DIY - A Grow-room Log

[PharmaCan]

I donâ??t know where one draws the line between do-it-yourself and professional construction. As a professional builder who is skilled in most of the trades, building this cabinet was pretty straightforward â?? a lot of work but nothing very complicated. This might be a little advanced for someone with no construction skills. But if you can cut a piece of wood straight and pound a nail without bending it, you should be able to put something like this together.

In deciding on where and how to build this grow cabinet, a number of factors were taken into consideration. Primarily these factors were stealth, security, and functionality. I decided to build using a good quality standard of construction, essentially building a cabinet that not only fit my purposes but would also be impossible to break into without creating general havoc.

This cabinet would have been a lot easier to build if I had simply built walls from the existing floor and ceiling. However, I wanted a drain system, which required raising the floor, and I needed storage space in my garage, so the roof of the cabinet had to be strong enough to support a lot of weight.


First thing you have to do is find a spot to build your grow-room, then move all the â??stuffâ?� out of the way.

Next you put up the first board. This is the hardest part; itâ??s all downhill from here. LOL Actually, this first board is quite important because it "locates" everything else that follows. If you put this board in the wrong place, you'll have problems later on.

PharmaCan Reviewed by PharmaCan on 05-31-2007. DIY - A Grow-room Log I donâ??t know where one draws the line between do-it-yourself and professional construction. As a professional builder who is skilled in most of the trades, building this cabinet was pretty straightforward â?? a lot of work but nothing very complicated. This might be a little advanced for someone with no construction skills. But if you can cut a piece of wood straight and pound a nail without bending it, you should be able to put something like this together. In deciding on where and how to Rating: 5

[PharmaCan]

On the other side of this wall is my laundry room. I will be using air-conditioned air from inside the house as my intake air. Since I donâ??t want light to enter (or escape) the grow-room, Iâ??m building an offset vent using the space in between my studs as duct. I framed a rectangle inside the wall space. The horizontal 2x4â??s are the upper and lower limits of the vent. After caulking the inside to seal the â??ductâ?�, I painted the inside of the duct flat black then replaced the drywall. Later on, Iâ??ll cut a hole in the cabinet wall and an offset hole in the laundry room wall, cover with a vent grills and have a nice source of heated/cooled air.

[PharmaCan]

I nailed a piece of ¾â?� plywood to the wall. Itâ??s a real pain in the butt to have a drywall wall to work with, not only during construction but also when using the cabinet. Itâ??s impossible to attach anything to the drywall and the studs arenâ??t always where we need them to be. With a ¾â?� plywood back-wall, I can nail or screw anything I want to it.

The side-walls are framed and then attached to the back-wall. The side walls are then sheathed with plywood. (At this point you need to use a framing square to make sure that the side walls are perpendicular to the existing back-wall.) I then attached the 2â?� x 6â?� boards that will support the roof and floor joists.
Note: I built the roof first, then the floor, because you don't want the floor in your way when you're building the roof.

[PharmaCan]

Each time you add plywood sheathing to a side wall and when you install the front 2x6â??s, the structure will get stiffer and stiffer. At each step you need to check to make sure that the side-walls are perpendicular to the back wall. This structure will not completely immovable, in respect to remaining square, until the floor and ceiling are installed. However, it does get damn hard to move so be sure to frequently check to make sure the structure is square and plumb.

The floor and ceiling joists are installed. I put a slight (1/2â?�) drop in the floor so that the water will flow to the drain. The No. 8 photo below shows the framing where the ceiling will be attached. Note the 2x4 that is laying flat. This is called â??backingâ?�. When you are done with the structural framing for the floor and ceiling, you need to look where the floor/ceiling plywood will be attached and make sure that there is wood backing for the floor/ceiling plywood to attach to, that there is wood under the edge of the plywood all the way around.

[PharmaCan]

The main part of cabinet is essentially completed so itâ??s time to build a front wall, with openings for the doors. Iâ??m framing this so that I can use standard 2â?? solid core doors and conventional door hinges and hardware/locks. Itâ??s a lot easier to use conventional materials whenever possible, particularly when moving parts are involved.

[PharmaCan]

After a couple of coats of a good primer, itâ??s time to cut the holes for the air intake and vent fan. The hole thru the roof for the fan needs to be sealed real well so, after I cut the holes through the double-layer ceiling, I wrapped a piece of 6â?� duct with paper and foil and filled the roof space with expanding foam sealant. This gave me a nice â??tubeâ?� thru the roof and I can now easily caulk the vent pipe to seal against light and air leakage.

Iâ??m going to line the interior with reflective material. The reflective material is rather difficult to work around or on, so Iâ??m going to temporarily install the ducts and fan to make sure everything fits right. Itâ??s a good idea to use short screws when taking the fan in and out making it fit. That way, the permanent screws you use will be going into fresh wood instead of a used hole.

[PharmaCan]

I want this enclosure to be inconspicuous, so I drywalled it and will finish the walls the same as the rest of my garage.

My next-door neighbor came over while I was working on this and asked me what I was building. I told him that I was going to start running a secure server with a T1 line and 128 bit secure encryption and that to comply with the requirements the server had to be in a secure enclosure, separate from my living quarters. Well, about the time you mention T1 lines and 128 bit secure encryption, the average mind tends to enter â??I donâ??t want to appear stupidâ?� mode and the average person will pretty much accept whatever you say. Anyway, thatâ??s my story for the neighbors and Iâ??m sticking to it. It explains anything and everything they might happen to see. (Of course, if my next-door neighbor wanders over while Iâ??m installing the Mylar, I donâ??t know what the hell Iâ??m going to tell him. Anti-microwave shielding??? LOL)

[PharmaCan]

Here the doors are installed. This is a very important step because the doors can be a primary source of light and air leakage. I used standard doors and cut them down to the height I need. If you take a look at the photo of the door frame, notice the size of the door stop I used. If you take a look at the stop (this is the wood stops your door in the frame when you close it) at your home, itâ??s about ¼â?� - 3/8â?� thick. I used ¾â?� stop to give a larger overlap and thus seal better. When installing the doors, you canâ??t put everything together real tight and close fitting. If you do, the door wonâ??t work right after it is painted â?? itâ??ll be way too big for the opening, which happens to be smaller also because of the paint on it.

Itâ??s all wet and dewy this morning. As soon as it dries up Iâ??ll get into my electical panel and bring power to this puppy.

[PharmaCan]

My vent fan, cool tubes and home-made carbon filter. The filter cost about $25 for materials and took a couple hours to put together. I saw a similar sized filter on-line for $250, so building your own filter can save a lot of bucks - or quid or looney's.

[PharmaCan]

Here's a few pics of installing the relflective material. The wood strips hold it in place then the strips are covered with foil tape.