[pure-silver] Re: New old home, new lab questions

  • From: William Harting <wm.harting@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 16:48:54 -0400

Eric, when I had a cellar darkroom, with all my photo life down there,
I found a dehumidifier to be necessary during summer in the greater
Boston area -- the cellar became unbearably humid. And the
dehumidifier made it unbearably stuffy, so I eventually went with an
air conditioner. I'm afraid photographic gear and materials are less
tolerant than humans of humidity (and I lived in Thailand for a year
and a half). For a while I just air-conditioned the darkroom but found
that a room-size AC was able to keep the entire cellar cool and dry.

-bill



On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Eric Nelson <emanmb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've had to paste the response from Ken below from the archive so I can
> respond.
>
> Thank you Ken!
>
> It's a GFA furnace.
>
> Presently I posses a small darkroom exhaust fan but I may, and probably
> should go
>
> with a larger one.  I also have the light tight vent for inflow.
>
> Sepia toning worries me as I'd like all wet processes to be contained within
> the darkroom
>
> which is also where the paper will be.  I can store the boxes of seldom used
> paper outside
>
> the darkroom.  Toning happens infrequently but...
>
> That's good to know about the paint's durability.  I'm afraid that the tiles
> will be beyond my
>
> budget.  The cement is older, but has not been treated as far as I can tell.
> As I mentioned before,
>
> and maybe I'm worrying over nothing, I worry about the humidity given off by
> the cement
>
> floor, hence my interest in a sealant.  My entire photographic "life" will
>  be stored down there
>
> so a dehumidifier is probably going to be employed.
>
> I will probably have to go with electric heat and baseboard heat may be the
> answer but
>  I
>
> haven't researched that subject yet.  AC may or may not be an issue here in
> Chicago but
>
> we've had our share of hot days.  Some years we've hardly needed to turn it
> on but having
>
> a wife from Thailand means our tolerances are perhaps different. =)  A hot
> darkroom is
>
> not good though and I'll have to see how warm it gets down there to see if
> it's worthwhile.
>
> I've got a nice Leedal water temp. control panel with a filter built in.
> I've found that filtering
>
> water is a necessity for film.
>
> We're working on ways to max out the ceiling height esp. since I have XL
> Omegas and a
>
> tabletop DeVere 8x10.  Knowing that about 8ft being a better height is a
> goal to aim for.
>
> Eric
>
> Congratulations on becoming a home owner!
>
> Re: the floor. Assuming the concrete floor was poured at least a year ago,
> and
> it is not flaking or scaling, a paint will suffice. I tried the epoxy paint
> once, and since decided that it wasn't worth it. Since then, I've used any
> paint spec'd for concrete floor use, available at WalMart in the $10-15
> price
> range. It will stain, it will wear off in traffic areas, and it will have to
> be
> repainted annually, but that's what happened with the $40 epoxy paint.
> If your floor is in poor condition, ie: flaking, rough, cracked, consider a
> 'floating' floor of water/chemical resistant tiles. This consists of
> interlocking tiles about 1/4" thick that are laid over a padded
> underlayment.
> Cost will be a couple dollars per square foot.
>
> Re; the furnace. Depends on what type of furnace it is as to whether there
> will
> be a dust problem. If it's an oil or gas fired hot water system, I'd say no
> dust problem. If it's a coal-fired hot air furnace, I'd say maximum problem!
> Consider putting the furnace in it's own room with an exterior-type door-
> this
> has seals all around it. Second choice would be an exterior type door for
> the
> darkroom.
>
> Re: ventilation. For every cubic foot of air leaving your darkroom, a cubic
> foot of air must enter, and it will come in through any entry point
> available-
> cracks around the door, elec. outlet covers, etc. Be sure that the air
> coming
> in is clean. Put in vents with furnace filters for air to enter. Consider
> having air forced into the room, more than is being exhausted (positive
> pressure ventilation). Exhaust the air from oder producing areas- the sink,
> and
> heat producing areas- the enlarger(s).
>
> Re: heating. Electric baseboard is cheap to install, and easy to control,
> but
> it may be very expensive to operate in your area. Consider a room air
> conditioner unit rather than a central air duct, depending on your climate
> (I
> don't know where you are- obviously, if you're in Alaska, an air conditioner
> is
> probably not needed!)
>
> Other things:
> Consider adding filtration to the water lines. Consider a big water heater.
> No
> matter how many eletrical outlets you have, it won't be enough! The outlets
> near the sink must be GFI (ground fault interrupter) type, but have a second
> circuit on the dry side. Install a phone extension. Install an intercom,
> maybe
> just a cheap one to outside the door. Get a good stereo system! The area
> around
> the enlarger should be flat black (cut down reflections from light leaks),
> but
> the rest of the room should be gloss white.
>
> I'm on my 5th darkroom, and each one has taught me things that I wanted to
> do
> differently. For example, in my current darkroom(s), I discovered that
> ceiling
> heights must be over 8', or you may have to cut holes in the ceiling over
> the
> enlarger(s)! You also can't have too many trash cans (plastic), counter
> space,
> storage space, or lights.
>
> Good luck. Try a google search on darkrooms- you may find pictures of other
> darkrooms.
>
> Ken Hart
>
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