open and point your vent at it. 

 

As for thickness depends how deep are your rafters but as thick as you can afford - a good way is using 50mm, cut to fit  into the rafters vertically, then using another sheet board across horizontally foil tape all joins

 

I believe others have used trough style planters but bigger roots = bigger plants but you can always do plenty of LST or scrog will keep them short regardless.

 

I'll try venting through the tiles then if I can't get the ducting out under the eaves. As for the insulation board, would you recommend using the same thickness for the walls of the grow area? I'm guessing the roof is the most important part due to heat rising etc.

 

I've actually incorporated ScrOG into my room plan. I'm still researching everything but hopefully it'll all work. I would upload it but for some reason it doesn't like mediafire 

 

 

 

 

[Lux_Interior]

On 03/09/2022 at 1:02 PM, RUFUS HOUND said:

nearly forgot - power- youll want at least a double socket to run a 6 gang extension or 2, never plug an extension into an extension - get a lecky in first if your not that way inclined/knowledgeable, its actually illegal if you do it yourself, if not passed by a qualified person but as we arent to concerned with the legality of things its more for safety - you dont want your house catching on fire.

 

Yeah, I ran two double sockets into my loft from the back of sockets on the downstairs ring and plastered the wires in to the walls (with trunking, I'm not insane (?)). It's still there, it's a run a train set in your loft guys orgasm. Harder to explain if you want to sell the house. Unless they legalise weed in the UK. Or the guy buying your house likes trains. 

 

I don't actually give a fuck and that really helps me out!

 

 

 

[RUFUS HOUND]

just so were clear - where ever you vent use need a carbon filter or youll get nicked 

 

You have  actually inspired me, I was going to board  the loft out but with energy prices etc I thought I might as well insulate the roof which should pay for its self in nno time considering fuel prices are rocketing