Smithers Garage Grow Reno Project

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Smithers

Smithers

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Hello all! I'm planning a grow and shop reno on my garage. It's a BIG project that will likely have no end any time soon. 😁🤖🐱


I have an un-powered, un-insulated steel garage in my back yard that's 18'x20' on an slightly sloped asphalt driveway, with 2 windows. It's full of some large equipment, and lots of storage. I will be clearing it out, insulating, running powering, and framing out new walls. The current plan is to divide it into two areas, a shop, and a grow. I still may tweak the layout and dimensions some, but it's a good rough outline for now.

The grow will have:
-71 sqft Lung room / work area.
-6' x 4' Flower room
-6' x 4' Vegetable room
-4' x 3' Veg room
-4' x 3' ??? Possibilities are 2nd flower room, mushroom room, quarantine, equipment, or storage.


The project involves several big tasks:
-Trenching a new power run. I blew the old underground power run with my equipment. Sketchy install by previous owner, a junction underground failed, needs permanent solution
- -To trench power, I have to rip up my driveway. Pretty much everywhere on my property that's flat is paved.
- - -So, I'll be renting an excavator, removing 34'x30' of asphalt, and creating an exterior garden plot and room for a future greenhouse in it's place, during the trenching
-Cleaning of entire space, relocation of large equipment into new footprints.
-Install of some flooring material in the grow area, maybe a pool liner.
-Insulation in the grow area, likely 2" Tuff-R rigid foam with spray foam seams, because I won't need to frame out exterior walls if I use it. Spendy, but fast and sealed.
-Framing interior walls and doors, insulate interior walls probably 1/2" foil backed rigid foam panels.
-Install of grow equipment
-Programming and operation of control system
-I'm sure I'm missing a lot more items


This will be my primary thread to keep track of my plans and progress. I may post some side threads to track specifics, and then pull some of that documentation into this space as applicable. Such as, I recently started a thread for researching my proposed Click Plus control system. I'm going to be doing some non-conventional upgrades, primarily an industrial PLC (or brain) that can get smarter as I code more features into it over time. This brain will reach it's ins and outs into areas not yet designed or contemplated. For instance, when I build my own rosin press, it will fully control that.


Here are some pictures of the space right now. And a few sketchup screenshots of my current ideas on layout.
Smithers garage grow reno project

Smithers garage grow reno project 2


Empty garage sketchup

Garage

Garage closeup


I'm looking forward to updating this over the coming months. 👷‍♂️👋
 
Garage tool layout v2
Smithers

Smithers

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I can tell, some of you are already thinking... Now why didn't he make the divider wall strait so there's AC in the shop too. I know, it's gonna suck, I may put in a portable or cut a new window on the left side.

The reason is: 18" behind the back wall there is a retaining wall, which stays damp all the time and extends taller than the window. This will drastically cut the efficiency of the AC on the back wall, and limit how big the one in that window can be. The other window is unobstructed, so I plan to use both for the grow, and put a big one in the side window. I won't be able to splurge for mini-splits for a couple years, so this is my attempt at an interim solution. I already have several wall A/C units kicking around.

The shop will suffer for now, but that's what shops are for, and anyway it's got the rollup door.
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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I can tell, some of you are already thinking... Now why didn't he make the divider wall strait so there's AC in the shop too. I know, it's gonna suck, I may put in a portable or cut a new window on the left side.

The reason is: 18" behind the back wall there is a retaining wall, which stays damp all the time and extends taller than the window. This will drastically cut the efficiency of the AC on the back wall, and limit how big the one in that window can be. The other window is unobstructed, so I plan to use both for the grow, and put a big one in the side window. I won't be able to splurge for mini-splits for a couple years, so this is my attempt at an interim solution. I already have several wall A/C units kicking around.

The shop will suffer for now, but that's what shops are for, and anyway it's got the rollup door.
Bad ass bro!
I wouldn’t fuck around with the a/c it will make you or break you:)
I’ve got a little experience in building grow rooms. Hope this helps:)
 
Smithers

Smithers

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Bad ass bro!
I wouldn’t fuck around with the a/c it will make you or break you:)
I’ve got a little experience in building grow rooms. Hope this helps:)

Thanks for the link! I see you recently got new upgrades going on in your thread last few weeks. And it really is ground up on page 1 like the title. Looks great, I’ll read that over the next few days.

I’m glad I have some time before I can start the inside, it’ll help me flush out better ideas. Also glad I got more active on the farm here. Thanks again.
 
Smithers

Smithers

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Bad ass bro!
I wouldn’t fuck around with the a/c it will make you or break you:)
I’ve got a little experience in building grow rooms. Hope this helps:)
Damn @1diesel1, your planning and building skills are no joke!

I just caught up to current on your thread, and yeah, really great job. That TPO looks amazing. I've learned a huge amount just from that one quick read, and I've taken a bunch of screenshots for back reference to remember some of your choices. I've realized that my layout is SUPER wasteful after looking at yours, and I didn't even consider somehow making the lung room the veg room. Duh! I now want to completely re-design my layout, which I expect to do several more times over anyway before starting.

I think I can make the usable grow area bigger, in WAY less area of the garage, leaving more shop space. An aside, my vegetable room should have it's door access directly from the shop so the grow doesn't get contaminated, and then the grow isn't visible by entering that space. This garage is eventually going to get replaced with a new building in a few years if we don't sell and move away first, so I'm realizing I need to keep a tight-ish budget. In the beginning, I'm likely stuck with the 5 or 6 AC wall units I already have. I'll have to make that work for me for now, and cutting new window holes is something I'm looking into as I re-draw the plan. I've got a lot to learn still on many topics, and I'm thinking a budget space now will teach me to build an amazing one after a few years of use.
 
Smithers

Smithers

213
63
I reworked my garage drawing. My wife doesn't know it yet, but the garden veggie room has been cut out of the plan for simplicity.

Layout garage v4


The black drain trays will be tables on casters, each one is 43"x 21" and I get them at the surplus store for $5/ea, got 4 already and will pick up another 4 soon. They have sloped drains that lead to a trough, which has drain holes for pvc fittings. I reinforced the bottom with an extruded aluminum frame, not shown. With medium sized plants, each table will accommodate 2.

IMG 4494


In the veg room I will make the pans stacked 2 levels high for the shorter plants, so there should be an OK amount of work area in front of the window in there, shown in the bottom picture. This new plan leaves me with a much bigger garage, and each of the 2 rooms have their on window AC. I will run all LED, so the window ACs I have might be good enough, and I can easily cut more windows if I need.

Veg stacked pans
 
Last edited:
Dabward

Dabward

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I reworked my garage drawing. My wife doesn't know it yet, but the garden veggie room has been cut out of the plan for simplicity.

View attachment 1135541

The black drain trays will be tables on casters, each one is 43"x 21" and I get them at the surplus store for $5/ea, got 4 already and will pick up another 4 soon. They have sloped drains that lead to a trough, which has drain holes for pvc fittings. I reinforced the bottom with an extruded aluminum frame, not shown. With medium sized plants, each table will accommodate 2.

View attachment 1135547

In the veg room I will make the pans stacked 2 levels high for the shorter plants, so there should be an OK amount of work area in front of the window in there, shown in the bottom picture. This new plan leaves me with a much bigger garage, and each of the 2 rooms have their on window AC. I will run all LED, so the window ACs I have might be good enough, and I can easily cut more windows if I need.
What type of surplus store did you get those trays at? Plumbing? Those are exactly what I'm looking for. This water heater drip pan is no Bueno
 
Smithers

Smithers

213
63
What type of surplus store did you get those trays at? Plumbing? Those are exactly what I'm looking for. This water heater drip pan is no Bueno
Hey! Thanks for the question, unfortunately it’s a local place that exists only in my town. (Upstate NY, an hour-ish south of Albany).
They strip old machinery and resell the parts (actuators, bearing assemblies, metal parts, electronics). It’s a general DIY swap shop perfect for pretty much any tradesman.
The trays were in a pile from someone who I assume was into Vacuum forming plastic for a while. Lots of random shaped pans and sheets, and a pile of 10x of those perfect drip trays, I took 4x for $20 total. No former for sale, I wish! Someone will eventually buy up the remaining 6 pans if they can see how perfect they are.

So, this garage project is off the table for now… we decided to move to Maine instead of flipping another house and building out garage. Selling this POS house, selling the mill/lathe (pickup this or next weekend to my buyer). I relocate for a new job in Maine this weekend. Wife follows in 3 weeks. House goes on market in 3 weeks. Renting a house for the winter while we shop for our new place in Me. Gonna be a bit of grow gap, but will be fun to plan the next room anew.

I’m still working on my PLC room control dev project, and plan to get more into posting that progress after the move. I haven’t had much time to be involved here lately.

What pan are you using now?
 
Smithers

Smithers

213
63
Hey! Thanks for the question, unfortunately it’s a local place that exists only in my town. (Upstate NY, an hour-ish south of Albany).
They strip old machinery and resell the parts (actuators, bearing assemblies, metal parts, electronics). It’s a general DIY swap shop perfect for pretty much any tradesman.
The trays were in a pile from someone who I assume was into Vacuum forming plastic for a while. Lots of random shaped pans and sheets, and a pile of 10x of those perfect drip trays, I took 4x for $20 total. No former for sale, I wish! Someone will eventually buy up the remaining 6 pans if they can see how perfect they are.

So, this garage project is off the table for now… we decided to move to Maine instead of flipping another house and building out garage. Selling this POS house, selling the mill/lathe (pickup this or next weekend to my buyer). I relocate for a new job in Maine this weekend. Wife follows in 3 weeks. House goes on market in 3 weeks. Renting a house for the winter while we shop for our new place in Me. Gonna be a bit of grow gap, but will be fun to plan the next room anew.

I’m still working on my PLC room control dev project, and plan to get more into posting that progress after the move. I haven’t had much time to be involved here lately.

What pan are you using now?

I mounted the tray at a pitch so the runoff water ran to the front corner drain on its own. Then had a metal shelf sitting on top so the plants were supported above the tray. Ran a pvc fitting to the drain hole into a reservoir.
 
Smithers

Smithers

213
63
It’s been a while since I’ve had an update… had to put all my belongings in storage for the past 5-6 months and relocate the family. We moved to a new state, and settled on an island off the coast. Found a job accidentally while on vacation near here and pulled the trigger after they gave an offer. Sold the metal fab equipment, sold the old house. Now I’m in a much older house… Haven’t had time enough to set up my grow yet, been too cold and haven’t figured out the logistics of a generator or where to claim space out of the way yet. But it’ll be happening. We get crazy wind storms now, expecting to lose power often.

I felt a bit bad about ghosting after winning a SF light. That happened mid move. Now I finally have internet again! Really excited to get active again on the farm. It’s been a busy busy year and currently I’ve just got garden herbs going in my tent under the SE3000… over at the short term rental we are clearing out of.

I hope to have a few plants both indoor and outdoor this summer. Real excited to get past our last frost date in 6-8 more weeks so I can get some seeds started.

Next post will probably be in a new journal. I sold the garage this one was going to be about… so this thread is kinda gonna end unfinished.
 
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