Grow Room from Scratch - What would you do?

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Wife wants me to move grow room from downstairs / basement to barn.  Barn has its own electric, full drop from pole, which is good and lets me split home use from business use for taxes.  Also good.  But most important part would be that I would not have to climb stairs.  If I do it, will still grow indoors to keep my sanity but not the bulk of it.

So where would you start?  Would it have a floor?  Would the walls be 2 x 4 or 2 x 6?  How serious would your insulation be?  What would you do about the ceiling?  Rain not a problem because it would be inside the barn, everything is dry in there.  But need a ceiling to keep heat inside.

How would you heat it?  Dont want to go with the full expense of a furnace, but have seen smaller garage heaters that might work.

What would you build in to make your life easier?
 
In terms of spacing logistics (2x4 vs 2x6, etc.), I think that will be best decided by you. Probably whatever ends up being the easiest to scale up and fits evenly in the space given is what I would go for, but I don't know your barn dimensions. The ability to add in insulating barriers would also be a good feature. That way you can avoid heating empty spaces for the later annuum starts when your chinenses are already sprouting.
 
I would recommend splurging for high quality insulation. It would probably pay for itself quickly if you don't need much additional heating aside from your lighting. Although I certainly get that upfront costs can be harder to stomach. 
 
10' ceilings are nice if possible. 1/2" ply for the ceilings is nice, you can hang light and support hooks in any location.
 
A well sealed and insulated room will ease in controlling climate.
 
A pitched slab floor with a drain is nice.
 
Whatever plant spacing you think is necessary add a foot.
 
If using grow trays, It's much easier to access plants on 3' wide trays (2 rows) than 4' wide trays (3 rows) with a row in the middle that's hard to access.
 
Don't scrimp on your air system, if designed right it will cut down on your need for circulating fans. I can't stress enough the importance of a quality air system. It's key to the health of your plants.
 
I went with 2x6 framing with 1/2" wafer plywood. R-19 in the walls and R-40 in the ceiling. I have 2 8' baseboard heaters that keep everything plenty warm even with 2 walls being exterior walls. I run a 10" exhaust fan ducted thru the light hoods on a thermostat. Concrete floor. My room is 20'x 24'. It gives me room to start a full garden worth of plants and run my overwinters hydro. Make it 2x the size you Think you will want as it's never big enough. Good luck to you.
 
hogleg covered a lot and gave some good info..I would put a floor and insulation in in your climate, or you'll have some big swings in temp.I like his idea of a slab, but I find cement draws a lot of heat out of the pots so when I was using a garage I put all my trays on pallets.And an easy way to water..That is the biggest issue with my current room.
 
Biggy said:
I went with 2x6 framing with 1/2" wafer plywood. R-19 in the walls and R-40 in the ceiling. I have 2 8' baseboard heaters that keep everything plenty warm even with 2 walls being exterior walls. I run a 10" exhaust fan ducted thru the light hoods on a thermostat. Concrete floor. My room is 20'x 24'. It gives me room to start a full garden worth of plants and run my overwinters hydro. Make it 2x the size you Think you will want as it's never big enough. Good luck to you.
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Don't want to hijack..But 20 x 24 I need to ask what kind of lighting?
 
A heated concrete floor would be awesome as long as the plants are on pallets like another member mentioned, but more to keep the root temps manageable.
 
I never had much issue with a cement pad being cold in a grow room (more of an outside issue imo). As a matter a fact the the floor would seem quite warm to the touch of my bare feet many hours after the lights went off. It was a thick pad though,  I figure about 8".
 
Can not go with concrete floor.  I am good with lumber but concrete is another story.  On the 6 inch studs, it isnt a space thing it is an insulation thing.  Thicker walls means more potential for insulation.
 
You can platform frame a floor also but use foam board instead of fiberglass. Watering will be a deciding factor for the floor. Dirt turns to mud and wood likes to swell. Paver/pattio block could work also. I have built and tore down a few times. There is always something you will want to change.
 
Mr.CtChilihead said:
 
Don't want to hijack..But 20 x 24 I need to ask what kind of lighting?
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I run 7 hoods 6 600w and 1 1000w hid's. I grow for a school with 125 students. I start 1000's of plants in there each year. I have roughly 3 acres of outdoor gardens and a 3000 sq ft tunnel to start for. Peppers are more of a personal hobby.
 
you can always build a center fireplace, sure there is a lot of wood laying around the farm. labor intensive but pretty effective.
 
All this talk of concrete has me wondering if maybe I should use the garage.  Same electric as the house, so one benefit lost.  But it does have a concrete floor.  Problem is, would need a forklift to move the machine mill in there..
 
Biggy said:
I run 7 hoods 6 600w and 1 1000w hid's. I grow for a school with 125 students. I start 1000's of plants in there each year. I have roughly 3 acres of outdoor gardens and a 3000 sq ft tunnel to start for. Peppers are more of a personal hobby.
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Yep huge difference between how most hobby growers scale and how business scales.  Education is a business after all.  We run a commercial farm but what you are describing pales us by comparison.

Tell me, are you saying you have a high tunnel and a grow room or are they one in the same?  Here there is a huge demand for tobacco starts.  Lots of growers do not like growing from seed.  Typically the people who sell starts by tray (floaters) use high tunnels with heat and some artificial lighting.  Have never heard of any of them having an indoor grow room for starts.  Wondering if maybe there is a reason for that.  Maybe the savings of having some sun light outweighs the cost of heating the things.  Maybe it is just too expensive to build so much indoor grow space.
 
 
Biggy said:
You can platform frame a floor also but use foam board instead of fiberglass. Watering will be a deciding factor for the floor. Dirt turns to mud and wood likes to swell. Paver/pattio block could work also. I have built and tore down a few times. There is always something you will want to change.
Click to expand...
 

Platform frame a floor?  Foam?  Fiberglass?  I am lost.  I figure heat rises so why not go with gravel?
 
I can't specifically speak for Biggy; maybe he has something else in mind, but air is a much better insulator than gravel (or anything besides certain gases or vacuum). Heat only rises in regards to convection, this is attempting to limit heat transfer through conduction. Raising the "drainage floor" off the barn's floor/ground would help a lot with heating costs. Foam board has a higher R-value than fiberglass so it's a better insulator. (so you can make the floor thinner? That might be where Biggy was going with it, or maybe it's more water resistant.)
 
Ah.  A framed floor with fancy sheeting of some kind.  When I think framed floor, I usually think plywood sheeting.  In this case it would be exterior painted on both sides and edges before instillation.  Had no clue foam flooring existed.
 
gravel floor is very common in greenhouse... I think it would be great for barn grow room. it's cheap. won't be muddy / drains easily. you don't need a finished floor like slab or frame/wood in a barn.
Also it is easy to change if you want to dig a hole or trench or whatever for some new equipment. (since it doesn't seem like you know exactly what you want right now)
 
The lights will provide a lot of heat in winter. in summer you will want to exhaust the heat. 
 
insulation is good. roof to limit heating space is good.
 
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