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#1
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Building one's own greenhouse
Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a
greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. -- Which of the seven heavens / Was responsible her smile / Wouldn't be sure but attested / That, whoever it was, a god / Worth kneeling-to for a while / Had tabernacled and rested. |
#2
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Building one's own greenhouse
Frederick Williams wrote:
Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. I built my own once at a previous house. I plan to do so again sometime at my new house. A lot depends on the balance you want between useful and pretty. I didn't use any plans - other than my own sketches. It is a simple matter to use some 3" x 2" pressure treated timbers to build a frame and fasten clear corrugated PVC sheets to it. You don't need to make any fancy joints if you don't want to, just use metal angle joining brackets which are cheaply available from places like Wilko's. The hardest job with mine was laying a concrete floor - I mixed all the concrete by hand and it was back-breaking. -- David in Normandy. To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the subject line, or it will be automatically deleted by a filter and not reach my inbox. |
#3
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Building one's own greenhouse
"David in Normandy" wrote... Frederick Williams wrote: Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. I built my own once at a previous house. I plan to do so again sometime at my new house. A lot depends on the balance you want between useful and pretty. I didn't use any plans - other than my own sketches. It is a simple matter to use some 3" x 2" pressure treated timbers to build a frame and fasten clear corrugated PVC sheets to it. You don't need to make any fancy joints if you don't want to, just use metal angle joining brackets which are cheaply available from places like Wilko's. The hardest job with mine was laying a concrete floor - I mixed all the concrete by hand and it was back-breaking. I built ours as a Lean-to against the back wall of our garage. Dug out and poured concrete into some footings, finished level with the soil, built a 3 brick high wall on that with ally angle brackets screwed into the top of that for the upright posts. To finish the base, a concrete capping on top of the bricks finished at an angle to take the condensation/water etc away from the wood. Spacings of wooden uprights depend on the size of glazing you can get/want. I used 2 x 4 corner and door posts with 2 x 2 for the other bars. ( strong because I need to get on the roof some times, with a walking board of course) Glazed with acrylic for warmth and safety. Roof is twin walled plastic but I wouldn't use it for all the glazing as it can "draw" some plants that like a lot of light. Don't forget a door. Use as much plastic and non ferrous metal as you can to avoid rot....brass screws, plastic glazing bars, etc. and treat all timber before use and paint before final assembly. Dulux Weathershield (Satin White) paint system is good. -- Regards Bob Hobden just W. of London |
#4
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Building one's own greenhouse
Frederick Williams wrote:
Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Not really. What I would say though is think long and hard about the glazing. The cheapest (horticultural glass) is easy to get as a replacement but when it breaks it breaks into long jaggy pieces of glass (dangerous). The dearest (polycarbonate) is hard to get. We got toughened glass as youngest was in danger of 'piling' through the glass and this shatters into lots of little pieces, it is really quite strong when loads are placed on it but it is quite delicate at the edges, and will shatter rather than crack . I wish we had gone with a polycarbonate system or laminated glass and hang the expense. Frightened to look at the greenhouse (probably unnecessarily) in case one of the panels goes as the whole panel will need replaced not just a crack taped or some such. So if NO chance of children animals etc breaking the glass probably ordinary stuff will do (after all it has worked on windows for hundreds of years)if at all worried go for an 'unbreakable' method and hang the expense, do not choose the halfway house (like I did) of toughened glass. All IMHO |
#5
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Building one's own greenhouse
"David in Normandy" wrote in message ... Frederick Williams wrote: Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. I built my own once at a previous house. I plan to do so again sometime at my new house. A lot depends on the balance you want between useful and pretty. I didn't use any plans - other than my own sketches. It is a simple matter to use some 3" x 2" pressure treated timbers to build a frame and fasten clear corrugated PVC sheets to it. You don't need to make any fancy joints if you don't want to, just use metal angle joining brackets which are cheaply available from places like Wilko's. The hardest job with mine was laying a concrete floor - I mixed all the concrete by hand and it was back-breaking. does it have to be a concrete floor? My neighbour has a glasshouse with dirt beds for growing his tomatos. My polytunnel partially sits on an old concrete pad that used to have a garden shed. The rest of the tunnel I have put in to raised dirt beds for planting & wooden pallets between for a walk way. I would like to get rid of the concrete pad to create more garden beds but it is a pain. It need not be a concrete floor, flagstones, pallets etc will do. rob |
#6
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Building one's own greenhouse
George.com wrote:
does it have to be a concrete floor? You can have a dirt floor if you want. Depends on the uses you will put the greenhouse to. The one I made was next to the back of the house and also served as a makeshift conservatory so the concrete floor was handy. I spent many a happy hour in there in the evenings with a good book and a pint or two of home-brew surrounded by hundreds of my favourite plants watching the sun go down. :-) -- David in Normandy. To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the subject line, or it will be automatically deleted by a filter and not reach my inbox. |
#7
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Building one's own greenhouse
In article ,
says... Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. Do you want to build it from wood, alluminium or upvc? start with what you want to glaze it with as this nearly allways comes in standard sizes and it makes sense to make the structure take these. You will be hard pressed to beat a standard kit bought on line and delivered complete with glass (which is the expensive bit) -- Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall www.roselandhouse.co.uk Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and Lapageria rosea |
#8
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Building one's own greenhouse
Charlie Pridham wrote:
In article , says... Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. Do you want to build it from wood, alluminium or upvc? Wood with about one metre of brick wall at the base. start with what you want to glaze it with as this nearly allways comes in standard sizes I didn't know that. I thought glass merchants cut it to any size. and it makes sense to make the structure take these. You will be hard pressed to beat a standard kit bought on line and Less fun? delivered complete with glass (which is the expensive bit) -- Which of the seven heavens / Was responsible her smile / Wouldn't be sure but attested / That, whoever it was, a god / Worth kneeling-to for a while / Had tabernacled and rested. |
#9
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Building one's own greenhouse
"George.com" wrote:
"David in Normandy" wrote in message ... Frederick Williams wrote: Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. I built my own once at a previous house. I plan to do so again sometime at my new house. A lot depends on the balance you want between useful and pretty. I didn't use any plans - other than my own sketches. It is a simple matter to use some 3" x 2" pressure treated timbers to build a frame and fasten clear corrugated PVC sheets to it. You don't need to make any fancy joints if you don't want to, just use metal angle joining brackets which are cheaply available from places like Wilko's. The hardest job with mine was laying a concrete floor - I mixed all the concrete by hand and it was back-breaking. does it have to be a concrete floor? My neighbour has a glasshouse with dirt beds for growing his tomatos. I fancy a soil floor. My polytunnel partially sits on an old concrete pad that used to have a garden shed. The rest of the tunnel I have put in to raised dirt beds for planting & wooden pallets between for a walk way. I would like to get rid of the concrete pad to create more garden beds but it is a pain. It need not be a concrete floor, flagstones, pallets etc will do. rob -- Which of the seven heavens / Was responsible her smile / Wouldn't be sure but attested / That, whoever it was, a god / Worth kneeling-to for a while / Had tabernacled and rested. |
#10
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Building one's own greenhouse
Frederick Williams wrote:
"George.com" wrote: "David in Normandy" wrote in message ... Frederick Williams wrote: Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. I built my own once at a previous house. I plan to do so again sometime at my new house. A lot depends on the balance you want between useful and pretty. I didn't use any plans - other than my own sketches. It is a simple matter to use some 3" x 2" pressure treated timbers to build a frame and fasten clear corrugated PVC sheets to it. You don't need to make any fancy joints if you don't want to, just use metal angle joining brackets which are cheaply available from places like Wilko's. The hardest job with mine was laying a concrete floor - I mixed all the concrete by hand and it was back-breaking. does it have to be a concrete floor? My neighbour has a glasshouse with dirt beds for growing his tomatos. I fancy a soil floor. What I did was a line of flags down the centre to walk on and 2" of gravel under the staging to keep weeds down. Then with space on the N side to grow tomatoes, ginger, daturas etc without shading the plants on the bench. Regards, Martin Brown |
#11
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Building one's own greenhouse
Frederick Williams wrote:
Charlie Pridham wrote: In article , says... Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? Googling doesn't turn up anything interesting. Do you want to build it from wood, alluminium or upvc? Wood with about one metre of brick wall at the base. start with what you want to glaze it with as this nearly allways comes in standard sizes I didn't know that. I thought glass merchants cut it to any size. They do - for a price. If you design one based on standard sizes it is cheaper. And if you intent to heat the greenhouse in winter you should also consider twinwall polycabonate (aka conservatory roofs) as the glazing material. It comes in much bigger sheets than glass. and it makes sense to make the structure take these. You will be hard pressed to beat a standard kit bought on line and Less fun? Regards, Martin Brown |
#13
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Quote:
I wouldn't agree that the glazing is the hardest part. Here is a company that you can buy Polycarbonate from: http://www.bayplastics.co.uk/polycarbonate_sheets.htm Pretty pricey if you ask me though - Perspex is a cheaper option: http://www.bayplastics.co.uk/perspex_acrylicsheets.htm You can even have them cut to your size. What does everyone else think? |
#14
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Building one's own greenhouse
In article , Grumpy-
says... 'soup[_2_ Wrote: ;864360']Frederick Williams wrote:- Can anyone recommend web sites that instruct one in the building of a greenhouse? - Not really. What I would say though is think long and hard about the glazing. The cheapest (horticultural glass) is easy to get as a replacement but when it breaks it breaks into long jaggy pieces of glass (dangerous). The dearest (polycarbonate) is hard to get. We got toughened glass as youngest was in danger of 'piling' through the glass and this shatters into lots of little pieces, it is really quite strong when loads are placed on it but it is quite delicate at the edges, and will shatter rather than crack . I wish we had gone with a polycarbonate system or laminated glass and hang the expense. Frightened to look at the greenhouse (probably unnecessarily) in case one of the panels goes as the whole panel will need replaced not just a crack taped or some such. So if NO chance of children animals etc breaking the glass probably ordinary stuff will do (after all it has worked on windows for hundreds of years)if at all worried go for an 'unbreakable' method and hang the expense, do not choose the halfway house (like I did) of toughened glass. All IMHO I wouldn't agree that the glazing is the hardest part. Here is a company that you can buy Polycarbonate from: http://tinyurl.com/ksw9bb Pretty pricey if you ask me though - Perspex is a cheaper option: http://tinyurl.com/lsp8yg You can even have them cut to your size. What does everyone else think? -- Grumpy-Grower Perspex would go brittle and shatter within a couple of years it is much better to use glass or polycarbonate and its much easier to have it the size you want and not have to cut it -- Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall www.roselandhouse.co.uk Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and Lapageria rosea |
#15
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Building one's own greenhouse
Grumpy-Grower wrote:
I wouldn't agree that the glazing is the hardest part. I never said (or thought) the glazing was hard, what I was saying is think long and HARD about what material to use. |
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