New darkroom

[mitch brown]

Hi all
I am going to start my new darkroom over the garage that I am building it is a 30 x 28 in size and I have used rafters that allow me to have an upstairs space of 12 ft wide x 30 ft long x 8 ft of height. I plan to use a mini split heat pump to heat and cool. I will have darkroom equipment plus office , print storage ,printers film storage etc up there . The entire space is light tight if it want it that way. One question I have is should I make two rooms or just have the one large space? Any pros or cons to either your thoughts suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks mitch

 

[MattKing]

I would split it into at least two spaces.
That helps you contain the humidity issues.
It also makes it easier to customize the lighting.
If there is any possibility that there would be someone else using the space, it would allow two people to work at the same time - one in light, the other in dark.
You could put the sound system in the light side, with speakers in both sides, and wouldn't have to worry about those pesky little leds .
The "beer" fridge can go in the light side, and you don't have to take out the light bulb.
If you are like me, having a 30 foot long "office" ends up being a temptation to have my stuff spread over 30 feet.
EDIT: You might want to have this thread moved to the "Darkroom Equipment" sub-forum, where most of the Darkroom design threads seem to be. If so, just report your own post, and request the move from a moderator.
I think I'm going to suggest that the "Darkroom Equipment" sub-forum be renamed "Darkroom Equipment and Design".

 

[Alan9940]

I agree with Matt. I've always had two rooms--one is the darkroom and the other being for final print preparation/presentation, storage, office space, etc. In addition to all the good reasons Matt provided, if you plan to mat, frame, etc, your prints then having this function in a separate space from the darkroom helps to keep dust to a minimum in the darkroom.

Anyway, sounds like an exciting venture. I recall vividly when I planned and built my custom space over 30 years ago. It was exciting to design and build the spaces exactly as I wanted.

 

[MattKing]

Two further points:
- if there are any issues about making it light tight, it can be really useful to have a small room/cupboard that is only accessible from within the darkroom, that you can close the door and use for handling film in complete darkness - think of loading film holders or development tanks.
- it is also really nice to have a window in your office. It is not so good to have a window in your darkroom.
I agree with Alan - sounds like fun.

 

[mitch brown]

Thanks for the info guys

 

[M Carter]

I really enjoy my setup - good sized wet room, light tight, with a small alcove with a paper cutter for cutting paper down; light-tight 3x4 closet for loading film and such; and a separate 8x10 room with good window light, for matting and spotting. I'm picking up a dry mount press next week so that will be a nice add to the daylight room. Very cool to have all the stuff close to each other.

 

[mshchem]

Make two rooms. You need to control humidity. Mini-split systems work great, if you are in the Great White North, you will need baseboard heat. I have an 8 foot and 10 foot sink in my darkroom, you get water on that much surface area, get a RC print dryer going it turns into a jungle fast. I run a Dehumidifier and central AC all year round just to be safe.
Sounds like it will be great! Consider using folding tables at first, when I did build more permanent structures they were not where I thought they would be at the beginning.

12 feet width is just about perfect.

 

[PRC]

I am on my 6th darkroom and it's almost complete. Actually, I thought it was complete but mshchem above is right, an 8 foot sink and running print dryer turned it into a steamy jungle pretty fast. Darkroom ventilators turned out to be pricy and open to dirt infiltration. My previous darkroom was ventilated by a large industrial clean-room fan/filter unit but I had to leave it when I sold the building. However, I found that similar units are available used on eBay and bought one for $75+$35 shipping. It came in pretty nice shape and I'm installing it in the ceiling now and fitting exhaust vents over the sink. Considering its industrial source the unit is still manageable size at 2x2 by 12 inches tall, runs on 120ac, isn't very noisy and they still had dozens left so it's a good bargain for darkroom ventilation and you get .3 micron clean-room filtration to boot.

 

[mike c]

2 rooms are great, keep the film and paper storage out of the darkroom.Mixing chemicals be best in darkroom or out side, away from stored film and paper.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Reading down this thread I was saying to myself "ventilation!", then PRC posted that, so there it is. Keep the air moving while you are in there and you can be in there a long time.

If your room is only going to be 30" long, then I wouldn't split it. Do you want a darkroom or a glovebox? You are probably only going to do this once, so make it as big as possible. If you have good ventilation, then you can use the room for multiple things. You don't have to move to another space to mount prints for example. Make everything as big as your dreams.

 

[silveror0]

If your room is only going to be 30" long, then I wouldn't split it...

Read the first post again. His room is 30 FEET long.

OP: After I built my basement darkroom, I wished I had included a small space for a commode; the sound of running water etc occasionally had disruptive consequences that meant prepping to exit and run up two flights of stairs (tri-level house) to take care of business. So far the only other issue I've had is a detail in the ventilation design; some folks prefer to keep a positive pressure in the darkroom to prevent entry of dust, but I chose not to. I wanted to take advantage (in the winter) of the household heating from the interior room adjacent to the darkroom, but since that room is also home to my wife's cat litter box (dust) I installed a filter in the interior darkroom wall and a lightproof exhaust fan in the exterior wall over the sinks on the opposite side of the darkroom. It has worked OK and has really minimized the dust issues, but the problem is the fan's noise; the fan itself was VERY quiet when testing it before installing, but the exiting air was sent through an appropriately sized aluminum tube in the exterior wall (with standard flapper outside). The noise is created by the air moving through the metal tube; I'm thinking of replacing it with a plastic tube that is better isolated from contact with wall structure to reduce resonances.

Electrical issue: I installed a small wall heater, controlled with a separate thermostat above it, for those days before the furnace was fired up and it kept the room comfortable. One day I had to get something from the darkroom and when I opened the door I got hit with a blast of hot air. The thermostat was jammed in the ON position and could not be turned off; the room temp was 108F and my mercury process thermometer was about to "peg out." I tried to rip the thermostat off the wall and the heater turned off during this effort. I hurried to get all the temp sensitive materials out of the room and set up a big fan in the doorway to blow out the hot air plus setting the exhaust fan on full speed. Then I called an electrician to come and trash the thermostat and install a reliable on-off switch that I'd only use when I'm in the room. I recall reading that AA recommended having a master circuit breaker box OUTSIDE the darkroom that would kill all power to the darkroom (he had a LOT of power being used in his darkroom). Had I done that it would've been useful for killing the wall heater, but I know of no way to make a master circuit breaker do its job automatically when room temp exceeds a set limit.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have a wet and a dry darkroom. The dry darkroom has the enlarger, paper cutter, work tables and the print dryer. I like the two darkroom setup.

 

[Luis-F-S]

Two 12x15 rooms sound great. My darkroom is only 8x10.

 

[hacked - sepiareverb]

I will vote for a second space as well, but I’ve always preferred keeping the darkroom separate for cleanliness. Not sure of your situation, but a window can be wonderful. I used to print at night with the window open, nothing better than hearing the frog chorus while rocking trays.