Help Me Prepare this Warehouse! (Insulation, Exhaust, Deconstruction....)

Hey everyone! I'm glad that after all this time of serving up weak pointers, I really need some help. I'm cleaning out and refurbishing a "section of" a warehouse for growing. Now, step one is, I live in Canada, and that warehouse is fucking freezing. I'm going to be cleaning it out all day, and it sucks because I will just be so damn cold.
I've looked at spray foam, which it seems will cost about $2 per square foot to get an R-value of 14 (which I consider the absolute minimum, but I'm completely new to this, so please correct me if I'm wrong). If it's really worth it, I might throw in some foam batting, as I've heard is what people do with their houses and attic spaces, but money is tight right now so I want to go with the best options for my money, no doubt.
My project allowance, as it turns out, is less than I thought. I'm looking at about $2000 right now, including my lights and prefab Bubbleponics (stealth hydro) setup. I had expected more towards $8000, so this is rather shitty.
Another thing I need to figure out is wether or not humidity is actually a problem. They make a big deal of it on manufacturers' sites, but keep in mind that this is a frigging steel warehouse full of high-humidity plants. Nothing's going to rot, so would I really need to get the humidity-resistant crap ontop of whatever else?
I had this idea that I might throw into another post about using emergency blankets as a cheap alternative to formal insulation. I've seen this done small-scale, so why not just buy a bunch of 4.3X7 ft. aluminized-mylar emergency blankets and cover 30 sq. ft. for about $4? It seems to me that if it would retain and reflect body heat, then why shouldn't it be able to do so on a larger scale? This could act as total insulation (if you guys say it's feasible, that is) or the vapor barrier, and the mylar would act as reflective surfacing for my walls. Please tell me what you think, I value your opinions.

you need to go rob a bank--because you don't have enough money to even insulate.

i think fiberglass is pretty cheap.

yea you not gonna do shit for 2000 maybe get a small grow tent setup to put in the middle of a big empty warehouse or build a small room figure you could spend 2000 just on equipment in a 8x8 room so you got a whole wherehouse

really for best results ur budget doesnt even touch the requirments tuessels right if u do ur tent set up u could make ur 2000 back one harvest and keep growing while investing in ur building cus it expensive u need a co2 gen for that size carbon fiber filers more blowers a ton of lights and then ur insultions not going to be cheap
srry to burts ur buubble

I live about a half hour from Canada in freeze your balls off Michigan & i can tell ya that the r value of 14 you listed isnt a drop in a bucket but will work decent,an r-14 will require 3.5 inches of insulation,in your neck of the woods you'll need around r-29 to make a large dent,that will require around 9 inches of batton (pink panther fiberglass) insulation.

Forget the emergency blanket deal,the whole theory behind emergency blankets holding heat is they need to be in direct contact with the heat source,then they reflect heat back,they are not designed to hold large areas of heat in.

As mentioned fiberglass insulation ( think pink panther) is dirt cheap & easy as pie to install,a roll of r-13 fiberglass costs $9 a roll & will cover a 15 inch wide by 40 ft long area,its simple math from there,just be sure to insulate all 6 sides of the room,leaving the floor uninsulated allows much cold to seep in,on the floor a 4 mil plastic vapor barrier is needed before insulating,total cost for insulation & plastic should be around $150,this leaves you plenty for the grow room.

For the $2,000 budget you listed you can easily put together a kick ass high producing room with 2 1,000 watt hps systems on light movers,install lights & leave magnetic ballasts inside the grow room,between the heat from the lights & ballasts,then the insulated walls, your temps will stay constant & in range for healthy plants,at lights off a simple $20 electric heater set to 72 degrees will keep the room at temp,where these guy's are comming up with you cant do shit with 2k makes me wonder deeply,keep it simple,stay away from uber expensive shit like co2,there is no need,your room can be built within budget you just need to keep it simple & stick to the basics needed to produce bud,light,heat ect.

Edit,forget about humidity for right now,your in a climate & in the proper season for low humidity conditions,winter time & sub zero conditions are the lowest humidity levels you'll experience all year,moisture in the air freezes before it can become a liquid,if humidity does become a problem dehumidifiers are very cheap & can be had for around $150, with an added benifit of supplemental lights off heat to the room,all dehumidifiers release heat from the unit,you can use this heat to your advantage.

i was thinking two grand wouldnt hardly get you started on rigging out a warehouse..you might rig out a small grow....then earn you some money and go bigger..

they are right, what you need to do is set it up with 2 tents, one for flower and one for veg so that you can achieve a perpetual harvest. As you make your money improve the facilities, take it a step at a time and get it all right, you dont have to get it all running at once. Set goals to have this done one month and then something else the next and eventually youll have it all set up and running beautifully. Just be patient with it man.

a 10' by 20' room might cost as much as 300.00 just for the pink fiberglass insulation... i'd deffinitely go for the 9" on the outside walls and the 4" on the 'inside' walls. and you can do your floor with the styrofoam padding (4' by 8' sheets), then just screw some more 5/8" plywood down on top of it. add more cost... for plus whatever wood you would need to finish the inner walls of a room that size. Lower the 'roof' to about 8' with some more plywood and insulate the roof as well. Finish the inside with some black and white poly plastic.... should be enough left over for a couple thousand watt systems and some cheaper lighting for a clone/vedge setup. Good luck, and more importantly, i hope ur location is secure.

Panhead is feeling me. I think making do with what you have has been raised to an art form by cultivators of cannabis the world 'round, and that's what I plan to do here. I've erected a room within the structure, 26X12 feet, and there's actually a wood furnace w/ insert in the room, so hopefully we can keep that going and save a good buck on heating costs.
I insulated the floor and most of the walls with polyurethane fiberglass insulation, as well as the "roof" (the 8' roof within the roof). Within the hour I'm heading out to fill in a few holes and de-clutter the space, which is filled with old junk such as dishwashers, tractor parts, etc.. Thanks for all the help, I'll be needing more in a bit! I hope to upload pics at some point, as long as I don't feel like I'm comprimising security.

I fixed the furnace for the most part, but when we open the door the draft is just useless- smoke comes pouring in at a frightening rate. Does anyone know if this smoke would do any serious damage to the plants?
If I'm really lucky, someone's about to tell me that I just created the cheapest CO2 generator on the planet.

Also, I'm doing the plastic wrapping (vapor barrier + reflective surface) and insulation now. (I may have to seperate this into its own post, because I need a response within the next few hours) Could someone please tell me their choice material for wrapping a grow room with? ie black, white mylarized plastic, lightite... I see a couple options out there, and I don't know which to go with.

Gamberro said:

I fixed the furnace for the most part, but when we open the door the draft is just useless- smoke comes pouring in at a frightening rate. Does anyone know if this smoke would do any serious damage to the plants?
If I'm really lucky, someone's about to tell me that I just created the cheapest CO2 generator on the planet.

Also, I'm doing the plastic wrapping (vapor barrier + reflective surface) and insulation now. (I may have to seperate this into its own post, because I need a response within the next few hours) Could someone please tell me their choice material for wrapping a grow room with? ie black, white mylarized plastic, lightite... I see a couple options out there, and I don't know which to go with.

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clean your chimney.

Hey man! Haven't seen you in a minute. Which is my fault, don't get it wrong.
So you're saying the smoke WILL fuck with my grow?

SEPARATE MATTER: EXHAUST & INTAKE (noooooob!)
Venting, yay! I'm going hardware-store skipping, so what-oh-what will I need? I have a handy ol' pipe running upwards out of the "room" into a large crawlspace above, so how should I isolate that? I'll work on an intake, bust a hole in the garage door or something. But how do I hook these things up to go on and off when the room reaches certain temperatures? Would that go expensive? Cos otherwise I will have to rethink the intake-exhaust plan.

Gamberro said:

Hey man! Haven't seen you in a minute. Which is my fault, don't get it wrong.
So you're saying the smoke WILL fuck with my grow?

SEPARATE MATTER: EXHAUST & INTAKE (noooooob!)
Venting, yay! I'm going hardware-store skipping, so what-oh-what will I need? I have a handy ol' pipe running upwards out of the "room" into a large crawlspace above, so how should I isolate that? I'll work on an intake, bust a hole in the garage door or something. But how do I hook these things up to go on and off when the room reaches certain temperatures? Would that go expensive? Cos otherwise I will have to rethink the intake-exhaust plan.

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you need an exhaust fan. it runs 24 hours a day. it will suck air into the room thru an intake vent. put the intake vent in a bottom lower corner, put the exhaust in the top opposite corner. the exhaust will suck out the old air and heat and pull in new air thru the vent.

fdd2blk said:

you need an exhaust fan. it runs 24 hours a day. it will suck air into the room thru an intake vent. put the intake vent in a bottom lower corner, put the exhaust in the top opposite corner. the exhaust will suck out the old air and heat and pull in new air thru the vent.

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Any idea what that will set me back?
And the smoke is a bad thing?..

Gamberro said:

Any idea what that will set me back?
And the smoke is a bad thing?..

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mine was about $100.

exhaust, .........


intake, ......






the smoke is bad.

get used ballast and lights 10 or so and veg veg veg 24hrs a day that way your temp will b around 20 celcious, make clones and sell them to make money fro you project when you have 15 gran together properly insulate your room and buy new gear.

use a phat filter crabon exhaiust just get the little one 3 footer and a 8 inch vortex run you about 600 used lights and ballast about 100 a set, board 200, clones 4 bucks

make sure you vent your exahust at a good place youll b seeing vapour clouds coming out cause of the temp difference hmmm you could jsut run 5 1000w no exhaust just a dehumidier though that would probably work but you have to test your temp status so you dont run into any probs

dazed76 said:

get used ballast and lights 10 or so and veg veg veg 24hrs a day that way your temp will b around 20 celcious, make clones and sell them to make money fro you project when you have 15 gran together properly insulate your room and buy new gear.

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why don't more people do this? these commercial guys around here buy 20 ballasts. they use them 1 maybe 2 cycles then sell it all and cash in. you can find 1000 watt set-us all day long for under 200. a simple light meter will let you know where you stand. used ballasts aren't that bad.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=hydro ballast



1000 watt MH - hood/ballast/glass/bulb - $150 - http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/grd/937778439.html