Any advice for soon to be apartment growers?

Trying to start growing in our basement apartment. We have a 400W lamp and some good quality seeds. This is Dunbar's first grow. I, Santiago, am on my second grow. We're moving in to a new apartment in a couple weeks and still need to see if there are any suitable closets or what not to grow. We may take our third roommate's room as our grow room and make him sleep on the couch.

Anyone with experience or advice for stealth growing in an apartment please chime in. Space for the grow will probably be limited and the 400W might be too hot. How much would it cost to fit up a grow room with relatively cool lighting and still grow about 3 plants?

Don't do it.

Elaborate, please. Tell your story.

Neighbors, landlords and fire inspectors.

We are the only tenants on the floor and its in the basement. The only traffic will be people using the laundry room across the hallway and people coming to our apartment. Anyone with stories of techniques they've used to cover up indoor stuff and how well it's worked.

My magic 8 ball says "no way".

I do it. Just dont make any reason for ppl to get suspicious or pissed

id say go with a tent with the right stuff as well like carbon filter extracter fan ducting.
then you will have a growroom in a growroom but your grow room dont smell .......well outside the tent wont smell if you do things right

the worse thing i think for a grower is when you walk into their house and you can smell their grow its asking for trouble

I do it too, well legally.

Still act as if I'd get in trouble just to be extra cautious.

Been there, done that. Pain in the ass if you live in an area with annual inspections. It IS doable, however you have to be willing to sacrifice your crop should there be any problems.

Also sucks to freak out over every single footstep walking past the door.

i do it legaly in cali but if ur going to do it illegaly which isnt my busiuness just try not to do a huge grow and make it not smell way to much good luck

I grow in the walk in closet of my small condo. I use CFLs for lights, a fan and Ona gel for the odor. I'm home at all times so I don't worry about someone coming into my apartment.

Do you have to pay your own electricity? If so, you might consider CFLs for lighting because it would be cheaper.

dont do it, unless your cool with the people in the building maintenance dept.... most apt buildings do inspections (other than annual fire inspections) and you will be fucked the first time they send an exterminator in for a preventive treatment, or switch your a/c filters, or any number of other things that goes on on a regular basis in a large apt community.

i grew in apts for years.... but im careful, resourceful, and will bribe someone in a minute to keep there mouths shut. something you might want to consider, that last part.

I rent half a house, top flat. I got a tent in a room that I changed the lock on the door to so I'm the only one with the key. 3 ppl in one place and a grow is what strikes me besides being in an apt complex. I take care of the property where I'm at, trim shrubs, make my own minor repairs etc. and my landlord loves me. I have no annual inspections myself. NO PARTIES!! Too many variables. Good Luck.

Bug bombs!-

Holy shit... never seen so many nay-sayers in one thread lol...

OP you should be fine if you grow 3 low odor plants. Use a good quality carbon filter, dont have parties, etc. Be smart. Always have a plan incase the owner needs access...

Thanks for all the opinions on ups and downs of it. I'm used to the freaking out feeling enough to deal with it. I have some experience setting up a grow room. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the grow spot from drawing attention visually or how to have it totally hidden? I have odor reducing gel and would probably rig up a DIY carbon filterng system, but we can build stuff no problem. I think controlling the odor is less of a worry for us.

Ok, I shook my 8 ball again and it says...

fine, listen to these guys if you want to. I used to do it and it was scary as hell. I wouldn't do it again unless it was a PC or small cabinet. When you're on week 6 and your "mango-elephant" hybrid starts smelling like satan shat smoothie all down the hallway and people on the elevator are commenting on the scent as you fumble for your keys...just know as you chuck the half finished buds into a black plastic bag for dumping down the trash chute...that one guy on RIU tried to warn ya.

all locked up something like this would work well. if you're handy you could use metal cabinets and use construction adhesive to glue sheets of louan to them. same with the trim. stain it up and it would look great.

and a lock.

Your main problem will be people from the building coming into your apt when you aren't there. I lived in some apartments when I was in college and my roommate had a grow going on in his closet. They went to do an inspection to see if we had torn the place up, and found the grow. I came home to find the maintaince man and an off duty cop that lived in the building standing in front of a closet with tons of plants in it. I went into my room, threw all my illegal shit into a duffel bag and jumped out a 2 story window to get to my car. I drove away and stayed gone for a long time. He ended up beating the case because it was an illegal search, but the lawyer to do that cost $10,000. Point being apartments are hard to do anything big in. You could do a small cabinet grow or a pc case grow and get enough weed to keep yourselves high, but turning a whole room into a grow room is a bad idea. Dont let that stop you from growing, your just going to have to keep it small. Maybe modify a dresser into a grow cabinet or something like that.
Remember: No Tell, No Sell, No Smell and you might be ok. Makes me glad that I have a house.