Wall building 101.

Darkrooms on a budget are specialties of plenty of people here, I know. I'm in that boat. I'll have a slightly larger budget than expected (around $700 or so), but that has to include the wall I have to build, the plumbing, the electrical, and ventilation. It doesn't include supplies for actual printing such as the enlarger, timer, chemicals, etc.

I was wondering about a cheaper alternative to building an actual wood + sheet rock wall and realized that I may have a temporary solution until I can gather up more funds.

A few years ago my dad was going to build an ice house. It never got built, but he bought a TON of styrofoam insulation to build it. I think my uncle might still have it. My plan is to double or even triple it up (it's about an inch thick by 5 feet high or so) and build my walls out of that. I don't know how it would work, but I do know that it would be light tight if painted a few coats of black, and possibly even without the paint at double or triple the normal thickness.

I'm lucky enough to have family who can do both electrical and plumbing for me, most likely just for the price of parts and the promise of a print or five when I finish. I could probably put up a painted plywood wall as well.

What way should I go with this?

In his book Post Exposure, Ctein describes the walls of his darkroom, which are standard stud wall structure, but covered on both sides by black plastic sheeting rather than drywall. He says the disadvantages are that the plastic "eats" light and he can't hang things just anywhere, as you would with drywall. You can, however, set up blocking between studs to hang things. I can't find it now, but I believe there was some comment about the plastic attracting and holding dust through static charges.

Lee

Yeah, that's why I didn't want to go with plastic. The styrofoam would be a good cheaper option, but the plywood may be a better one. I just have to build the one wall after all...it's not going to have any of the electrical or plumbing, so I don't have to worry about that.

Stephanie -

There are several very inexpensive alternatives to traditional walls - sheets of black plastic hung from the rafters, for example.

But the cost of building a wall is really trivial compared to the other costs of a darkroom. Specifically, around here a section of wall that is 4 ft wide and the usual 8 feet tall would require 4-2x4's and two sheets of sheet rock. (Since this is a light-containment wall and not a load-bearing wall, 2ft spacing between vertical studs is acceptable.). Around here, the cost of those materials would be less than $15 - multiply that by the number of 4 ft sections you will need. Add another $25 for a gallon of paint that will cover all the walls and ceiling.

Incidentally, the main components of cost and work associated with a wall are in cutting and framing the studs. Once you are at that point, sheet rock is the cheapest stuff around to cover up the studs, and it has the advantage of taking paint very nicely.

You will probably want a door - add $60. Electrical - figure $50 plus $10 for each receptacle. Plumbing - that really depends on whether the space had hot/cold supply lines and a drain line already in place, or if they have to be piped in from somewhere else in the house. If you can do the work yourself (or have someone in the family who will do it for you), you probably can get by for $100 or thereabouts. Ceiling - sheet rock is the cheapest solution, figure 10 cents per square foot. Floor: depends on what the space you are using started with. If its a typical concrete-floored basement, the cheapest solution might be to lay out some rubber tile flooring - figure about $1 per square foot.

As long as I can do the one wall plus plumbing, ventilation, and electrical for $700 I should be okay. I'm buying other supplies as we speak gradually.

The styrofoam will act as a dust magnet also.
It's funny how much light will pass through styro insulation.
The construction of a stud wall even with drywall on just one
side shouldn't cost much more than $100. Door could be opaque
curtain backing from the fabric shoppe.

Your darkroom building experience sounds a lot like mine will be/is.
I don't know if you samy my post earlier (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Good Luck!
Brian

I didn't want to take up that thread with my question, so I figured I'd post my own. Maybe I should just build a normal stud wall.

Do they have places in your area where you can buy surplus building materials at a discount? I live in the "RV Capital of the World" so you can't turn a corner around here without going past some sort of surplus business. My darkroom door, for example, is a regular interior hollow-core door and I picked it up for $10. It has a water stain about two inches across on the bottom -- and it was too long for my space, so I cut that end off. If you use a regular door, pay special attention to light sealing it. Take my word for it; self-adhesive foam strips will work well for about a week, then you'll spend the next n years learning new swear words. I ended up making flexible light-tight hinge strips out of 6-mil black plastic sheeting and it has held up well for the past five years. I don't think I could live without my staple gun...

Aside from surplus outlets, I bought the cheapest grade of 2x4's I could find -- they were seriously crummy and dirt cheap. I didn't need ruler-straight lumber and didn't give a fig about knots, so I saved some there. I like having dry-wall on the interior surface of my darkroom: I painted it dark gray and it's very easy to clean. I've had a darkroom where the walls and ceiling were 6-mil black plastic and it was cheap and it worked but it was a pain to clean and tended to attract dust, especially when the humidity went down.

I'm wondering whether you can sheath the walls the best you can with the insulation and just cover one side with the cheapest thin plywood or paneling you can find? Don't know prices in your area -- around here I think that drywall may be cheaper but if one of the outlets got in a load of surplus interior RV paneling, that might be a lot less expensive.

Exhaust fans -- try a bathroom exhaust fan. Snake the exhaust hose through a right angle or two and point the outlet end into a dark corner and it will be light-tight. Trust me on this -- buy the quietest one you can find! You'll thank me later.

Get someone who knows electrical work to do that for you. Maybe it's just me but it took me a lot of fooling around to get everything between my three power outlets and two switches correct. Remember to add a couple of outlets you don't think you need right now. You will need them, you just don't know it yet. Ok, I'm not an electrician.

Think about light management -- you don't want to be reaching for the exhaust fan switch and turn the white lights on by accident! I buried my white-light switch in the wall next to the doorway, so you actually reach into a little recess to flip it. That way I can't accidentally bump it in the dark. It's also on a wall with no other switches. The fan switch is near the fan, on a different wall. The safelight switch is on that wall, too, but about a foot and a half away from the fan switch and is actually a different kind of switch so that it feels different in the dark.

Umm, what else. Your floor is probably concrete: paint it, it will save you tremendous frustration with dust. Garage sales and auctions are the least expensive way to get tables and cabinets but building them yourself is almost as cheap and will more likely get you what you need for your space. 1x2" lumber and 1/2" plywood and some wood screws can do almost anything, if you sit back and think about it for a minute. Surprisingly, making things square is harder than it looks; equally surprising, good enough is not that hard. If a klutz like me can make these things, you shouldn't have any problem.

Have you thought about your sink yet?

Good luck! Don't forget a snapshot or two for us!

mjs

I used 2x3 studs for the framework then went to Home Depot and bought
1/4 3x4 sheets of louan(spelling) and screwed those into the studs.
Here is a pic for you. It's pretty cheap stuff, but allowed me to cut a hole for my ventilation and I can hang shelves and such as well by screwing them into the studs. Oh, and my wet bench is made from an old wooden futon. Used about every piece of it.

I used white panelling on the existing walls (3) and then used a combination of panelling and plywood on the wall that I had to build. I built a 5ft wall with door.

5x7 Darkroom:
Total panelling for existing and new wall- 7 sheets
2x4 studs- 8
Drop ceiling (I would choose drywall if redoing)- 2 boxes of 12x12inch panels and several mounting strips
chain type light fixtures- 2 (one for room light, one for second safelight)

Electrical
wiring- 50 feet of #12 romex
gfci outlet- 1
standard outlet- 1
power strip- 1 (enlargers, timers, and radio connect here)


plumbing-
steel braided washing machine lines to homemade waterpanel-2
I used y connectors from the existing washing machine since this was a laundry room.

It was not very much money and created a 5x7 foot space for the darkroom.


In a small room, you will also need to build racks to stack the print trays. I have 1 rack with devloper and stop trays. Another with 2 fix trays, and then an 11x14 Patterson print washer.

I opted to frame out the partition wall I needed, and used plywood rather than sheetrock. The rationale was that I needed to be able to hang shelves, the framed wall could act as an air inlet labyrinth (not needed, it turns out), and could accomodate a pocket door because a swing door would not fit the space. The pocket door has some 3/4 inch baffles for the bottom and receiving jamb that make adequate light traps. You do have to step over the threshold.

You need to look at the prices of interior grade 1/4 inch plywood, luan veneer, and sheetrock. You will need access to a table saw or circular saw to cut the wood sheets with any control. I am happy with plywood painted with a low gloss white, but some people like the smooth plaster finish.

Framing a wall does make insulation easier. Either that styrofoam or glass fibre would do.

I have a pull cord for the white light in the middle of the room. Easy to find, and you really do not notice it. Safe with wet hands, too, even if you have GFCI's installed.

I also have an alternate exit in case the pocket door jambs. It is earthquake country over here, after all!

Details are here: http://www.gapatterson.org/photos/darkroom.html

Steel studs, galvanized metal channel, check the price difference between them and wood. Sheet rock or gyp board over them. Fire proof and the best cheapest wall you can make.

Curt said:

Steel studs, galvanized metal channel, check the price difference between them and wood. Sheet rock or gyp board over them. Fire proof and the best cheapest wall you can make.

Click to expand...

True, but they are also harder for the home carpenter to work with. I've done metal roofing so I have some experience and I thought about steel studs. But in the end for my wall it was cheaper to go with wood than metal due to the new tools that would wind up being needed as well as the learning curve for building a good wall. The metal studs basically require the sheetrock as reinforcement. A good stud wall uses the sheetrock as covering and sound insulation.

Mike

About 30 years ago I set up a darkroom in a concrete floor chickenhouse with two layers of heavy plastic sheet sandwiching salvaged insulation for the two interior walls and cheap paneling to hold insulation in the outer walls and ceiling. I'd be using it yet if it hadn't burned down. I'm using two layers of heavy plastic sheet for one wall of the present darkroom. Plastic sheet might attract dust, but better on the walls than on the film.

Ooooh - looks really nice!

pesphoto said:

I used 2x3 studs for the framework then went to Home Depot and bought
1/4 3x4 sheets of louan(spelling) and screwed those into the studs.
Here is a pic for you. It's pretty cheap stuff, but allowed me to cut a hole for my ventilation and I can hang shelves and such as well by screwing them into the studs. Oh, and my wet bench is made from an old wooden futon. Used about every piece of it.

Click to expand...

Stephanie, have you considered something along the lines of this? At current exchange rates it is outside your budget, but it is a great 'use anywhere' solution for those with limited space.

Homosote for the walls, 24" on the stud spacing. Won't hold up a house but won't fall down either. 2x4 at 24" will hold shelving and the homosote takes paint and acts as bulletin board as well.

To get the most for the least, scrounge. It can be amazing what you find if you scrounge for materials. Curbside in the city on trash day, and roadside anytime in the country. The dump or recycing center or transfer station... is a great place to scrounge.

Home Despot often has damager lumber available for cheeep. Damaged is just a state of mind. I've found near full sheets of plywood curbside in Boston on trash day!

Scrounge first, then design around what you get.

Best,

C

8' premium grade studs cost only about $2.75 at home depot. It's really NOT expensive. This is not the place to compromise. You can often find leftover drywall homeowners are willing to just let you pick up free of cost. Compromise on other things. It should be EASILY less than $100 to build two good-sized walls (maybe 3, depending on size - including electrical). If you need a hand, let me know. I've been an architect for about 12 years - I can tell you specifically how to do what ever you need - and end up with a superb quality job - on the cheap. Also - I recommend using SCREWS, not nails, wherever possible. It makes for a FAR more solid job (actually - you'll find that fasteners are going to be a good chunk of your budget - that - and paint!).

I'd be using it yet if it hadn't burned down.

a good chunk of your budget - that - and paint!

A couple of noteworthy points, guys.

One of the best reasons for going the drywall route is that the stuff basically won't burn, and because it protects the wood inside it really slows down the pace of a catastrophe. I know and you know that you will never have a fire (after all, your free electrical help is from an experienced professional who isn't trying to save money, right?) but you could be talking about the difference between a big mess and a total loss.

One of the better uses for styrofoam in a small darkroom is a stud-width break-out panel, which you can crash through if necessary (i.e.--when your natural disaster of choice jams the regular door).

The best source for cheap paint (after the mis-mix offering at the local hardware---around here, $1/quart or $3/gallon) is neighbors who have various bits left over. Mix enough partial cans and you nearly always get a pleasing sort of tawny beige...