Building an indoor cigar room

[LLC]

I have an unfinished basement and looking at having a cigar room put in so I can smoke in the house. Obviously they key is containing (extracting) the smoke and the smell. I am not a DYI kind of guy and don’t mind paying to get it done right. 
The issue is finding a company that knows how to do this properly. I am in the Greater Toronto Area so if anyone has used someone they are happy with or is aware of companies that do this, please let me know. I would appreciate it. 👍

 

[Hammer Smokin']

do you have room for an outbuilding? A garage. It would be easier, more effective, and overall a better option to turn it into a year round cigar room. 

[BrightonCorgi]

What are your thoughts on intake/exhausting the smoke.  Is there a window?  How would you run the ducting?  I just installed 10" ducting for hood for my range. 

Vapor barrier the area, duct, intake, and system to capture-move the smoke.  Are there local resellers of the smoke extractors you are considering?  Just sheer moving the air in the room that has a vapor barrier will get you there.  Ozone for short stint once you leave the room as an option.

[MrBirdman]

Smoking rooms in the basement are tough because obviously smoke rises. It requires a lot of sealing and insulation of the ceiling to ensure the smell doesn’t permeate. Can be done if that’s your only option but it’s involved.

[sageman]

42 minutes ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

do you have room for an outbuilding? A garage. It would be easier, more effective, and overall a better option to turn it into a year round cigar room. 

Following this... been debating converting half of my garage. The outer wall has a window that the room would enclose, and I'd take the further half from the door leading into the house. No part of the living space is over the garage. I have a rabbitair waiting to use for whatever space I designate. 

For building ideas that don't account for smoke moving:
I liked this guy who converted his garage to office - and didn't seem like he knew more than I did!

And I liked this guy because he had really practical advice for saving cuts/reducing effort - converting the garage to a bedroom

 

[LLC]

9 hours ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

do you have room for an outbuilding? A garage. It would be easier, more effective, and overall a better option to turn it into a year round cigar room. 

I have a two car garage but three cars. Have used the garage in the past during winter but would prefer not having to do that anymore. 

 

8 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

What are your thoughts on intake/exhausting the smoke.  Is there a window?  How would you run the ducting?  I just installed 10" ducting for hood for my range. 

Vapor barrier the area, duct, intake, and system to capture-move the smoke.  Are there local resellers of the smoke extractors you are considering?  Just sheer moving the air in the room that has a vapor barrier will get you there.  Ozone for short stint once you leave the room as an option.

There are windows in the basement. My preference is to have someone that knows what there doing to figure it all out and do it for me. It’s a blank slate so I would think they could do whatever is required. 

 

8 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

Smoking rooms in the basement are tough because obviously smoke rises. It requires a lot of sealing and insulation of the ceiling to ensure the smell doesn’t permeate. Can be done if that’s your only option but it’s involved.

Agree with smoke rising it would be important to have it done right. 

[Corylax18]

32 minutes ago, LLC said:

There are windows in the basement. My preference is to have someone that knows what there doing to figure it all out and do it for me. It’s a blank slate so I would think they could do whatever is required. 

You could look at companies specializing in "grow rooms" The climate control systems I've seen in some grow ops are next level. Fans/Filters you can switch on and off through blue tooth/wifi, Temp, Humidity, Airflow readings to your phone anywhere you have a connection. Automation off the charts. 

You would probably need to hire someone else for the "finish" work, but worry about that later. I'd first find a company to build the walls, seal them and integrate air movement. 

But, if money is little/no object, I would take a look at these guys: https://airkel.com/

It may not be an option in your case, but their systems are astounding. The Ashton Cigar Bar in Philly has one of these systems installed and its amazed me on every visit. Over 100 people can be puffing away and you can barely tell, a quick walk back to hotel and you can barely even smell it on your clothes. Physics is awesome. 

[GoodStix]

There are HVAC companies involved in restaurant construction -- air handling in kitchens with flame grills, lots of smoke, airborne grease, odor.  Might be an option to look into.

[Puros Y Vino]

I'll see if anyone I know has a contact or two for you.

Some general "ideas"

• Depending on the size of the room, you'll want a blower to draw out the smoke.  In my shed, which is 8 * 10 I installed an 80CFM fan. It did not cut it. I talked to some guys. For that size, an 1100CFM unit is the starting point!  😐  Blowers can be noisy. One interesting, cheap design I've seen is to place the blower outside of the room, in a cooler. Attached the vents into that cooler and out of it.  The blower's noise will be deadened by being in the cooler and outside the room in general.
• Some designs are using data centre grade "raised floor" with perforated tiles.  If you got as high as 3/4 inches, you can force air from your AC/furnace up through those tiles as the "Fresh" supply, then your blower can pull it out of the room. You want to equalize those forces as much as possible. Some raised floor tiles have nice wood veneer designs. They are not cheap but they are solid.
• Positive pressure is your friend.  If this will be a room inside a basement, you want the air supply in that basement to be pushing air into that room as much as possible. Having that positive pressure will keep the smoke/stank in the room when you open to door get something, or someone enters, etc.  If you remember Tom's lounge. His lounge room door would be pushed shut by the outside pressure. And sometimes, the blower helps with that too if it's strong.

[traveller]

5 minutes ago, Puros Y Vino said:

• Positive pressure is your friend.  If this will be a room inside a basement, you want the air supply in that basement to be pushing air into that room as much as possible. Having that positive pressure will keep the smoke/stank in the room when you open to door get something, or someone enters, etc.  If you remember Tom's lounge. His lounge room door would be pushed shut by the outside pressure. And sometimes, the blower helps with that too if it's strong.

I think you mean negative pressure for the cigar room itself

[Puros Y Vino]

22 minutes ago, traveller said:

I think you mean negative pressure for the cigar room itself

Yes. Positive pressure outside that room.

[Squarehead]

Gary,why don't you contact Tom.He have had a smokingroom done in his basement

[Rhinoww]

I also have a three car garage that I converted to a two car garage. I use my space predominately as a woodworking shop and have it filled with equipment tools finishes and a few work areas. With that said I also have a 220 electric heater that is very effective and a window unit to cool on hot days. 
I didn’t know much about residential construction but for me it was a matter of studding a wall, hanging a door, insulating and finishing. There are products you can get to apply insulated foil foam foil to insulate the garage door as well. 
with a garage you will have better options to create a seal/airflow in your direction of choice. Depending on how you finish the space you also might be adding value to the house as a workshop/heated storage. 
may .02 but it’s hard to control air inside a house. Garage would be my option. Finish the interior as you like. As long as it stays dry you are fine. 
with my wife, it wouldn’t matter what I did in terms of hvac, airflow or hermetically sealing the room, if I smoke in the house I’ll hear some squawking 

[LLC]

11 hours ago, Rhinoww said:

I also have a three car garage that I converted to a two car garage. I use my space predominately as a woodworking shop and have it filled with equipment tools finishes and a few work areas. With that said I also have a 220 electric heater that is very effective and a window unit to cool on hot days. 
I didn’t know much about residential construction but for me it was a matter of studding a wall, hanging a door, insulating and finishing. There are products you can get to apply insulated foil foam foil to insulate the garage door as well. 
with a garage you will have better options to create a seal/airflow in your direction of choice. Depending on how you finish the space you also might be adding value to the house as a workshop/heated storage. 
may .02 but it’s hard to control air inside a house. Garage would be my option. Finish the interior as you like. As long as it stays dry you are fine. 
with my wife, it wouldn’t matter what I did in terms of hvac, airflow or hermetically sealing the room, if I smoke in the house I’ll hear some squawking 

I wish I had a three car garage but I have three cars and a two car garage so in the past I set up part of it as a smoking area but can’t permanently section part off. 

 

11 hours ago, Squarehead said:

Gary,why don't you contact Tom.He have had a smoking room done in his basement

Thanks Hans. I may do that but posted up here to see if there was anyone in the GTA with someone that did it for them that they were happy with. 

 

Other option I am considering is closing in our porch which is a decent size. It would have screened windows so I could crack one open have them put in a fan to extract the smoke and a heater of some sort on the ceiling. May be easier than doing a room in the basement but may not be as enjoyable.