Hey everybody:
So, after way too long a story that would bore you to absolute tears, I have decided to share my new darkroom build with you and talk about why I am doing what. Hopefully this will help you if and when you go to build a lab of your own.
An abbreviated history. This will be my fourth darkroom, so I have been around the block on this. Almost two years ago I retired and moved all my stuff which was a lot of stuff from near Seattle to SE Missouri out in the middle of some very hilly (mountainous means something different when you are from Washington State than it does everywhere else) and beautiful land smack dab in the center of the USA. This required me to purchase a 26 foot box truck and drive it 28,600 miles during 6 round trips and one one way trip from Seattle to our new used home here in Missouri. I moved a full machine shop, full cabinetmaking shop, functional darkroom, etc. etc. etc. That was a large job. Nothing could be done until the workshop was complete because all things that are important in life flow from the workshop. The home is now livable and the workshop is finished. Phew! Finally a year and a half into this move it is time to start the photo lab.
In my three other darkrooms, there were always design issues that bugged me. The first lab set up in the corner of a basement was very nice temperature wise, but small and cramped with no running water and no ventilation, it was awful mixing stop bath. The second was in a different house which is usually the only reason we ever build a new one right? The second was larger, in a bedroom. I plumbed water in but ventilation was still very bad and there was carpet on the floor that my wife wanted to keep in the house for some unknown wife reason. Carpet equals dust and it gets everywhere on everything. The popcorn ceiling made matters worse. So, due to dust this second darkroom was almost unusable. The third darkroom was much better, it was once again back in a basement which I much prefer for darkroom location. A solid concrete floor keeps enlargers and stuff from wiggling. The temp is more consistent. There tends to be less popcorn ceilings. I had set it up like all the books said, a wet bench and a dry bench. It worked, but it was small. The sink was too big for the space. The table was too big for the space. It was hard to lightproof the door. One part of the room had acoustic tiled suspended ceiling . Arrrrgh, what is with me and dust generating ceilings??? But it did work.
Now that I am in my forever home, it was time to make a forever darkroom. OK, ceilings, smooth, painted, sheetrock, non-dust generating. The floor concrete. that's great if there is plumbing. Walls, white paint on sheetrock. Lots of electrical and plumbing needs to be there so I will never be hampered if I want to change something. OK, when I purchased this home All of this was going through my mind. No question there was going to be a darkroom, question was what quality would it be when it was done? So, fast forward over a year. most of the boxes are unpacked, storage has been built, Maybe only 100 boxes to go. Essentially we are there. When buying this manufactured home with a full concrete semi-finished basement, I knew before we moved in exactly where I wanted the lab to go, in the SE corner of the basement. There was a small bump in the road on Darkroom Drive. Where I wanted the darkroom to go was filled with a laundry room and bathroom. So I ripped that outa there. We removed a vanity, toilet, shower stall and the wall between the laundry room and bathroom which included a pocket door. Then I ripped out the door to the garage and two windows and after framing in where they were, covered the holes with OSB inside and out and painted them. Poof! No more pesky openings in that wall.
With a manufactured home there is all these I-beams and stuff under the house that supports it when they are driving it down the freeway. At that point I started to photograph the progress with my cell phone. In the first picture you can
see all the beams and stuff under the house. Also it collects dust which will rain down upon you and your negatives. The answer was to put in a ceiling. I looked at all sorts of options including suspended ceilings. In the end to get what I wanted and avoid the hassle and expense of sheetrock installation, I built my own. I started with 1/8 inch thick hardwood plywood which is sold as door skins for refinishing doors. It is cheap, lightweight and full of slivers. I ripped the sheets to 2 feet wide, then crosscut to the width of the room. To these panels I screwed some cheap 1x2 to give the panels a little but of structural strength so they do not droop. some of the cheapest flat white paint that I could get at the big orange box store was applied to the panels and enough 2x2 to go all the way around the room. Why white? Safelight is wonderful to have during printing. White walls reflect safelight. I know many of you think darkrooms should be painted black. No, only the entrances need to be painted black to minimize reflections of exterior light into the inner sanctum. If you have white walls you need less safelights. If they are black, then it is difficult to see into corners and such because the walls are absorbing all that safelight. So white is what I wanted. Just had to make sure there were NO light leaks. Light leaks would bounce around in there and wreck everything. A ceiling works well to block those light leaks. Photo 2 shows the ceiling in place. This took most of two days to put in. It works well and all the panels are individually removable to allow access to electrical and plumbing. I am very happy with the undusty ceiling.
Time for breakfast. I will write more soon. Right now you are caught up with where things currently stand. Let me know if you want me to continue sharing this or if it is just a dumb repeat.
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