Darkroom Construction Tips

[Aggie]

..

[lee]

I get to paint my darkroom tomorrow. I spent today finishing the dry wall mudding (texture). I tried to make it look like adobe walls. Then we will need to put the base board molding on. It is gonna be cedar fencing material as that is the cheapest thing I can buy that will work. This will help keep the dust from the outside from coming in. (I hope) I have an aircleaner that I hope can keep up. We may hang the darkroom door this weekend also. We may tile the front room (finishing area and office). The floors are gonna be tile (that is what is there now) and mopped to a farethewell then waxed and waxed and then those nice rubber matts on the exposed areas will be used around the sinks and the enlarger areas.

We missed the April 1, dead line by a great deal.

lee\c

[glbeas]

Just remember those nice rubber mats are dust magnets, which may or may not be good. If you clean them outside the darkroom regularly then they will suck up the dust from your feet as you move about. If not they become an unrelenting source of tiny little spots on your pictures.
I forget, are you creating a positive pressure ventilation system in the darkroom? Works better than anything to keep exterior dust out.

[lee]

you cannot remember because I have never mentioned it. Thanks for reminding me. I will have to talk to my darkroom partners about it.


lee\c

[lee]

We plan on removing the rubber mats on a cleaning day and hauling them all down to the car wash and giving them a good cleaning.



lee\c

[glbeas]

Keep an eye on them. As they age they may start shedding rubber dust and other stuff. We had them at work and no amount of sweeping would get the dirt off them (this is in a bindery) and even if they looked clean if you had to get on your hands and knees on them to work under the folder you got a thick layer of dirt on your clothes. I preferred the bare floor.
I have seen a variety that had a hard layer laminated to the top side that stayed considerably cleaner. Ever run into those before?

[lee]

Thanks for the concern. I have never seen the hard rubber ones. The front room (my office and finishing room) will be ceramic tiles.

Anything will be better than what is there now. It has old floor tiles that if you look at them hard, they come up. With dirt. I may remove all the tiles(lots of labor here) and seal the concrete and stain the floor then wax to a fairthewell. We are still a little bit aways from that.


lee\c

[Phil Handforth]

I currently use anti-fatigue soft compound matting. The 'stipples' that form the natural texture of the surface allow the sole to deposit dust within the 'channels'. The soft nature of the compound itself allows the dust to positively adhere to the mat itself. One can then jet clean outside the darkroom, cleaning the dirt outside rather than simply moving the dirt 'within' the rom. Like anything, it works to a point and is very comfortable under foot too!