Grow room wall panels – Waterproof and Durable

Barry’s Grow Room

• Type: Grow Rooms
• Location: Nevada
• Quantity: 756 sq. ft.

Barry runs an experimental grow farm in Nevada funded by a large corporation that manufactures all-natural herbal supplements. It’s a rare operation in that it’s one building divided into two sections rather than one big facility. One side is for hydroponics, growing plants with a liquid nutrient solution with essential minerals; the other side is for aquaponics, the growing of plants with mostly water, using fish waste as the fertilizer. There isn’t a huge distinction between the two methods, but both have one thing in common: they each require lots of water, and each requires a tightly sealed space that can be controlled and doesn’t allow leaks.

Since he already used vinyl on the reservoirs where the plants are grown, Barry already knew the benefits of the material when the time came to expand his operation again. Vinyl walls like Duramax PVC panels are ideal for grow rooms, both because their surfaces don’t absorb water and because the tight seal between each panel prevents water from leaking into the foundation of the building. He also has experience with the material’s efficiency with light and heat, two very important aspects of maintaining complete control of an environment. Just as important, vinyl’s protection against bacterial growth means that threats to plant life like mold and fungal growth wouldn’t be an issue for as long as the wall panels last. Since each Duramax PVC wall panel has a lifetime warranty and requires little to no upkeep, it leaves a scientific mind like Barry to concentrate on finding new ways to cultivate plants more efficiently.

It took little time to install PVC panels in the walls and ceiling of Barry’s grow rooms. We used the same materials to create the dividers between the different sections within the rooms. This was very important since different plants require different conditions to thrive. These were tested against Barry’s exact standards to make sure no water was leaking into places it shouldn’t and that the seals of the vinyl panels were tight enough for ideal temperatures. If his first few crops after the install were any indication, the entire operation went off without a hitch.

Pocono Organics

About Pocono Organics

Pocono Organics is a 380-acre regenerative, organic certified farm in beautiful Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Pocono has over 38,000 square feet of greenhouse space and is also the world’s first and only regenerative, organic certified hemp grower. With a focus on agrotourism, the farm also sells their products at their on-site cafe and market. Their customers also include supermarkets throughout the region.

The Challenge

Pocono Organics wanted to build a mushroom fruiting chamber in their main processing facility, but needed to construct a 400-square-foot room that supports the sensitive fungi’s growing and harvesting conditions. Most of Pocono Organic’s buildings are painted cinder blocks which are porous and not easy to clean.

A mushroom fruiting chamber needs to be a clean, controlled area to ensure that the mushrooms don’t get contaminated with other types of bacteria or fungi. As a permanent structure, the walls needed to be able to be sprayed/washed 1-2 times a week, durable, and able to stand high humidity without absorbing moisture. Because Pocono Organics sells their farm products in grocery settings as well as in their on-site cafe and at their sister resort, all food needs to pass rigorous food safety standards and be of the highest quality for consumption.

The Solution

Pocono Organic’s maintenance superintendent, Daniel Sheehan, was tasked with finding a wall and ceiling solution for the mushroom fruiting chamber that would accommodate the finicky fungi’s ideal growing conditions and also be as easy to clean as possible. After a search for PVC panels, Daniel chose to purchase U.S. Polymer’s product, Duramax, due to its water-proof, mold-resistant, and easy-to-install properties.

“Working with the folks at Duramax to secure the wall and ceiling panels was a seamless process,” said Daniel. “I even had some last minute changes and additions to my order and they were able to accommodate those before the long journey from their processing plant in California to our farm in Pennsylvania. The video they have online that shows how to install the product was also straight-forward and easy to apply to a real-life application.”

The entire installation process of the panels was completed within a week’s time and Daniel noted that besides adding silicone caulking between the joints, the Duramax installation was a one-step process.

The Duramax Difference

The market for mushrooms is currently booming. Last year, the New York Times named mushrooms “the ingredient of the year”, and as culinary influencers, media outlets and even retailers continue to market the popular fungi, the ‘shroom boom isn’t slowing any time soon. “Pocono Organics will be adding panels to their mushroom incubation room surrounding their flow hood where the mushroom blocks are inoculated (creating a cleanable, laboratory-style setting) and Duramax would be our first choice for wall and ceiling construction to upgrade this room as well. It’s already done an amazing job of keeping our mushroom fruiting chamber free of outside contaminants and it’s extremely easy to clean. We spray or mop down the walls at least 1-2 times a week and with the Duramax panels it’s just so quick to complete,” said Daniel.

Michigan Flower

• Type: Grow Rooms
• Location: Hulbert, MI
• Quantity: 942 sq. ft.

Diane Fuentes--known in her small hometown as ‘The Flower Girl’--runs a small herbal shop and florist of the same name, that is one of the lone attractions in her quaint neck of the woods. Though seemingly a simple operation, Diane is actually an experienced botanist with a degree in horticulture, the art of cultivating and managing gardens. She maintains her stock year-round, using natural exterior gardens in the spring and summer, then switching to grow rooms in the cold months to edge the competition.

As any botanist knows, a grow room requires lots of water and a controlled environment to keep the plants alive through tough stretches of exterior weather. Diane has used fiberglass panels as her walls for the first five years of operation, but found that leaks and temperature became a problem because of the inherent water absorption of the material, as well as the lack of airtight seals in their construction. She decided earlier this year to remodel one of her smaller grow rooms as an experiment to see if a different type of wall panel was more efficient. Enter Duramax PVC wall panels, which she says popped up in a search for wall panels. We sent samples to Ms. Fuentes so she could get a feel for the material and test its water resistance. After a week, Daisy put in an order to redo all the walls in the small grow room, as well as the main grow room to which it was attached. She also wanted to use vinyl (PVC) to create the dividing walls between her different sections within the main facility, as the thinness and durability of PVC was a major selling point.

It took less than a week to cover the entire space. The tightness of the seals between the panels allowed Diane to control her grow room’s temperatures much more efficiently, and the 100% waterproof surfaces gave little concern over the constant flow of controlled sprinklers. Vinyl’s composition also makes it easier to prevent the formation of mold that can ruin plants. We can’t wait to see how the next crop of herbs and beautiful flowers turns out!