Books on Dark Room design and hardware suppliers

[johnastovall]

In the next couple of years, I may have the opportunity to build a custom Dark Room.

What books are out there addressing issues like postive pressure calculations, venting rates for fumes, etc.? Who are the distributors for lights, water filters, light tight doors, etc.

[Hill]

Have you got Google, John?

I think most of the books I was able to reference so long ago are out of print, their authors having passed the great divide. But a quick look at the myriad of results brought forth by typing "build a custom home darkroom" into the google search bar told me that no one need worry that setting out to do such a project must proceed in informational darkness.

There's TONS of info which would lead to more tons of the same, right to hand.

[Stuart Richardson]

Sorry I did not see this sooner John, but maybe this will still help. I have not found too many serious books. I think the best information is to be found in talking to old-school darkroom technicians. If you have specific questions, I would say APUG would be a very good place to start. I recently built a darkroom for my lab, and much of the help I received was from the head of photography of our local art institute.

Grill and Scanlon's "The Essential Darkroom Book" has some good information.
It is not so much a darkroom book, but Julien Buselle's "Processing and Printing" is a very nice little tutorial and has a small section on darkroom construction. It is part of the Focal Press's B&W photolab series.

For a very good technical reference on black and white film, try The Ilford Monochrome Darkoom Practice by Jack Coote. Again, not as much on darkroom design itself, but lots and lots of useful information.