Darkroom Construction

[Fleath]

Some of my best mates live in Alaska, I'm regularly regaled with tales of leaving the drinks on the front porch to keep them cold only to find them frozen later, and the state bird - the mosquito. I'd be more sympathetic if it wasn't summer here in Australia, but the best of luck to you, you sound like you're doing pretty good - I'll be keeping an eye on this topic.

[Troy Hamon]

Well...still mucking around getting things going...put up shelves tonight which is a good thing. A good activity to work off some thanksgiving repast. I need a bit more in supplies before I can finalize the shelf project, but I traded out my little shelves for longer and more shelves, and put the little shelves on the wall next to where the kids play. They will probably knock them off the wall until I finally give up and take them down, but they might not and they're excited to have a place to put more toys...pretty soon they'll be asking to go to the 'playroom' instead of the 'darkroom'.

The water pump hasn't arrived, but I haven't been ready to use it yet. But as of tomorrow, I'm ready. It is still cold here. As soon as the water pump arrives, it will warm up, but as long as the pump isn't here, I'm sure the forecast will be for cold weather...

[Troy Hamon]

Well, I didn't make it to the post office today, but I know the water pump arrived because the temperature hit 33 F today! I spent the morning trying to get water hooked up to the darkroom. Everything seemed like it was working, but the water wasn't making it in. Strange...I checked every step of the way and finally realized what the problem was. I had blown excess water out of the j-trap under the sink before I let everything freeze. But I hadn't blown excess water out of the line that brings water in from the outside. I have a spigot outside the darkroom that is reverse threaded so I can run a hose from the house and attach it. The pipe runs at a slight incline to an elbow that brings it up through the floor to another spigot under the laundry tub in the darkroom. I thought that this spigot would be draining itself down through the outside spigot without any problem. Apparently not. Somewhere in that section of pipe it was blocked. A lot of encouragement in the form of heat finally melted things, and then we were good to go.

The pipe under the floor is inside an insulated zone, insulation at the end around where the spigot goes through the wall and insulation below the floor joists. The pipe is between the joists. I found my left over fiberglass and packed it up past the elbow, then added extra foam on top of the foam that is beneath the floor joists. So extra insulation may help on the next round. I was sure glad that I had thought to make a cutout for access to the little plumbing section. Otherwise I would have been pulling a whole section of foam off.

So I filled the 200 gallon tank, mixed chemicals, filled the wash tray, and then blew out all the water lines that I could, so I won't have to fight that demon the next time. I wonder whether the gravity drain might have actually worked. It might be that since I left the spigot open, cold air infiltration accompanied with sweating led to condensation freezing it shut? Seems like this would require hot air infiltration into a cold zone instead of vice versa, but not sure that wouldn't also have been possible. Can't remember if any of the valves were open.

Anyway, for now I'm ready to go tomorrow and the next day. Might get another couple days beyond that out of the current tank, and then I should have a lift pump for the days when the weather never warms up. I feel like I almost have this figured out.

Next year when I build the skirting, I think I'm going to go ahead and insulate it after all. I dont' think it's possible to overinsulate...

[resummerfield]

Originally Posted by Troy Hamon

.....I dont' think it's possible to overinsulate...

Ah, the joys of living in Alaska. We have a “Guest Cabin” for summer guests that we shut down in the winter. Regardless of how well we plan it out--blowing the lines, draining the tanks and traps, and leaving all valves open--it’s always exciting turning the water back on in June. Good Luck!

[MurrayMinchin]

Ever thought of contacting NASA to sign on with them? You could be their consultant for the Mars Base darkroom.

Murray

P.S. It's a balmy -15 celsius (5 degrees F) here right now , and getting colder...thanks for sending the cold snap my way ! !

[Tom Kershaw]

I do enjoy this talk of cold weather. Here in Norwich, UK, when we get our annual 2 weeks (if that) of 10-15cm snow half the schools shut down and people forget how to drive!

[Troy Hamon]

Before we moved to Alaska, we were living in Seattle (I was one of those eternal graduate students...). I grew up on the other side of the mountains in Washington, where there really is a winter. We would always think it was just beyond funny how the entire city of Seattle went into crisis mode if there was a snowstorm and an inch of snow fell. But people just didn't have good tires, the city had all of two (2!) snowplows for the 700,000 people that lived there. Comical, but it really was pretty dangerous. Just watching people drive was dangerous, as when they slid off the road they might hit you...

Of course, when we moved to the Alaska bush, it was a bit different. Anchorage, despite being somewhat like a city (or, in an alternative view, a huge unplanned expansion of poorly planned housing developments and stripmalls...) gets lots of snow and keeps functioning. One time we were in Anchorage for a few days and as we prepared to leave we woke up to 12 inches of new snow and more falling...and we were stuck as was everyone else in town. Took about 4 hours to get the car out of the parking space it was snowed into, let alone out of the parking lot at the hotel.

And where we live, snow is pretty much a cosmetic improvement to the winter viewshed, as well as a way to make some use of all the winter toys that don't work without it. A couple days ago, one of the people from the National Weather Service, who is new here, said that the weather was warming up, but that it wasn't good news. Why not? Well...it looks like it's going to snow. You're kidding, right? Of course that's good news. Everybody here would love to have snow, it's free insulation, for one thing. Oh.

And it is free insulation. I'll pile it all around my skirting if it really does come. But right now I'm happy to announce that it is warm out there and I'll be working with the water hose hooked up today...

[glbeas]

Will heat tape work to keep a water line unfrozen inside proper insulation in that climate? Or does it not have the heating capacity for that?

[Troy Hamon]

Heat tape should work fine, but this brings up another problem...outlets. In order to install the heat tape, I would need to put another hole through the floor or bring power from outside the darkroom. I have two exterior sockets wired, but haven't managed to get them working. It appears as though the GFCI outlet doesn't quite fit in the exterior boxes. I know that isn't true, but I have a heck of a time getting it to fit and after I get it in, I can't make the outlet work. Another project for next summer. But for right now, I don't have an exterior outlet to use and I am trying not to carve more holes in my floor...if it doesn't work this way, I'll have to cut the hole and be done with it.

[Troy Hamon]

So far so good with the water. Worked with the hose hooked up for a couple days while it was pretty warm. It's warmed back up again, but I have a bunch of water in the tank I wouldn't mind draining...

The door doesn't open as smoothly as it did a year ago. I thought perhaps the pads were not level after a year of the freeze/thaw cycle, but they appear not to be the problem. The real problem is that the large beams they sent for skids are saggin slightly in the middle. The package I bought was designed for a 12x16, and when I extended it to 12x20 they didn't add in an extra set of material for more ground contact pads under the beams. So I pulled out the car jack and had at it. Lifted the beam in the center until the 2-ton car jack failed, as in wouldn't go any higher. That height would have been perfect, but of course I can't support it at the maximum height I can raise it to. Instead, that controls what I can get under it and then as it settles down there is some sagging again. I worked to get a good solid base of concrete pavers up as close as possible, and then a piece of wood that I could barely slide in. Not perfect, but the door works better. More fun to fix in the future. But I was thinking if I drain the 1600 lbs of water in the tank, the 2-ton jack might have a bit more to offer...maybe.

I also saw in the thread about floating lids blansky's (I think it was him, sorry for the lazy research if it was somebody else) plexiglass tray covers. I've been thinking about this for a while, and it gave me the extra push to go get them. I need 23.5x28 inch to cover the 20x24 trays I'm using, so I found some 28x30 sheets that only had to be cut one direction. Brought them home, cut them, sanded the edges, and don't know why I didn't do it eons ago. I like to minimize my need for venting the darkroom due to the fact that the air coming in is COLD! Well, tonight it isn't even quite freezing, but some days... Thanks to blansky for helping me save energy and, therefore, cash.