So I have been going down the rabbit hole trying to put together a plan to build an extraction facility in Oregon. I want it to be signed off by the local authorities. Now its been very challenging to find out what is expected of by the county in terms of safety and fire code. I can see from some other places such as Denver, they have a pdf outlining the regulations set for extraction facilities. It appears as though those regulations are a far cry from what the NFPA has outlined, which are quite involved for extraction.
I spoke with an engineering firm that claims to have build dozens of extractions labs in the state and say it will cost anywhere between $250 - $450 per square foot to retrofit a building to the standards required but the county. This means for the 4000 sq.ft space I’m looking at it would be at least $1M to set up the building alone with ZERO extraction equipment in this calculation. Im having a hard time swallowing this number as I can’t see that the requirements are that stringent. From what I can tell the county would expect to have the extraction equipment in a C1D1 enclosed space such as a HAL for $50k and then some solvent reclaiming equipment in C1D2 Fume hood for say $25k. Solvent Storage can be outside of the facility along a fire retardant wall in approved containers. Off gassing happens outside. I can’t really see anything else that would be required in terms of fire and safety.
Can anyone shed some light on their own personal experience here because I feel like I’m missing something. If you have a dollar figure on what you required to spend to appease the inspectors or a list safety equipment that you were required by the county to install, that would be much appreciated.
! However, we’re in CA and have had to lease/own our building for the last 13 months that we’ve been in the licensing process. If your adding in state licensing fees, fees for architecture, environmental studies, rent, etc. it can be quite an overall expense before you even get to the build.