On 12/21/2011 04:58 PM, shannon Stoney wrote:
My partner, who is an architect, says that he thinks the
basement could be made moisture-tight, to prevent too much
humidity. But it seems as if it would be difficult to ventilate
properly. I have a hood and an exhaust fan that I'm going to
move to the new darkroom. But I can't quite visualize how I
would get the fumes away from the house and any windows. It
seems as if you'd have to have a really tall chimney of some
sort. It seems as if it would have to go up the side of the
house, which is pretty tall.
Let me put in a vote for the basement here. A basement - properly
finished - is dry, cool, and has low dust. Concrete is supposed
to be damp ... on the outside where it touches the earth. The inside,
once dried out will be dusty, so:
- Assuming the basement does not actually leak (a different problem
requiring remediation), you can reduce both dust and dampness by
hanging a sheet of plastic vapor barrier along each wall (whether you
plan to use that portion of the wall or not *and tack it to the
concrete
with construction glue dotted every foot or two. The top of the barrier
can initially be tacked to the floor joists above the basement along
the concrete wall line to hold them in place.
- Wash the floor with a concrete cleaner until it is as clean as you
can get it (you're likely going to throw out a mop head or two doing
this. Then put several coats of acrylic floor finisher down on that
clean floor. This massively reduces dust from the floor.
- If you live in a generally humid area, you can have an HVAC person
come in, add some A/C sends/returns to the basement so that it pulls
water out of the air. (In a basement, the sends go high and the
returns
go low which is he inverse of what you do above ground.)
- You can also run a dehumidifier in the basement and drain the water
into
the floor drain.
- I did all the above. Then I actually finished the basement and
darkroom
both for aesthetics/resale value as well as further thermal and dust
control.
Behind the outside walls in the pictures below is a double layer of
styrofoam
insulation made specifically for basement/damp applications.
You NEVER use fiberglass in a basement because -if it does get wet
- it
will mildew and smell. In any case, you do not need tons of
insulation in a
basement because the *outside earth* insulates it very well. I live
near Chicago
and my basement sits at about 68F Winter or Summer because of this
natural
insulation property. If you use drywall as I did, be sure to use
several coats
of primer and then a semi-gloss paint to finish it - the stuff very
dusty if
it remains unfinished.
- A tile or linoleum floor will further suppress dust and make
cleanups a snap.
- I also had a second dryer vent installed on the building and ran
ducting from
a lightproof fan (you can see it above the left end of the sink) to
that
vent. This pulls air across the darkroom and outside. I made sure
that
my furnace next door had it own open vent to draw air from the open
area
away from the darkroom so that the fan in the darkroom would not draw
fumes down the furnace flue. That is, I made sure the fan had a path
from which to draw air and so did the furnace. A Carbon Monoxide
detector is a good idea to make sure you don't have a problem.
- I cannot stress these safety items enough:
. Whether you do it or hire an electrician, *use GFI outlets in a
darkroom*
(so water splashes will kill the power not electrocute you).
. Install outlets high on the wall, not low like on a main floor.
That
way a basement flood is unlikely to touch them. I believe code
requires this anyway.
. It is a REALLY good idea to have a plumber install one way valves on
the hot/cold water supply lines you'll use in the darkroom. This
prevents things like, say, having your dirty chemical water
siphoned back into the water mains if someone flushes a toilet
while you have a water hose laying in a tray.
I did all this as part of a larger basement finishing job - I love how it
turned out:
http://www.tundraware.com/Photography/Darkroom/
'Hope that gives you some ideas.
P.S. This may seem like a ton of work, but it's probably no more work
than
building an out building and it will be WAY more comfortable, dark,
and dry with far less effort IMHO.
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