Plant Room Construction
 

After a false start several years ago and having a heaving problem with my basement floor, the construction of my plant room has begun! The adventure is being recorded in my album here.
Plant Room Construction - Orchid Board Galleries

We had to pull out the entire 1370 sq ft concrete floor and install an interior weeping tile system to deal with a high ground water problem. Our plans grew include enlargement of windows, relocation of our laundry facilities, upgrade to and relocation of a boiler system, installation of in-floor heating and replacement of all our sewer lines. Since we are going whole-hog on this one, I thought the plant room needed to be re-visited.

Here is the rough in for the floor drain and a larger shot of the room area.

Wow Dave, that's major construction!
Going to be fantastic though, good luck and keep us posted.
Al

Way cool, Dave!
Keep us updated...you know we'll want :photo:

:cheer:

That certainly is something to envy. Hope it all works out fine. Of course we love pictures, as you know so well. Looking great so-far.

Sounds great Oscarman!! Cannot wait to see some pics!

Nice! I'm in the middle of my own basement growing room construction, but it isn't nearly as sophisticated as yours!

The groundworks inspection was approved by our city inspectors, although they were a little concerned/confused by the use of a trough drain in a residential application. We have the insulation down and the rebar is tied.

Looking good! Gonna be no time at all before you have that place all filled up!

Hey everyone, been a bit behind posting, so let's catch up....
#1 insulation and hydronic lines installed. I did not put any heat loops in the plant room floor.
#2 top and bottom plates laid out before walls built.
#3 closer look at the 9' floor drain. It is made with 3 interlocking sections of 3' each.

This is going to be fantastic, what an ideal setup. How big is this room going to be? Please keep posting updates, this is very exciting!

It is 12' x 9' and 7'6" ceiling. I am pretty excited to finally get this project going.

Here is the framing done. Water lines are going in next. Hot and cold in the room and a line for an RO system.

Wow! what an undertaking. I know you will enjoy for years to come with some fantastic orchids. Keep up the pics. enjoy seeing your progress.

About time I got some updates on my project.

#1) The electrical is in. Multiple outlets all mounted high up on the wall to keep them from behind the benches and out of water's way.

#2) the exterior walls have been insulated with spray foam insulation.

#3) the insulation has been trimmed flush to the stud face.

Wow, what a project. Great that by redoing all this you can plan the orchid room from scratch and build in what you need as you go.

Hopefully I get it right! Still unsure what I am going to do for lighting. :scratchhead:

Here are a few more pics from my progress.

#1) Moisture resistant drywall was used on all interior surfaces.
#2) All joints taped and mudded.
#3) More of the same.
#4) Used 2 recessed boxes in the room for water supply. Hot/cold for watering, cleaning etc and the smaller box is for an R/O system. Had the plumber run hot and cold to this one also - maybe I'll need both one day.

I'm curious about the cost of your project. Boy would I like to be able to do something like that!

Oscarman, looks great. May I ask what are your plans for the other rooms? You might soon feel the need to expand further. I started with one pergola, built a second, and now planning a shade house and dry area. Current growing areas about 200 sq ft and future plans add another 300-500 sq ft. Additionally, both structures are 9' tall.

It never stops....trust me....NEVER!!!! :rofl:

Sadly that will be the extent of the indoor growing area, in the remainder of the basement we have nice size family/theatre room, bedroom/massage therapy room, kids play room, storage/mechanical room, full bath, large laundry/work/potting room. I still have a large kitchen bay window and then I would have to move outside. If I could purchase and demolish the house behind me....then we are talking a real greenhouse! :evil:

Tell me about it never stopping - 5 plants in '85 and then before you know it 875! I am now much less of a madman and things are more under control.

Now I am almost caught up with picture posts vs stage of construction!

All surfaces in the room have been covered with FRP panels and all seam, joints and connections sealed with mildew resistant silicone. The goal is to have the room completely sealed from the rest of my home to avoid structural moisture & mold issues.

As you can see the rest of my basement reno is moving along also. Cabinets and linoleum in my workbench/potting area is in.

This is going to be fantastic when it's all done. Thanks for the updates, and keep 'em coming!:biggrin:

Pic #1 - the water faucet outlets finished off - siliconed to prevent water leakage into wall.

Pic#2 - detail of the waterproof receptacle covers. They are domed so items can be pludgged in and still be covered. These two receptacle are GFCI and are controlled seperately by timers for my HID lights.

Dave, you have three water spigots, two of which mate together (hot/cold), but I don't see a drain for a sink. Are you just going toilet it drain to the floor drain?

I actually have 2 sets of hot/cold. One set to blend for watering, general room cleaning, etc and the 2nd set for my R/O system (the hot faucet was bonus!). My plan is to use rain water which I will be piping in from a 220 gal tank at the side of my house, supplemented with R/O water. The city water is my back up.

Regarding the sink, I have a huge stainless sink in my laundry room just out right of the door, so didn't want to commit any space in the growing area for potting, cleaning etc.

Makes perfect sense Dave. Good luck growing!

Oscar, how are you planning to vent the heat from your lights in such an enclosed space, or are you planning to go with something like a split A/C?

Woah, sorry missed your post. This has been causing me some thought. Right now my plan is to have two 6" vents through the window of the room. The window is on the shady side of my house, so a bit of a cooler location. One for intake and one for exhaust, directed in different directions outside. I am thinking of connecting the exhaust line to my light hoods to pull most of their heat out along with room air.

I have a feed from my A/C unit in the room also for the really hot Alberta summer days.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know. I would love to hear anyones lighting, cooling thoughts - heck anything to do with the room would be very much appreciated. I have tried to pull from everyone's knowledge to make this a great room.

Right now all my plants are under T5's and just the increase in stead lighting, higher humidity and air movement, regular watering etc is making a world of difference.....go figure! ;)

if you're venting the air outside, you might run into issues with maintaining the humidity, if it get's low in the winter. Naturally, venting, like that, makes maintaining an unnaturally high humidity level pretty difficult


What kind of range are you shooting for?

I would think misting with fans should be sufficient...

...ya know, in the deep south of Alberta and all. :rofl:

Any thought of switching over to those new LED grow lights?

Nice job!

They're still pretty pricey. I was at an aquarium trade show where they were being demonstrated. Nice set ups but costly. Of course that also depends on whether you go with cool burning LED's or warmer LED's and a fan (which I think sort of defeats the purpose of the lower energy consumption).

I would wait a year or 2 myself.

Cheers.
Jim

Hoping for 70%. I am on the fence with the whole venting system. I will install an intake and exhaust fans and ducting, so that I can control excess heat and/or humdity. Several growers here, use minimal venting in their indoor rooms, and right now I am not doing any. Realize all that can change with HID and more plants and benches and water and misting...............

I tihnk too much money for LED. I am already in very deep due to the complete basement reno. Hence the slowdown in plant room development and posts. :(

Don't laugh too hard, summer here tops out at 35° C (95°F)! Compensated of course by winter bottoming out at -35°C (-31°F) :crackup:

I've seen systems actually rated at one thousand watts priced at 2-5 grand.

pretty insane, but I guess the big advantage to LED's is that the light they produce is better absorbed by the plant (something like 90% while reg HIDS are usually somewhere between 10-20%)

That's what I was thinking. He has a major investment already, why short change it now? I guess the issue may be more of an unknown. I've seen those numbers before, but only by those selling the LEDs.

I would think in the long term, the advantages would out weigh the disadvantages..

Less power consumption
Lower heat output
Longer bulb life

Besides the purported advantage of better plant growth.

I would honestly go with an HID, myself. Also the equivalent ratings seem more based on a selling strategy, as opposed to fact. and once you do a 1 to 1 comparison, you're really not getting any benefits in heat reduction, at least to the point where I could justify spending that kind of money on a light

What I've heard about plant growth is mixed at best... I'm willing to do my own experiments with LEDs, but I can't afford it.

Here is an idea for LED lighting that a friend of mine gave me a couple days ago. Get a string of LED X-mas lights and a foam board or something to shove them into. Pack them in as tight as you can. Plug in. Might cost less than $10 with a good after christmas sale. What I'm not sure about is which colors of bulbs to use. You couldn't just use all one color, LEDs have very small output spectra. Interesting idea though.

Rob

I would also worry about the wattage rating. If I remember right, the very minimum you want for growing is 1 watt per bulb

Yeah, like I said, it was an idea. Supposedly somebody tried this, but it is anecdotal. Plural of anecdote is not data...

I still might try it.

Rob

For me they are too new, too expensive and benefits, documented results to new too.

I was just at Big Al's Aquariums and looking at LED systems for salt tanks. They seem like the ideal thing for high output and low heat, but I wonder about the quality of light the further you get from the fixtures.

How close do LED lights have to be to the orchids?

In my room I would like the lights at ceiling level and illuminating horizontally to the walls as well as downwards.

I don't have any specific experience with them. But when i have seen them used in high light application, they were only a few inches from the plants. i think some of the higher powered systems, 600-1000 real watts, give you a bit more space. But at that point you're looking at lights that are going to cost a couple grand a piece.

and for me, that just seems a bit insane