New Studio and Darkroom Remodel

Hi All,

We have been using our garage for a studio darkroom and laundry since we moved in 18 years ago. My wife likes to tell the story that I let her park her car inside only for a few months after we moved in. We slowly developed it for a photo studio, and various other things like a workbench for restoration of vintage audio. We were constantly making improvements ending with reclaimed flooring from our house, carpet, black curtains to isolate areas like the laundry and workbench, and finally adding a darkroom section. I kept taking parts of the garage door off until finally ending up with just the door, which we screwed in place as a wall. We hadn’t opened it for years and the hardware was ugly and in the way.

We are approaching retirement, the house is paid off, and we don’t plan on moving, so we decided to make it an official legal space. Construction has started and should by complete by end of October/November. I thought it would be fun to post the plans and progress. Opinions and critique are certainly welcome so don’t be shy.

Looks good. Do you have cold, "cold water" ? For black and white 75°F is about as high as you want to go. My wife and I retired at 62. We have "occupied " a four bedroom house. Garage isn't a real option. It would be great with 12 foot ceilings. But the snow
Keep updating with some photos

mshchem said:

Looks good. Do you have cold, "cold water" ? For black and white 75°F is about as high as you want to go. My wife and I retired at 62. We have "occupied " a four bedroom house. Garage isn't a real option. It would be great with 12 foot ceilings. But the snow
Keep updating with some photos

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We have well water that stays pretty constant temp all year. It’s low enough I won’t need a chiller.

The project is on hold due to the Walbridge fire. We have been evacuated since Tuesday and the fire is now 2 miles from our house. We are keeping our fingers crossed. There are so many fires in Ca now that the CDF can’t handle them all.

I for one am hoping for the best for you.
We too in BC are having our own forest fire problems in the interior of our province.

Those two side elevations showing what I think are the wet and dry sides of your darkroom, what length is it? I'm trying to understand what 12/6 means and whether it is a measuring legend. If it is the length I think it is, then a 3657mm long wall length, is wonderfully long.

Mick.

Well here in Iowa we had a record straight line wind event that swept west to east 10 days ago. 140mph sustained winds. Still 40,000 customers without power in my hometown. 1500 residences uninhabitable. There's enough trees down, huge Oak and other hardwoods in Cedar Rapids the debris piles fill acres. Fortunately there's room, in town, from the 1000+ homes that needed to be demolished after the 500 year flood of 2008, 2nd worse flood happened five years ago.

Yeah we don't have any effect from climate change. Ha!
Good luck to all Godspeed.

MattKing said:

I for one am hoping for the best for you.
We too in BC are having our own forest fire problems in the interior of our province.

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Looks like things aren't too bad for BC now. The Ca fires are getting better as well, but we have recently had wind changes that brought us a lot of smoke. Not to long ago it looked like an orange night in the middle of the day! it was spooky.

Mick Fagan said:

Those two side elevations showing what I think are the wet and dry sides of your darkroom, what length is it? I'm trying to understand what 12/6 means and whether it is a measuring legend. If it is the length I think it is, then a 3657mm long wall length, is wonderfully long.

Mick.

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The Darkroom is 13' / 3962mm long. I will be able to use up to three 24" x 26"" trays for developing.

mshchem said:

Well here in Iowa we had a record straight line wind event that swept west to east 10 days ago. 140mph sustained winds. Still 40,000 customers without power in my hometown. 1500 residences uninhabitable. There's enough trees down, huge Oak and other hardwoods in Cedar Rapids the debris piles fill acres. Fortunately there's room, in town, from the 1000+ homes that needed to be demolished after the 500 year flood of 2008, 2nd worse flood happened five years ago.
m climate change. Ha!
Good luck to all Godspeed.

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I remember the days when we could count on the weather, and although disasters like this happed, they weren't prevalent like they are now.


So we have survived the Walbridge Fire. It came within 1.2 miles from our home. In the beginning support was lacking as it needed to be spread out and prioritized. This was do to the shear number of fires started due to the lighting event. I heard anywhere from 8-10k strikes with no accompanying rain.

The remodel has resumed but got to a slow start because the owners helper fell off the wagon. It's a shame as they worked very well together and did an amazing amount of work in a day. Yesterday was the new helpers first day and the plumber is here today and roofer will be next. The lighting for the studio was a challenge because I wanted art lights for the long centerwall and back wall. I originally thought I would do a suspended track system however I didn't want it to get in the way when working with my strobes, so I ended up adding them in the ceiling on a separate circuit. I'm up using KODO Premium Downlight 4 in. White New Construction/Remodel IC Rated Recessed Integrated LED Gimbal Kit 2700K-5000K from Home Depot. I have installed them in the house for art and love them. The 3 position intensity switch will come in handy as the ceilings are vaulted.

We just got the custom combination sink and developing surface ordered from Stainless Steel Supply. The cost was nearly 50% less than a local supplier.



The pour for the bump out.



We were able to put the new floor over the existing concrete floor.


Now you get the sense of space.


Frame for bump out and Catina door.


Starting to take shape.

We had another bit of a setback hosting our in laws during the Glass fire evacuation, this also effected one of our workers. Progress is going well though. We just had the inspection before the drywall gets installed and they are installing the Catina door frame today.

I need to decide on two things, so let me know if you have any thoughts or recommendations. First is the size, and thickness of a metal panel to be mounted behind the background system. It will be used with magnets for copy work and I'm contemplating covering it with black material. The second is where to mount or not, a squeegee board. I could just use piece of plastic and store it when not in use.

Roof is complete, The existing shingles only have a few years left so in a few years we will be replacing the whole roof with a metal one. This should be better in case of fire and I like they way they look as well.



Catina door frame going in today


Foam insulation for the vaulted ceiling went in yesterday.


Backer boards for wall mounting the enlargers.

The bottom of a 16x20 flat bottom tray makes a great squeegee board .....

MattKing said:

The bottom of a 16x20 flat bottom tray makes a great squeegee board .....

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Nice, I hadn't thought of that one. I also have some acrylic sheets I use to cover trays for short periods. This one is pretty cool but takes up a lot of space I don't have. http://dunningphoto.com/2024sb.html

Just look for a fridge being thrown out and swipe the glass shelves-that's where I got my squeegee boards.

Fujicaman1957 said:

Just look for a fridge being thrown out and swipe the glass shelves-that's where I got my squeegee boards.

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Nice tip!

we are very close to completion. I will send a link to a blog with photos when finished. Here are a few so far.

I like the shelf for the SSK, but can you get your tanks in and out without taking it off the shelf and hooking up the feed lines each time? I put mine on the counter next to the sink and ran the feed lines down into bottles in the lower cabinets and will hook the water line into it as well. Humm, now you've got me thinking about freeing up some of that counter space similarly LOL.

Mike

Michael Firstlight said:

I like the shelf for the SSK, but can you get your tanks in and out without taking it off the shelf and hooking up the feed lines each time? I put mine on the counter next to the sink and ran the feed lines down into bottles in the lower cabinets and will hook the water line into it as well.

Mike

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Thanks Mike, Here are a few shots showing the set up. The small tank is no problem but the big tank won’t fit. I didn’t think of it until the shelf was complete. I haven’t used the large tank yet so I forgot to consider it. I plan on making a hole in the end panel if I find the need to use the big tank. I can trim it out so it won’t look so bad.

Ahh, that work and a hole in the side will suffice. I couldn't tell from the first pic that you had routed your feed lines from the rear - brilliant. We're lucky we have 8 reel tanks at all - I've got two of them and they are rare.

Mike

Michael Firstlight said:

Ahh, that work and a hole in the side will suffice. I couldn't tell from the first pic that you had routed your feed lines from the rear - brilliant. We're lucky we have 8 reel tanks at all - I've got two of them and they are rare.

Mike

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And expensive!