HFGH Door Modification & Reinforcement

16 years ago

Hello Everyone,

Finally finished my door mod on the HFGH. As I posted earlier, my sliding doors were blown out along with a roof window during a storm. Nothing was really damaged but I wanted to make it better. My HFGH has the additional reinforcement outlined by gardnerwannabe in his excellent FAQ.

We installed a storm door from Lowes and fixed it to 4x4's sunk in concrete. It's not a simple project but if you've put together an HFGH, you can handle this no problem. Pic's of the project are at

http://picasaweb.google.com/troy.deierling/HFGHGreenhouseDoorModifications

The front of my greenhouse is not solid. I always felt that was the weakest point of the HFGH 10x12. The sliding doors are crap and the whole front was a bit wobbly even after adding the 3/4" EMT to the peak. I think this thing can take just about any wind now.

Still need to silicone in the bottom of the roof panels and trim out the sidelight panels next to the storm door. Also added an 18" wide x 10' long vinyl coated wire shelving to the top of the EMT cross bars.

Any questions, shoot me an email.

Troy
{{gwi:296458}}From HFGH Greenhou...

Here is a link that might be useful: HFGH Door Mod Pic's

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Comments (11)

yorkie89
16 years ago
Hi Troy,

I was just about to email you the other day to see how your door project was coming along. Looks great! I know it's a lot of work, well, I should say my husband knows it's a lot of work. :) It took him some time to get it tweaked just right. Well worth it though! I'm sure you'd agree. Having a door that actually stays shut is nice. I hated those doors on the tracks. We tried clamping them closed too, and that didn't work too well either. (Too much air came through the crack) What a pain....

Well, I told you in my last post that we plan to add a second HFGH onto our existing one. We are now planning on add 2 more to the existing. For a total of 3 HFGH's. It was really a last minute thought that my husband had while he was working on digging out some of the foundation for the second one. He said "Why don't we just get a third one since you know this won't be big enough? (Half way joking with me) It would save me from having to do this all over again." I told him I couldn't passed that up if he was offering. :) Now if it would just stop raining long enough so he could work on it while he's home! I will be sure and post pictures as we get further along with our project.

Again, Good job on the door. I'm sure it was a lot of work, but soooo worth it. Looks nice.

Have a good one!
Amber
mudhouse_gw
16 years ago
That looks great Troy, and it sure does look STOUT. Nice of you to do such a good job of documenting all the steps and materials with nice clear photos, I'm sure that will really help folks wanting to tackle this.
Sheri
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Perhaps if you had squared the frame to start with the doors would have worked. I read all this drama over the doors mine is in it's 4th season and the doors work fine. In the spring I can crack the doors and let in some cool air and they will stay in place can't do that with a swinging door a gust of wind would whip it around into the GH and tear something up. I mention to my wife that many people was installing swinging doors and she said I don't want them the ones we have work fine so if the little woman can slide them and no reason she can't they slide real easy. In my opinion the sliding doors are MUCH better than a swinging door that must remain latched or it will be tore off by the wind.
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Good, glad that helped! This section of my blog shows how we screwed in our panels, and what type of screws we used. We bought ours at Lowes. Adding the Panels If you live in a windy area, as I do, I'd strongly recommend screwing in the panels as you go...in other words, I'd recommend against tempting fate by planning on doing it later, especially since you don't have your extra clips yet. I've read too many scary stories here about lost panels (and wrecked frames) when the panels are just installed as per the kits. You might want to read my blog from start to finish...or at least skim it...I tried to combine many of the helpful tips offered by many Harbor Freight owners here at GardenWeb (who are a super group of folks, as you can tell!) Hopefully you'll find some helpful info, even though mine is the 10x12. When it comes to the reinforcements, the small difference in greenhouse size shouldn't make any difference. Good luck!
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Hi Willa, To work well, the top and bottom tracks need to be parallel and solid. I do have a wooden base under the steel GH base, and that might provide some stiffness to the bottom track. One idea is adding an extra brace to the frame right over the top of the doors, to stiffen up the top track. That seems to help the doors operate more smoothly too. We just added a piece of oak we had, but others folks have used a piece of EMT or aluminum angle in the same spot. The idea is to help prevent the top track from sagging at all if possible. (click to enlarge) Also, this is a good thing to check...there's a small illustration at the bottom of page 15 of the manual, labelled Side View. (Shown below.) This shows you that the small black plastic clip Part 51 has to be guided onto the bottom door track so the small vertical part of the aluminum track is actually threaded up into the vertical gap in the center of black plastic part 51. If you do it right, the bottom leg of the black plastic "L shape" goes down the front and under the L-shaped aluminum door track, as the illustration shows. If you don't install it just like the manual shows, it's actually possible to install the doors so that the black plastic part 51 is just sitting on top of the door track, sliding along in the small valley there. Although your doors can function (sort of) this way, they can also fall off, since they're not truly captured at the bottom in the manner the kit intends. My doors can't even be pulled off the track, top or bottom. I've honestly never seen anyone comment that the wheels can be pulled off the door itself, and there really shouldn't be that kind of pressure on the door to cause that at all...it makes me think something else is wrong with your door tracks (problem with your bottom track rising up?) or, with the black clip not being installed quite right, as in the illustration above. I'm kind of scratching my head over what would possibly cause that. :-( This part of my blog talks more about the doors, in case there's anything helpful here to you: Assembling the roof, windows, and doors
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Harbor Freight did not suggest this. Lets just say that Harbor Freights Tech support was, um Harbor Freight... I have to admit it was nice, they Cross shipped me new ones, which performed the same as the old ones. I found an overseas manufacturer of similar "budget vents", I think they were called Thermofor, who was very helpfull, and gave me a suggestion. I unscrewed the endcap that has the adjustment screw, and press the plunger till the seal almost comes out, then the oil will start to leak if you press softly on the plunger (If I pressed hard the seal comes all the way out, and you get a big mess ;) then close the whole thing and test. THrough trial and error, I now have all five of my HF openers opening between 65 and 75 degrees. Gato, I am not sure why mine did not work, and yours did, I am only 1300 feet higher than you, but I had a Total of ten from HF (The first five and the second five). Even at 38 degrees they were open five inches under load before I modified them ;) I would not recomend that anyone else try this, because I am sure it voids the warranty. (I tried it on just one first, then got bolder and tried the rest. I did spill all the oil out of one, and I replaced the oil with Cooking oil, even this one is now working ;) so I guess I will have to wait and see if opening them is gonna cause any long term ill effects.
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troykd
Original Author
16 years ago
Yorkie are you going to attach the HFGH's end to end or have them stand alone?

I agree those sliding doors are a weak point, even when I had them clamped they still were blown out. They aren't going anywhere now though :-)
yorkie89
16 years ago
Hi Troy,

The greenhouses will be end to end, becoming all one long greenhouse, 10' X 36'. We had already bought the second one last October, but hadn't started to assemble it due to the cold winter months. We just went and bought the third one about two weeks ago. So far the only thing my husband has been able to work on is the foundation. Will keep you posted on the progress. It may take a while to build with this on and off rainy weather we've been having lately.

Amber
funnylady
16 years ago
Amber
I have 2- 10X12 HFGH together and love it. Want to do a 3rd on but would have to take out a tree, so I guess that will never happen. But with the 2 together there is so much more area that it's like heaven. I have doors at both ends so I don't have to walk around in circles to get to my other 2 GH's. I started 40 trays of plants this spring and am have a sale this weekend. DH says that I live out in the GH's, well I almost do. It's different world out there, the time goes so fast.
If you have any ? about joining the GH's ask. It wasn't that hard. This crazy woman did it alone. DH finaly got in on it when I was almost done. And he did put the electrical in when I said I would do it myself.
There are some photos on there that mudhouse posted for me. I had trouble trying to post them.

Carol
rosepedal
16 years ago
Troy
Your door turned out nice. I bet you are lovin it. Amber three gh's you are spoiled rotten LOL. We will be on your shirt tails adding only one more and a door. I need more room Carol also with a plant sale in May. Carol I have to cut down a beutiful huge maple tree. It makes me sad to think about it. It is one of the prettiest trees on our land. I still have another 100 or so trees to look at though on the positive. My datura that I started from seed started bloomimg this weekend. What a rush... Just wanted to share.... Barb
banana_fun
16 years ago
What is the rough opening of the HF doors (LxH)? I can get my hands on some free patio doors if the size right. My HF is not assembled yet.
yorkie89
16 years ago
Hi Carol,

I bet you are loving having the 2 HFGH joined together. The one I have quickly filled up with my tropical plants in no time. I actually have had to overwinter plants at my mom's house because I ran out of room! LOL She's ready for me to get the greenhouse done. :) My husband plans on doing some work on it this evening since it's not raining right now. I think he has it in his mind how he's wanting to join them together, something like you did I believe. I won't be having doors at both ends since we are putting the gas heater and exhaust fan on one end. That was the reason that my DH allowed me a third GH now, so he wouldn't have to move the heater & fan later on down the road when I say that 2 aren't enough. :0) He's knows me well! I'll be sure and ask any ? if we get stumped on joining the three. Thanks for offering.

Hi Barb,

You will love having a single door on the harbor freight. What a pain those sliding doors were! If they weren't coming off of the track when I was trying to open them, then the wind was blowing them open. And where the doors met there was always a small gap between them. I love my greenhouse now, but it will be even better when it's bigger. Too bad you will have to cut down your maple tree. But in the long run you aren't going to miss it that much. ;)

Amber
mudhouse_gw
16 years ago
Here's a link to Carol's thread about joining her two greenhouses together:
Joining Two HFGH 10x12s Together
troykd
Original Author
16 years ago
The opening where the HFGH doors were is 68"wide by 751/2" high. Kind of an oddball size.
banana_fun
16 years ago
Thank you troy, I will measure the doors today. Hopefully they will work.

HFGH Door Modification & Reinforcement

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