Episode 8: Planning Your Facility Design with Valiant-America

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  Agrify Team

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June 4, 2020

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Max 2 minutes read

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    Planning your facility design with valiant america

    Join Agrify’s Matt Liotta and David Kessler as they chat with Niall McManus and Chris Tenaglia of Valiant-America. They discuss common mistakes when planning your facility design, how to optimize your facility to get the most yield per sq. ft and more! Valiant-America is a leading cannabis consultant and innovative general contracting firm. In 2019, Agrify entered into a joint venture with Valiant-America..

    Valiant-America is a leader in consulting and general contracting of a wide range of industrial facilities. Their specialized services offer a full spectrum of beginning-to-end solutions including engineering and architecture, project management, financial consulting, and general contracting of restaurants, hotels, hospitals and other buildings.

    Their success follows a decade-long specialization in commercial consulting and development of cannabis cultivation facilities and dispensaries.

    Valiant headquarters is in the Northeast United States with offices in Florida, California, and plans to have their Michigan office open by July of 2020. Valiant is rapidly expanding domestically with additional plans in place to enter Europe and other countries.

    Projects are currently underway in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada and other states. Valiant’s qualified professionals hold cutting-edge knowledge of developing cannabis facilities across a wide range of unique climates.

    Their specialization in the cannabis industry commenced over 10 years ago around the same time cannabis legalization began sweeping across the US.

    Tune in to learn more…

     

    Why Growing in Controlled Environments is Important:

    • When you’re ready to build your cultivation facility, the first thing to do is to get your architect to ensure your building is suitable to produce cannabis.
    • Things to look at when evaluating a building for suitability include utilities, water quality and availability, and the E21 evaluation (an environmental study to make sure there are no volatile compounds that can damage your cannabis).
    • What are some materials / things you should avoid using in your facility?
      • Wood: it’s not mold-resistant.
      • Copper: it’s toxic for plants, so definitely don’t use it for fertigation lines.
      • Hand dryers: use paper towels instead, because your workers’ hands need to be completely dry.
    • When you’re designing a facility, you should have biosecurity in mind from the very beginning. You should have a design-build approach, where the construction team is brought in from the beginning along with the architect and engineer, so the whole team can work together at the same time.
    • Make sure you have experienced people on the team; find turnkey solution (experienced engineers and architects) like Valiant-America.
    • Chilled water cooling is better than traditional cooling (rooftop HVAC cooling).
    • A common mistake that becomes costly to fix later is the construction of flower room walls. When constructing the walls, make sure it can hold the environment, it’s easily cleaned, and it’s easy to put lights and equipment up.
    • Use SIP panels (Structurally Insulated Panels): it is six inches of Styrofoam, and metal on the outside that is painted. It’s mold-resistant and better than timber.
    • Don’t use UV sterilization inside a HVAC unit for pathogen control because it’s ineffective.
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