Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the garden
to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow anything
in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more rat-proof!
We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me,
but now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if
a concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure that
water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

Thanks
--
Colette A. O'Brien

"Colette A. O'Brien" wrote in message
...
Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the garden
to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow anything
in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more rat-proof!
We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me, but
now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if a
concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure that
water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

Thanks
--
Colette A. O'Brien



we laid 300mm slabs to support the gh base section only, leaving the inner
soil for planting. We then boarded a central path 500mm wide and about 2
metres in from the sliding door. This is filled with 15mm shingle. The
surrounding soil is used for toms and cuces etc. We throw 3 gallons of water
onto the shingle path every other day to water their roots.

works a treat.

Colette A. O'Brien writes
Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the
garden to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow
anything in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more
rat-proof!

What sort of rat problem have you in mind? Rats coming into the
greenhouse, or rats living underneath the base?

We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me,
but now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if
a concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure
that water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

On our first greenhouses, we had a concrete base with a 6inch brick
wall, and the greenhouse firmly bolted on to the brick wall. Therefore
no water could get in.

Our current greenhouse is directly on to the concrete base, and in heavy
rain we have problems with seepage under the edge. We have laid a patch
of slabs in the centre, thus raising the floor in the central area about
an inch, so that any water stays under the staging and eventually drains
back out the way it came in.

I think if it were a smaller greenhouse dampness in the winter would be
a problem, but as it's a reasonable size and with good air circulation,
we don't have any problems either with mould or with cacti rotting.
--
Kay

In message of Fri, 4 Jul 2008, K writes
What sort of rat problem have you in mind? Rats coming into the
greenhouse, or rats living underneath the base?

We previously had a rat problem where the rats (who were living in next
door's compost heap) burrowed under the brick base of the greenhouse,
and lived a very merry winter inside it.

Our current greenhouse is directly on to the concrete base, and in
heavy rain we have problems with seepage under the edge. We have laid a
patch of slabs in the centre, thus raising the floor in the central
area about an inch, so that any water stays under the staging and
eventually drains back out the way it came in.

I think if it were a smaller greenhouse dampness in the winter would be
a problem, but as it's a reasonable size and with good air circulation,
we don't have any problems either with mould or with cacti rotting.

I am planning to build a brick base on which to bolt the greenhouse. I
am more worried about water just from watering the plants, cleaning the
greenhouse, getting in from the roof etc. I've read up on it today and
there were suggestions that I would get pools of water, which would
stagnate and grow algae and cause diseases in the plants.

Thanks for your reply. Am thinking of perhaps getting a concrete
foundation rather than a whole base. Don't want to mess the builder
about too much though.

Regards
Colette


--
Colette A. O'Brien

In article ,
says...
Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the garden
to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow anything
in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more rat-proof!
We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me,
but now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if
a concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure that
water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

Thanks

If it were me I would build a rectangular low wall in the ground for the
GH to sit on and either flag stone or chipping the inside or use the soil
and just have a path
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...
Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the garden
to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow anything
in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more rat-proof!
We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me,
but now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if
a concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure that
water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

Thanks

If it were me I would build a rectangular low wall in the ground for the
GH to sit on and either flag stone or chipping the inside or use the soil
and just have a path

That's what we did - with soil borders and a path. I can't understand why
anyone would want a whole concrete floor ...

I use the borders to grow crops in too, is there a problem with that?

Mary
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

That's what we did - with soil borders and a path. I can't understand why
anyone would want a whole concrete floor ...

I use the borders to grow crops in too, is there a problem with that?

Mary
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea


Best solution is to dig a six inch deep by 9 inch wide trench foundation
underneath the base .
Dig similar 2ft wide trench similar to act as footway between ends.
This gives you a sort of 8 shaped concrete in plan
Pour barrow/ready mix with security fixings embedded therein, with assembled
base thereon.

Leaves plenty of space for borders therein.



------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 1 1
1 1 SOIL 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
------------------------------------------------------------
CONCRETE
------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 SOIL 1 1
1 1 1 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------

Regards
Pete
www.thecanalshop.com

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...
Hi all

I am moving my greenhouse from the darkiest, shadiest part of the garden
to a sunnier area. I decided on a concrete base as I never grow anything
in the soil of the greenhouse, and I thought it would be more rat-proof!
We live in a very windy area and so the greenhouse needs to be firmly
secured.

I have a builder friend coming tomorrow to lay a concrete base for me,
but now I am rather belatedly having second thoughts. I am wondering if
a concrete base is a bad idea because of drainage - how to I ensure that
water can drain freely away?

You can tell I'm a bit clueless about all of this, any advice would be
very welcome.

Thanks

If it were me I would build a rectangular low wall in the ground for the
GH to sit on and either flag stone or chipping the inside or use the soil
and just have a path

That's what we did - with soil borders and a path. I can't understand why
anyone would want a whole concrete floor ...

I use the borders to grow crops in too, is there a problem with that?

Mary
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea



For what it is worth, here is my two pennyworth:

Our new greenhouse is on a concrete base nominal 4 inch thick, the
proprietry steel base is bolted to this, i used resin capsule anchor bolts
you can get from Screwfix.

The reason for this is the exposed location, and the soft sandy soil, (a few
hundred yards from the Irish Sea at the north end of the Wirral Peninsular).

I was worried about the little clips that came to secure the greenhouse to
the base, and as concerned as everyone else about water getting in, so the
greenhouse is stuck down wtih an adhesive silicon rubber as well (Cerasit
FT100).

The same chewing gum is used between the concrete and the steel.

In case we have an accident with the hose pipe, i put a six inch plastic
pipe down through the concrete, with rubble underneath, this is trimmed off
level with the floor on completion (tiles in ours), and filled with pebbles,
to form a soakaway.

Does it all work? Ask me when it has been standing for a year, i.e. in
twelve months time.

John

Colette A. O'Brien writes

I am planning to build a brick base on which to bolt the greenhouse. I
am more worried about water just from watering the plants,

I don't have that problem since my plants are all on trays. But unless
you need to water a lot in winter, any water spills should evaporate
pretty soon.

cleaning the greenhouse,

Depends on when you do that. Since my greenhouse is used for
overwintering a lot of plants, any cleaning has to happen in summer.

getting in from the roof etc.

That shouldn't happen, and you should do your utmost to avoid leaks,
since leaking roofs tend to mean drips on to plants and hence rot.


--
Kay

In message of Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Pete Stockdale writes
Best solution is to dig a six inch deep by 9 inch wide trench foundation
underneath the base .
Dig similar 2ft wide trench similar to act as footway between ends.
This gives you a sort of 8 shaped concrete in plan
Pour barrow/ready mix with security fixings embedded therein, with assembled
base thereon.

Leaves plenty of space for borders therein.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I decided against the concrete slab in
the end. It's an old greenhouse (can't afford a new one right now) and
although things may improve when it is moved, it does let in water here
and there.

So I asked the builder to do just a 9 inch foundation, haven't done a
central path. I don't want to grow stuff in soil in the greenhouse, and
so underneath the concrete foundation and covering the whole area is a
4-inch layer of gravel/grit. On top of this I am planning to put a
semi-permeable membrane, a central path made of paving slabs, and fill
up the rest with some bigger-sized gravel. I am hoping this will give me
a good balance of humidity and drainage.

Hope it works!

Thanks again for your responses, helped make up my mind for me.

Colette
--
Colette A. O'Brien

In message of Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Mary Fisher writes
That's what we did - with soil borders and a path. I can't understand why
anyone would want a whole concrete floor ...

I use the borders to grow crops in too, is there a problem with that?

Nothing at all, it's just that I never do it. Perhaps it's due to where
the greenhouse has always been sited, but anything I've attempted to
grow in the soil has always done really badly.

Since I didn't want soil borders, I thought I might as well go for a
good solid base which is easy to clean. But as I've said in another
post, I decided against a concrete slab in the end.

The foundations are down now, and looking good.

Thanks
Colette
--
Colette A. O'Brien