The Happy Company's Ground Up Commercial Grow

[Patro]

For the last year we have been busy trying to make this Oklahoma dream come true, and it's about time to begin to document this endeavor. the most problematic
It was decided early on that this was to be our retirement, so we planned accordingly. The first decision was whether to rent or purchase. It didn't take long to realize renting would be the fastest, however the most problematic. Things like location, landlords raising the rent, and a plethora of never ending hoops to maneuver we decided to purchase and build ourselves.
Finding a plot of land that met requirements took a solid 5 to 6 months, but when we did it didn't take long to break ground. Our goal was to have 10,000 sq ft cannabis grow facility, and to perform this feat in several stages. Keep in mind EVERYTHING in this build we have had to do ourselves with the exception of having the initial building exterior completed.

Just getting a road in place able to support the heavy equipment was easy....nor cheap especially in high content clay soil. We were 10k into the road alone, however it will be there until the end of time.
Moving onto the pad site. We had to haul a LOT of dirt in, mix it with the clay to create a solid foundation before the building construction could begin. That was another chunk of change.

It was finally ready to bring in the lumber.

 

[stonestacker]

And then it rained for forty days...

 

[Patro]

Even though we brought a crew in to put the building up quickly, we had to plan what was going on under the slab, which is a lot really. For one, I'm too old to be hauling buckets around, and I wanted to be able to provide quality R.O. water to each of our rooms, and do it under enough volume and pressure to justify the expense. So each of the eight flower rooms (4 upstairs and 4 downstairs) will each have their own water R.O. water supply. The 350 (700) gallon reservoirs will provide the water. More on how we did this later

I ran city water into the mech room and from here tap water and R.O. water will be fed to all grow rooms. Here, the blue water line = cold tap water and red = R.O. water

We have began with a 400 amp service. This will take care of the lower level. We built a loft/living quarters above the garage/mech room, so shower, toilet, hot water, kitchenette will be located above the garage. I'm building an elevator in the mech room to get heavy items upstairs.

Getting ready for concrete. Once the concrete is laid, we are on our own. That's where the fun begins....

Once the concrete was done, everyone was ran off and we began to transform the plain, large building into our dream. Boy was that an education...

The downstairs has a 10 foot ceiling height and the upstairs is just under 9 feet.

The main hallway downstairs is 80 feet long. There are two 22x40 rooms on either side of the hallway

The upstairs will be another project.

I'm an HVAC tech by trade, but I gotta admit since this build began, I've worn more hats than I care to wear for sure. The electrical demands for an operation even as small as ours is almost mystifying in and of itself. I've built our own lighting controls and flip boxes as a 32 light controller isn't cheap, and I need several of them.

Mitsubishi are the one's that originally came out with the mini-split. I've installed 100's of them over the last 25 years or so. It seems everyone else has got into the mini-split game and since I'm a Samsung dealer it only seemed right. When compressor inverter technology came along, it was a real game changer, and took an already efficient HVAC system and pushed it into new territory.
Our entire facility will be efficiently conditioned on less than 50 tons, and with inverter technology they can each vary tonnage requirements based upon load conditions. That's money back into your pocket.

The outdoor units are attached to the building itself. You cant see it, but under those 1/2" pvc pipes poking out of the ground tie into a 3 inch drain burried underneath them. This prevents a LOT of condensation from pooling up around the foundation in the hot summer months.

Here's a view of the mech room. It will contain the brains of the R.O. distribution system. More on the finished product later

 

[Patro]

The overhead elctrical outlets are all 220 volt, and controlled by a DIY lighting controller that offers staged lighting. We wanted to find ways to conserve on electrical requirements anywhere we could. This room and the room right behind it have the lighting both operated on the same circuit, meaning both these rooms are set up on 12 and 12 schedules. When one room's lighting is one, the flower room behind it is asleep. This way I can run both rooms on the same dedicated 220 volt circuit. More on how I did that later

After scouring the web for an affordable yet functional R.O. system, my research led me to the Hydrologic R.O. 1000. This baby puts out R.O. water to the tune of 1000 gallons a day. We timed how long it took to fill our 330 gallon reservoir, and 1000 gallons a day is right on par with their claims. The Hydrologic prefilter is a little small....however it was a smoking deal on Amazon, as was the Hydrologic R.O. 1000. It was an open box and all that was wrong with the plastic wrench to unscrew tha canisters was broke. Paid 30 cents on the dollar with this one...

Here's an idea how it looks. I've still to add a pressure tank, but this mock up confirmed the 1000 gal per day claim

I was raised on a farm with well water, so I has some experience with well pumps. This external version of a well pump can deliver water to each or all grow rooms at 40-50 psi. No "trickle" effect when R.O. water is needed.

This does exactly what we need, and gives us 5 ppm or less R.O. water into each grow room. There will be one more 330 gallon reservoir in front of the one shown.

We really don't require hot water in the grow rooms, so a small electric on-demand water heater was chosen for bathroom, shower sink and kitchenette.

Each grow room has it's own floor drain (upstairs and down) and each has their own sink..with one exception. The cold side is tap water. The hot side in R.O. water at 40 psi or so..

 

[Patro]

Here's a closer view of what's going on. There is a distribution manifold on the backside of the left wall that carries R.O. to each room

Each grow room had the walls sealed and treated before Panda film was installed on the walls. The baseboards were then sealed before waterproof molding was installed. Even all the electrical outlets cover the Panda film

When it came to grow tables I again began to research. The primary directive was to utilize every square inch of grow space. However you set it up it costs the same amount to run your lights, so get what you can in grow space. Here was our solution. I built 16 (sixteen) 4x8 rolling tabletop tables for each grow room. This will net us 128 plant sites per mother room, and still give plenty room to work

These tables will take full advantage of the available room space while still allowing us to comfortably work. Yes, I know they sell these, but I was able to build them for about 100 bucks per table, and being the cheap country boy I am...

We found a smoking deal on gallons of Rustoleum...the only catch? Caterpillar Yellow, so our grow bench tops will look like something off a school bus....but they will be protected!

Here's a view of the room with only three rows. There is one more row. There is just 2 foot or clearance between any one isle at any time. I can move an entire row using one finger and the more you load the table the easier they are to move. To me, tha's a "Super Dale Whappie" by any measure!

We plan on growing some large ladies we cut out a pot full of round pipe pieces and drilled pin holes. I welded 4 or them to each table top for a 3/4" PVC trellis

 

[Patro]

Another major milestone we needed to address was how to raise and lower our lighting in a cramped room, and do it without having to dread the task. Anyone who has grown in anything larger than a tent can appreciate this.
Anyway, I needed to be able to control an entire row of lighting consisting of 8 lights per row. The lighting I have chosen is based upon the LM301 chipset. More on that decision later.
Anyway, I began with a 3 inch garage door pulley and welded a frame around it.

I made several and attached them to the upstairs floor joists, using a string line for accuracy. (These need to be nearly perfect as you will later see)

 

[Patro]

Remember I mentioned having to re-do the verticle/horizontally loaded pulley? Here is what I had to do. This reinforced and secured the pull from the horizontal cable.

 

[cemchris]

Gonna be tits

 

[Burned Haze]

Awesome setup and passion and good luck!
Take my suggestions or ignore them

1. your pots can’t be grown in non food grade pots, good luck when you get it tested and why when it’s like 1-2 dollar more and it could be food grade and your guaranteed. Not poisoning your costumer . Or buy greenhouse plastic in bulk even?

2. Your r/o system needs a booster pump ( that 2x the rate) plus that brand sucks and your going to regret your decision for commercial reasons. Should of bought a real commercial grade and rated and bigger filter designed r/o system . You gotta pay to play and if you don’t your just getting burned and rebuying or just lacking a major % in your environment factor ( water is major )

3. did you buy your rate per min split btu rate 2x-3x or was it rated just to your lights uses? If you do to the borderlines of the lights uses, if any of your a/c does, your fucked or if anything goes out of balances . I see some major flaws in your designs like even putting the fans right under the a/c exhaust , air from oscillating fans can hit the plants but should not be cold ( that’s not a good thing )

4. Dehumidifier: Get a quest, and don’t be cheap on that ethier 1-2 105’s every room or the get 1 a bigger model for the room a get a quest 506. The more you have control and not have the a/c work, the guarantee that a/c will last as well ( night cycle is what kills ya)

5. I would get involved with a grow advisor/lawyer ( if you can both, if you already are, just giving suggestions)and make sure your rooms are up-to-date cause if you lose your approval cause of some stupid wiring thing. Cost way more and it may cost you your project! prevention is the key and I know it’s not fun, but the government does this to make their cash (on all business)

Sad truth because your workmanship works for you or the grow material is fine, does not mean their written requirements on how you can have a grow room are the same. If your state is open ( I’m sure they will want more soon enough, unfortunately) take my points in or not I do t care but I show many people do same shit as you and have to redo their business or just bail in medical and red. Only getting harder

 

[Patro]

Point taken on the Lowes buckets, and constructive criticism is welcomed! Researching an alternative, and thanks for taking the time to chime in!

The R.O. will have to work, at least for the next few grows (and yes, it IS a money thing at this stage). It does however put out it's rated volume and tested between 5 and 6 PPM. As far as the dehumidifier goes, the Quest is king, no doubt. I've seen a handful of them go out from our local hydro store. We do have a commercial dehumidifier, though it's not a Quest. As far as the legal team, we have that covered as well as a pretty sharp retired IRS gal on our team who has spent the last 15 months researching not only Oklahoma cannabis laws, but has a pretty fluent understanding of how Cali and Colo models work. They both have vested interest in our success.
I'm also betting our industry will indeed change, right along with the evolving requirements within the laws that currently govern our industry. Oklahoma is pretty lax at the moment, but we know it wont be that way forever. Our business plan has hopefully calculated potential future requirements in security beyond mere video surveillance, and though we cant afford to implement many of them, we ran the control wiring to be able and implement as needed and when we can afford it. Oklahoma initially brought up biometric requirements and a handful of other bs, though they were shot down. We went ahead and made the halls and stairways handicapped accessible, even though that seemed to waste some space.

We have managed to get this far without having to bring outside investors in, and our hope is to use one room to finance the next room, and so on. We do have proven genetics for our first grow, (we've been incognito growing that goes back to the 80's) and are looking forward to bringing our first medical cannabis room on line. Beyond this, there is fear of the unknown, no doubt, and my story into this venture and why goes back a great many years. This venture IS destiny. Failure simply isn't an option. Period.
In closing, having those who have paved the way before me willing to take time out of their day to lend knowledge gained from the school of hard knocks is priceless to me, and never taken for granted. Thanks Burned Haze!

 

[Patro]

It was brought to my attention the need for "food grade containers", which led me to a lot of research, and here is what I found.
First off, I took a black 5 gallon bucket designed to grow in from a grow shop and checked the bottom of the bucket. It was stamped with a #2.

I then looked at the Lowes bucket.

I noticed the same markings, which led to some research. Here is what I learned. Our number 2 markings prove these buckets are High Density Polyethylene, or HDPE, which is the most commonly used food grade plastic. Look for a number 2 inside of the symbol to confirm that the bucket is HDPE.
Our reservoirs are marked with a #5, and according to research it too is food quality safe.
Now, unless I'm missing something here, I'm putting this one to bed.

What I found was this.

 

[Burned Haze]

It was brought to my attention the need for "food grade containers", which led me to a lot of research, and here is what I found.
First off, I took a black 5 gallon bucket designed to grow in from a grow shop and checked the bottom of the bucket. It was stamped with a #2.
View attachment 906253View attachment 906260

I then looked at the Lowes bucket.
View attachment 906261

I noticed the same markings, which led to some research. Here is what I learned. Our number 2 markings prove these buckets are High Density Polyethylene, or HDPE, which is the most commonly used food grade plastic. Look for a number 2 inside of the symbol to confirm that the bucket is HDPE.
Our reservoirs are marked with a #5, and according to research it too is food quality safe.
Now, unless I'm missing something here, I'm putting this one to bed.

View attachment 906262


What I found was this.

There’s a little more than just one tag for food grade buckets :

“
HDPE plastic does not necessarily mean that the bucket is safe to store food. For example, the bucket may have been used to hold bleach or a chemical that could be toxic if it’s consumed.
if it’s Most juice or milk containers and 5-gallon
“
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets?amp=1

_______
Lights choice if might me ask? If you get involved with your lawyer you might see if your state has energy efficiency discount % for led purchase over hps, it definitely might be worth it for you over buying old industry tech . Some states it’s 20%, than if you did that and you bought bulk you could get anther discount. I can see hps/de’s being banned for electricity wasteful and if people are allowed to grow row indoors, led’s Only ( for safety and energy force convert in the next 2-5 years for cannabis , so why buy de’s ?)

Plus a de is 6k-10k in btu

So example, 100 lights :
De HPS
50 tons of a/c ( and if you are doing it right you should do 2x, 100 tons.... ouch!)

Led
Cob vero 29 ( timber led’s )
3k-4k in btu and that’s being a high number ( even with 9 cobs under 4x4 it will be only 1-2f where hps would raise 6-10f+) imagine the difference when you have many lights in the room and and your cooling them
30-33 tons ( so look at even when your 2x that’s 60 tons)

Who wins? I can grow led’s at something at 660w vs 1100w ( that I have to replace yearly both reflector and bulb ) and then the heat is 40-50% higher? Yes starter cost but after 1-3 seasons I bet it’s payed for and you have lights that last for 3-5+ years no problem.

next thing is when your doing hps over led’s you have to have your temps 10 degree’s cooler requirements during “on” time and harder vpd chart to lower ( which makes more electricity to get that )

Led’s 80-86f with co2 and 25% more nutes , and hps 75-80f with both following vpd . if you gotta use dehumidifiers, a/c’s and all these replacement bulbs or cooling, what’s better in the end? That’s why my de’s are in boxes lol