I am helping my teenaged daughter set-up her first darkroom. I know nothing except what I read. I am very excited for her because she has been dreaming of this and is taking her second photography class now. We have space in a small basement. There is no light source except around the door and we plan to drape that. My first two problems are ventilation and the sink. There is no ventilation although the ceiling is about 10 to 12 feet. Do I need something more? What? There is a crawlspace door about 2'x2' in the area which goes to the area under the house. There is also no water in the area. I have researched sinks on various web sites and found affordable ABS plastic 4 and 6 foot sinks. I have also found plans for building sinks. What do you suggest? She says she could develop the film at the kitchen sink and then could use jugs of water in the basement darkroom and would not have to have running water. I don't think it would be too hard to have my friend plumb water and drain from one of the plastic versions. How valuable are these sinks? Could she make do with trays on top of a folding table? Thank you for your help. I apologize for these elementary issues. I have learned in life that the research I put in on the front end saves me many mistakes later. Wendy

-- wendy fowlie (wendy4413@aol.com), August 30, 2000

Answers

I'm not discounting your daughter's interest in darkroom work, but I'd start with a minimum setup. Go dry for a while. Chemicals can easily be mixed over the kitchen sink and transported in jugs, and prints can be washed upstairs as well. You need a sturdy table for your enlarger and trays, but probably no special venting other than a lightproof grill in the door or in the wall if you're building walls. Heating and cooling the room will depend on where you are, of course. Later, if she really digs darkrooming, then run some plumbing (I assume there are some pipes nearby since it's a basement). Your local library should have books dealing with home darkrooms that will give you some ideas, and your daughter's class work probably will, too.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), August 30, 2000.

A dry darkroom is very usable. I used one for many years. If she uses RC papers, washing is minimized and she could use a bath tub for the short print washing needed.

I now have a properly plumbed, wired, and ventilated darkroom which is built into a new house, so every thing has been done correctly by my builder. The ABS sinks work well. I have an 8 foot sink which cost $500+ for sink and stand. Plan on attaching the ABS sink and stand to a sturdy wall, as they don't stand alone very well. A few people who I know have built there own sinks, but they seem to have a constant leak problem.

FWIW

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), August 30, 2000.

I do my darkroom work in a bathroom now, but when I finish my basement, there will be a space there. I've decided to go dry because of the location I've chosen and because it's easier to set up. I'll develop the film in a bathroom or in the kitchen using the sink as a water bath for constant temperature, and wash my prints in the bath tub.

If I were building a wet darkroom in my basement, I would choose the location based on the existing water supply and drain-waste-vent plumbing. If you have a bathroom in a basement, the easiest way to accomplish that would be to have the wall with the water supply and drain be common to the wet part of the darkroom.

Ideally, the enlarger should be on something sturdy. Trays can go on a folding table.

For me, ventilation is an issue. In the bathroom, I leave the fan on, and in my new space in the basement, I'll install a fan vented to the outside.

Dave

-- Dave Willis (willisd@medicine.wustl.edu), August 30, 2000.

I think your daughter is right. If she doesn't mind walking up and down the stairs from kitchen to darkroom, not having water is not a problem. I live in a small appartment, and so it just takes few strides to get to the bathroom, but I process my film and print my negatives in a room with no running water.

For processing, the stop-bath and fix are premixed and stored in a bottle anyway. For the developer you have to get water the right temperature and mix that with stock solution, so that is just one trip to the bathroom. Of course, once you finish fixing, you have to run to the bathroom to wash the film, unless you are using the Ilford washing technique, outlined on the Ilford homepage, in which case all you need are two buckets, one empty and one full of water.

For printing, the trays are lined up in a sink. I created a much simplified sink, it is basically a long board on which I glued and nailed (both) a little border. The whole thing I covered with 5 layers of waterproof paint, and I now use it to put my trays on top. Since I am quite careful, I have never had a major spill, and only droplet fall on the waterproofed board, which I wipe after each session. I only do Fiber based work, and this doesn't make it any more difficult. Prints which are not so important I leave in a water holding tray after fixing, until the end of the session when I take them to the washer in the bathroom. Those which I want archivally washed I take immediately to the bathroom and put them in my washer, so that the fix doesn't have time to soak into the emulsion. Actually, that is the only thing which I permanently keep in the bathroom, the washer. Washing is all you need the bathroom for, if you work carefuly and don't plan to make a mess.

Have fun. Raja

-- Raja A. Adal (d60w0635@ip.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp), August 30, 2000.

My first darkroom was dry. It was adjacent to the basement bathroom (to be precise the door to the darkroom was in the bathroom)we had a wide shallow sink installed instead of the usual bathroom basin type sink. It was very convienient. I now have a more conventional setup utilizing a plastic sink.I built a sturdy stand with 2x4's and fastened it to wall studs in addition to 2x4 legs.My enlarger stand is a 2x4 frame as well with stud fasteners and legs.I bought some plastic stackable drawers and shelf units at the local discount store and glued linolium to the exposed table top areas. I use the wire type closet shelving for overhead storage.Walls are sheetrock painted with white "bathroom paint" (flat black around the enlarger). None of this was very expensive.The only work I didn't do myself was the plumbing and the electricity (2 GFI outlets and an exhaust fan). Total outlay was under $300.00 with the plumbing and sink the most expensive items.Without the sink my costs were about $300.00. This doesen't include photo equipment.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), August 30, 2000.

Correction, total outlay was about $600.00 the plumbing and sink were $300.00 and everything else was about $300.00 as well. I'm not a carpenter by any means, just make sure everything is level and sturdy. Have fun with it.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), August 30, 2000.

Starting dry is a good idea. Some enthusiasms pass. A couple of tips. After a session of printing, it's easiest to dump the tray solutions into a cheap plastic wastebasket right next to the tray location rather that try to carry the tray somewhere else to dump it. I would ventilate, and the best way is to have filtered air blown *into* the room, rather than sucked out. This keeps positive air pressure in the room, keeping outside dust from being drawn in when the door is opened. You will need a passive light-tight louver for air to exit, ideally on a wall opposite the point of air entry. Good luck, njb

-- Nacio Brown (njb@sirius.com), August 30, 2000.

I do agree that you don't really NEED running water in the darkroom. But I wouldn't want to mix chemicals in the kitchen because food and chemistry don't go together. Even the most careful working will not be able to completely avoid contamination, and many darkroom chemicals are really toxic. If you want to use running water to mix the chemicals, do it in the bathroom, not in the kitchen! But if you agree to carry the water anyway, why not do the mixing downstairs, too? Keep a small reservoir of a couple of gallons down in the lab, and draw the water for mixing solutions from that. The only things that might need running water are print washing and cleaning trays, tanks, etc., and you could do that in the bathroom, too.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), August 31, 2000.

As to ventilation, YES DEFINATELY you need it. Working in a darkroom with chemicals may be annoying at best, and may lead to chemical sensitivities at worst. You should have a fan put in to positively ventilate the darkroom. The best setup, as mentioned, is to have filtered air blowing in, but also with a powered exhaust at a lower flow rate. You should size the fan based on the room volume (HxWxL). Have the fan capable of moving between 1/4 and 1/10 of the room volume per minute. Realize that if the fan has any ducting attached this will reduce the amount of air actually moved per minute. Put the exhaust near the sink area so that the contaminated air is removed as quickly as possible.

As others have said, a dry darkroom is fine. If there is even a laundry sink in the basement, this would make it that much easier, but it is not required. I would avoid a folding table as they tend to fold at the worst times.

As to buying or building a sink, that is up to you and how much time, effort, and money you want to put into the project. Also, how well does a standard sink fit the space. You will want the sink as large as possible, so if your space is 5 feet, don't put in a 4 foot sink. One option if you are thinking of building, is to build the sink now, but do not plumb it. Use it dry. It will still catch spills and drips. Later you can have the plumbing run if she stays with it.

As to mixing chemicals, you don't want to be mixing dry chemicals in a small darkroom anyway, as the powders float around and can cause problems.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), August 31, 2000.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, GO DRY. You should see my darkroom, being a student, I am living at home with my parents so for developing film and mixing chemicals, I do it in the bathroom over the bathtub (kills your back) ventilation isn't that big a deal except when you pull your bottle of concentrated stop and crack the seal on that (good lord, I thought I was gonna die), as for making prints, I have my enlarger in my bedroom with my trays crammed on shelves I put up to the left and right of my setup, as for washing prints, I have a large dish-tub (2.99 at kmart) I fill up with water (holds like 2.5 gallons) and just agitate the heck out of my prints before i hang em' (change the water often, like every 4-5 full 8x10's) and my hang-line is just nylon string put up across my closet (I can hang 4 or 5 prints at a time with plenty of room) which drip into one of three garbage cans I have lined up there (too much trash!!!) al in all my setup works fairly well...

have fun

-- Jason Tuck (jtuck80@csi.com), September 05, 2000.