Tent Vs Room ??

If you have a light that cant cover the basement better get a tent.huge space and a weak lamp is not productive

Are running auto’s or photos?

Really like 16/4 so the lights are off during the hottest part of the day, this will help when it’s cooler. That is also running a 480w led light.

I say pickup a nice bundle of whatever metal studs/track you can find locally. The cheaper thinner non load bearing kind, for the best price available. Also some drywall and rigid foam insulation panels, seems that spray foam is ridiculously expensive these days. Or whatever you want to use for paneling/insulation.

FRP or cheaper plastex wall panels are nice on the interior sections if you can afford it! Might even be able to adhere directly to the foam boards and over the studs, shaving a lot of weight and cost where you can get away with it!

Then frame out whatever you want to your hearts content. Zip it all together quick with self tapping screws. Could make modular boxes that could be broken back down later, or even go all the way around first, then and partition off separate rooms with walls, more permanently.

I've never owned a basement, but i'm not sure you want to go adding beefy walls or anything without careful planning. I think some basements have to have floating walls (attached to the ceiling only, with a gap at the floor) because the basement floor can expand and contract. If you start putting walls or beams right off the floor into the ceiling\joists, it could possibly lift your house in that spot like a jack, lol.

Metal framing is so easy too, and you can even cut the studs with a razor knife and tin snips. There isn't much waste either, and you can add pieces back together to make full studs again. You'll use every last scrap, unlike framing with the shit lumber they sell you for just as much, getting sawdust all over.

No one mentioned a greenhouse heater, most have low electricity usage and I’m pretty certain if u fork out for a controller/thermostat (even a smart thermostat so u can control from your phone) of some sort u should be able to hook it all up (fan & heater) Plus they come in all shapes and sizes. That can help with the tent environment. Like others have said drop some tarp on the floor with some carpet and raise your pots of the floor on stands too.

OhNo555 said:

Are running auto’s or photos?

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Photos.

sit or wrap the roots with heat pads/germ mats? Can get away with really cold night temps if the root zone is warm.

Right now basement temp is 64.4°F with 30% RH. It'll get cooler as winter progresses.

Without spending a fortune on furnace heat I think the 'tent in room' will be the best way to control the environment.

Being double contained a small space heater with the LED in the tent should keep the room warm. And humidity should be easier to control in the tent in the room too.

Any disadvantages to the tent in room idea?

I would partition the tent into 2 rooms then, and run HPS fixtures on a flip flop schedule. No other way will save you as much on energy.

Drop That Sound said:

I would partition the tent into 2 rooms then, and run HPS fixtures on a flip flop schedule. No other way will save you as much on energy.

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That's a good idea but I already ditched the HPS equipment. I had one magnetic ballast go up in flames and two digital ballasts fail. There's something wrong with the power in this place. No problems with LED.

We built my friend a box around his tent with just believe it or not that blue construction styrofoam and duck tape. He only uses it in the winter cause of the temperatures plus it can all be cut with a drywall saw or a razor knife if you want to beef it up that guy “Drop That Sound” suggested metal track studs that the styrofoam will fit rate in the tracks to make it more permanent. Kinda like a box in a box so to speak you can even make a door to move in and out with some long 1/4 x 20 x whatever length machine screws, 1/4 x 20 nuts and fender washers to keep them from going thru styrofoam and just small pieces of wood with holes drill in them.

inth3shadowz said:

I make my room out of panda film in my unfinished basement....I'll eventually get the whole basement finished and get a "true" room, but for now I just literally staple up panda film and make a room. Use a sticky zipper entrance and done. I stick to HID because with LED I can barely break 68-70 degrees.

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This is what my uncle does. Even keeps the basement windows open a crack in the middle of winter in Canada with no extra heating overnight "it lets the moisture escape". Never hurt his plants.

Room or box is better than a tent.

The below would be ideal in this basement. Ha!


A commercial cannabis cultivation facility (via Organigram Inc.)

For lowest cost and temporary construction I'm thinking about keeping the tent. Then

along each side of the tent, about 24" from the side I'll hang a sheet of Panda Film. This will make the tent double contained. I can also situate the Panda Film so an HVAC vent blows inside the 24" gap.

Comments?

Right now humidity in the basement is 23% and it's raining outside.

Alternatively I can shitcan the tent & make walls by hanging Panda Film.

rmax said:

For lowest cost and temporary construction I'm thinking about keeping the tent. Then

along each side of the tent, about 24" from the side I'll hang a sheet of Panda Film. This will make the tent double contained. I can also situate the Panda Film so an HVAC vent blows inside the 24" gap.

Comments?

Right now humidity in the basement is 23% and it's raining outside.

Alternatively I can shitcan the tent & make walls by hanging Panda Film.

Click to expand...

Sounds reasonable.

I'm doing a similar thing. Have a partial basement/cellar with low height plus all the electric, piping, etc is run between the joists.

I decided to staple clear 4 mil vapor barrier to the joist to have a somewhat see through ceiling for access to utilities if needed and to keep 140 years of old dirt from falling on everything when someone walks over.

Have enough headroom to put foam board under shorty tents and raise it up 2 inches in case of flood. Have sump pump and drains but it is an old house.
The basement walls which are cement blocks have been spray foam coated for insulation and sealed with a paint.
In my situation it would have cost less to build a shed than to finish the "basement" for growing. May do that sometime in the future but for now chose to use tents, foam board, and plastic.

Sofa King Smoooth said:

Sounds reasonable.
May do that sometime in the future but for now chose to use tents, foam board, and plastic.

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A Panda Room I will build. I can't do worse, or can I?

I have my 7x9x6.5'h grow room in a concrete underground basement like yours. It was built by the original owner as a cold storage room so the two walls that have contact with the ground are covered in 1/2 styro-board covered with 3/8" fiber-board painted white. The smooth concrete floor was painted with grey garage floor paint. The other two walls are 2x4 framed with insulation in there.

I have some 1" styro-board slabs to set pots on and when I was doing DWC in Rubbermaid tubs I had the tubs on plywood platforms with wheels under them. Made them easy to move around without lifting 50L of water when working on the plants or tying down branches to a screen when doing ScroG.

All HID lighting down there as it never gets warmer than 64F in the summer and can get down to below 40F when it's -30C outside. An electric heater on a thermostat keeps the temp in the room up during light's out times. Humidity or lack of it is a problem so my 6" exhaust fan is on a temp/rh controller with a speed controller at half speed. With just a 600W light the exhaust fan rarely if ever turns on so I'll burn my little alcohol lamp in there to make sure there's lots of CO2. Then I can get the rh up to 50% or so without running a humidifier.

I've been wanting to add to the grow space down there. With a tent I'd have to enclose that area around the tent to trap some heat around it or every time I opened the tent door it would flood with cold air. I don't have enough clearance for an 80" tall tent and don't feel like paying around $300 for a shorter 8x4x6'h one that Vivosun makes. Never have any in stock here in Canada so would have to get it from the states. A framed wall covered in panda film would be a lot cheaper as I have the 2x4s and 60' of a 100' roll of panda film left.

I have a small 2x4x5'h tent upstairs from the grow room in a spare bedroom and don't like tent growing. Way too hot in summer and a PITA to control the temp and rh in the winter.

rmax said:

For lowest cost and temporary construction I'm thinking about keeping the tent. Then

along each side of the tent, about 24" from the side I'll hang a sheet of Panda Film. This will make the tent double contained. I can also situate the Panda Film so an HVAC vent blows inside the 24" gap.

Comments?

Right now humidity in the basement is 23% and it's raining outside.

Alternatively I can shitcan the tent & make walls by hanging Panda Film.

Click to expand...

You need to get your humidity up to about 60 to 70% for the first 7 to 10 days and then around 50 to 60% for the rest of grow and reduce at the end to 40 to 50% to finish just before choppy time.