[pure-silver] Re: New Darkroom
- From: Tim Daneliuk <tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:45:14 -0600
On 11/13/2017 01:18 PM, Sauerwald Mark (Redacted sender mark_sauerwald for
DMARC) wrote:
I've spent the last 3 years without a darkroom, and am finally getting close
to being in the dark again.
We bought a new (to us) home, and I am building a darkroom in the basement.
I have a space which is 18' long, 7' wide - so far I have built the walls,
and am in the process of finishing the drywalling. If all goes well, I will
be able to start developing film in December.
The wet side has two sinks - one is 9' long and will be used for print
developing - it is wood and fiberglass. The other is 5' long, stainless, and
I use it for washing and mixing chemicals - I also have a cabinet which I
built to hold my Jobo processor, which drains into the stainless sink. The
Dry side will have work space, and room for a couple of enlargers. Outside
the darkroom itself, I have a bench which has print drying screens, a dry
mount press and storage for negatives.
Once I get close to done, I'll post pictures.
Mark
(Tacoma, WA)
Cool, I know that feeling well of building a darkroom. (See link below)
Some ideas:
- If you still can, tack vapor barrier plastic sheets against the concrete
walls with construction cement to suppress concrete dust and moisture.
I stapled mine to the floor joists above, and then tacked to the wall from
ceiling
to floor, so that the wall studding rested on it.
- It's not a terrible idea to put your wall studs up on cedar shims so you
have 1/4" clearance or so between floor and stud base. Then nail through
those.
That way, a little incidental liquid on the floor will not migrate into the
walls
so easily.
- Never use fiberglass insulation in a basement. The ground will keep
everything right
around 68-70F year around - cool in the summer, warm in the winter. For my
outer walls that were by concrete, I used the styrofoam sheets made for
basement insulation (the fit exactly between studs) doubled up for a bit more
insulation. If they get wet, they don't mold like fiberglass.
- Before you put up the drywall, vacuum everything behind, under, along, above
...
the studs thoroughly to minimize construction dust.
- To minimize drywall dust, wait until the mud has almost set up and then
wipe smooth with a lintless damp rag, or a fine cell sponge. This minimizes
the amount of seam sanding you have to do.
- Don't nail the drywall up - glue and screw it. It has a far lower
tendency to crack that way.
- You *have* to paint drywall or it will be an eternal source of dust.
Recommend you tint your primer with your final color. New drywall sucks
primer like crazy and primer is a lot cheaper than real paint. I did this
with 2-3 coats of primer, which meant I only needed one really good topcoat
of paint.
- On the subject of paint. An eggshell semi-gloss is perfect in the darkroom.
It wipes
up well.
- I put tile down in my darkroom because I wanted the space to have resale value
when we sold the house. But, if you're going to leave the floor bare
concrete, you shoul
apply some of the mop on acrylic concrete sealer found in the home
improvement store.
- All wet side darkroom outlets should be on a GFI circuit. I've heard
various stories about whether to use GFI outlets or just have a GFI
breaker. Some say the outlets are implicated in catching fire, but
I've never had a problem with mine.
Congrats, good luck, and have a peek below:
https://www.tundraware.com/Photography/Darkroom/
--
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Tim Daneliuk tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Key:
http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/
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