Insulation?

[OGGrape]

Hello, I'm new to the forums and have a pretty big issue.

My boss gave me the opportunity to live in a really nice house. However the catch was, that the entire basement was a grow OP. All of it is for medical purposes and perfectly legal. He told me at first there would be times the entire house would smell really bad and times it would hardly smell at all. (Veg and Flowering from what I've gathered.) There is about 30-40 plants in the basement. One Veg room and 2 Flowering rooms. Each room has its own A/C and has Carbon Filters. He use to vent outside but the whole block smelled bad.

I have never been a marijuana smoker nor have I ever really liked the smell. I've tried it a few times and just never liked the way it made me feel. Eventually I learned to cope with the smell and within a week or two I was pretty use to it and it no longer bothered me. After about a month I was told I reaked like weed, Sometimes it wasn't bad and sometimes it was really bad. Now its to the point where I smell it lingering on myself all the time.

Everything I own smells completely of weed, My Car keys, Wallet, Blankets, etc.. the other day I got pulled over and the cops said he smelled Marijuana and had the right to search my car. I told him go ahead I have nothing on me nor do I smoke.

I bought a air purifier hoping it would combat the smell or at least bring it down a bit and it worked but just for my bedroom. It did bring the smell in my room down quite a bit but all my clothes still smell.

I did some investigating and he used what he called "Panda Film" to Insulate the rooms. The Furnace is located on the outside of the rooms but I believe they are leaking the smell and its traveling through the vents. You can smell it pretty strong if you lean down by the A/C vents. I bought Carbon Vent filters hoping this would bring the smell down, Which it did a little bit.

I was thinking of building a "Carbon Scrubber for each air vent as well as the intake vent and getting a HEPA filter for the furnace. Hoping to eliminate most of the smell. Other than that is there any way to almost completely combat the strong smell? From what I gathered he grows the Strains "OG" "Alien" and "Girl Scout Cookie". Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Seems like your boss didn't consider sealing the rooms (from the rest of the house) when he designed/built things. For a major grow operation, I'd think that would have been one of the first steps. If smell can travel freely, I would worry about moisture, and the possibility of mold within the wall spaces (since large numbers of cannabis - or other plants - growing indoors under intense lights tends to transpire quite a bit of water in a day).

If also seems like his odor-prevention and -reduction strategy is not working. Such things need to be correctly sized for the task. Even though it is a legal grow, one does not want to draw unnecessary attention to it. Neighbors can become annoyed (and, while "it is a free country," lol, it is better to have happy neighbors than ones who have no inclination to help or to pay attention if/when there is a problem). Thieves might sense a target of opportunity. This might be part of why he invited you to live there...

If you could tie all the exhausts together, you could send their outputs into one room and then install an industrial-strength ozone machine. That destroys odors - but O₃ is highly reactive and not at all safe for human consumption in high (or even moderate) doses so, again, rooms would need to be sealed well.

Negative air pressure should help keep the odor out of the rest of the house. If you have a rotten egg in a box, but a strong exhaust fan is running to carry the odor away in one direction, you are not likely to smell it standing on the other side of the box. Perhaps your boss thought there was some benefit of installing intake fans, lol? I have never felt that they were a good idea... Properly-sized passive intake vents, along with properly-sized exhaust fans should be used, IMHO. And one needs to consider the additional load involved with moving air through a carbon scrubber. Axial fans - or at least most of them - do not tend to perform well when operating under a load, and generally cannot meet their specified CFM capability under such conditions. That is why "squirrel-cage" fans, like Dayton blowers are good.

Also, if he is using open reflectors (as opposed to "sealed, air-cooled" fixtures) - and large grows often have them - then he is probably moving a lot of heat through the carbon filters along with the odor. This would make the carbon less efficient and he would, therefore, need to "oversize" them. They also tend to become saturated (so to speak) quicker than they would if the air passing through the carbon is relatively cool.

"Hobby" and small personal grows... These things are often started at will, on a whim, and can be modified (somewhat) as time goes by and a need to do so is seen. But larger grows... they really need to be planned out ahead of time with all facets considered - and dealt with - in advance.

There is a reason that some people manage to make their livings by designing/building large grow facilities - they have learned to thing of (most) every possibility.

 

[OGGrape]

Wow thanks for the elaborate reply! After much research since this post I have also noted the moisture and mold issues that can occur. I brought it up to him and he seemed to be a little interested and to our findings we found some mold.

Since this post I have investigated the rooms a lot further and found a 15in x id say 4 ft carbon activated filter that was not plugged in. I plugged it in and overnight it made a world of a difference. I convinced him to buy a few more. My thought was do 2 in each room. I wasn't worried about the veg room because that just smells like flowers.

The smell is not too bad outside of the house. Its more so overpowering when you walk in the garage as its connected to the front of the house. He is using small O-Zone Machines in each room. I dont know if they are plugged in and working but there are gas lines hooked up to each one. He is also using reflector style light fixtures.

Since this post I went and purchased for myself a 10 x 39 in Black Ops Carbon Filter and a 10in Phat fan for the upstairs. I also found a website that sells carbon activated furnace filters which I have also purchased. I am waiting for those to come in and I will see what happens then.

Michigan is coming out with some new Medical Marijuana laws soon which he is now freaking out about because from the sounds of it you will need to purchase licenses to grow so many plants. Which will cost a lot of money.