I got some 1-1/2" thick brick pavers, and did a standard sand bed installation, with sand brushed into the crevices to lock in the pavers. It's easy to clean and water that gets spilled quickly drain through the cracks. The masonry also acts as a good heat sink to radiate some warmth back at night.

{{gwi:289353}}

Thanks. That's really attractive. I was hoping for something a little less expensive since I'm retired, and my spouse is semi-retired. The reason we don't want the same kind of pebbles in the new Greenhouse is because they get in shoes and sandals and must be raked level at least once a week.

What do you grow in your greenhouse? I'm into orchids, geraniums, cactus and succulents.

I used 18 inch concrete paver's that look like bricks.
I put about 4 inches of sand over ground cloth and Polly insulation.
With the bricks insulated from the ground they absorb heat in the daytime and give it up at night.
A water spill is not a problem and it is really easy to sweep it clean.
The wife loves it. This photo was taken before the GH was completed.

Picture did not work on the first post if this one don't work this time to hell with it.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:296840}}

greenhouser-
Right now I'm doing about 400 vegetable starts and flowers. By fall I will have a lot of tropicals that can't take the winter weather.

As for cost, the clay pavers were somewhat pricey...I think it was about $4 a square foot, but I splurged because I wanted something permanent and easy to maintain. However, Home Depot carries some nice concrete pavers (in red or gray) that are 8" X 16" and go for $0.79 apiece, which works out to about $1 a square foot. I used some of them to finish off the top of my foundation and they look good. They would be easy to lay on a sand bed...and faster than the small size pavers I laid. I think that's about as good as you'll get price-wise for a solid, easy to maintain floor.

The poly underflooring is a good idea that hadn't crossed our minds. I don't think it will work under shredded bark though. It would compress under the weight of being walked on - I would think.

Thanks. I'll look into what Home Depot and Lowe's has available. Did you buy your sand by the load or by the bag?

We still have to budget for the shelving. We'll make the shelving as deep as the average flat. That how we were able to grow so many seedings in the 6X8 HFGH. The expenses are running a little higher than we originally thought they would, so we're trying to find a floor that is inexpensive and that will work. We both like the looks of gravel and shredded bark. My concern was mold or ants invading the bark.

I don't know the cost but my sister had a commercial greenhouse and they poured sand a few inches deep and then stretched over that greenhouse flooring cloth and fastened it with pins made for that use. She could even sweep it clean, very neat.

Hi greenhouser,
First off, will you be keeping the orchids & geraniums in it, or the Cacti & succulents? Reason I ask is for the cacti & succulents, you wouldn't want to use something like bark that will be retaining so much moisture inside the greenhouse. Plus, not only will it hold moisture in, but yes grow molds and fungus, will draw pests and eventually may break down.
This is just the picture I foresee in my mind happening there.
Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: My C&S Greenhouse

Greenhouser:

Those who have cautioned against using bark are correct. It will rot, grow mold and fungus and not only harm your plants, but stink.

If you are on a tight budget but have the energy to put in some sweat work, dig out the interior base of your GH at least a foot deep and lay down gravel to about 4 inches below what will be the floor surface.

With an 8 ft. wide GH, you will presumably have only a single, center aisle? If so, see if you can stretch your budget to a pair of 16 ft. treated 2 X 4's, to attach to the base at each end, to frame the aisle that you would fill in with concrete patio blocks on sand.

That would give you dry, easy to keep clean and comfortable to walk on footing where you need it, good drainage, and you can later fill in the remainder with more blocks on sand, if that appeals to you. Or, fill the in the remaining space under the benches with more gravel.

greenhouser-
Sand is very expensive by bag, and very cheap by load if you can haul it yourself. About 3/4 cubic yard would be enough for a 2" base in your 8' X 16' greenhouse, and cost about $20. It's heavy enough that it would take me two trips with my little trailer.

I picked up some of those 8X16" pavers for the smaller greenhouse walkway today. They are $1.09 ea where I live. Sand was $3.69 a bag so I passed on that. I'm hoping the gravel holds the 6 pavers in place.

We've pretty much decided to floor the new GH with the ground cloth and several inches of shredded bark. That's about all we can afford right now.

Hi and thanks for that info. We do plan to peg down ground cloth as we did in the HFGH. Sand here is too expensive though, almost $4 for a bag that would cover a very small area. Oddly enough, pea and river gravel is much cheaper. I'm going to do some shopping around while we wait for delivery of the Rion but don't think I'll find better prices.

Hi Anya. I enjoyed your pics but what is the white flooring? It looks like marble chips? Aren't they hard to walk on and get in your shoes and sandels. That's the reason we don't want gravel in the new GH.

I had a problem with too little humidity in the HFGH this past winter. No amount of spraying and wetting down helped for long. It stayed around 20% all winter. The geraniums and cacti thrived. Even the ferns I kept over, set on the cool west wall floor did fine. The orchids were in the house in the sunroom which keeps a humidity of around 50 to 60%. There was no room for a humidifier in the small HFGH. It was wall to wall plants. I may turn the small GH over to just my cacti, succulents and geraniums once the new GH is up and running. Geraniums do well with the low humidity.

Every time I follow a link from here I lose this website. Is there a way to get around this?

Now this is an teriffic idea! We can't dig that deep due to limestone rock just below the surface but I think your idea may work! :-))) We can dig perhaps 4 inches and do have to level the spot a little better anyway. Framing a center isle is something I hadn't thought of, although I just bought 6 pavers to make a center isle for the 6X8 HFGH. This to keep the gravel from shifting and getting in my shoes. The gravel is only a few inches deep but drainage is excellent.

I was afraid the shredded bark may be a problem with molds, insects and decay. I also thought it not only looked nice but smelled nice, was soft to walk on, wasn't expensive, drained well but would hold some humidity, the lack of which has been a problem with the small GH.

greenhouser,
Yes, I used white rock for the flooring, and it can be rough on bare feet, but have no problem with it collecting in shoe tread. At the time, (1) I was also having my drive way white rocked, so was handy & cheap. (2) It drains water very well, when I douse the plants. (3) It helps add light to areas with less sunlight.
Some day (when I get around to it), I had plans of using 4 rows of patio blocks to run down the center isle. Just been to busy with other things to date.
Good luck with your new Rion. I have enjoyed mine so far. It held up through all the elements so far.

Rose

Greenhouser: If pea gravel is cheap in your area, it might be your best option. It works very well as an under base for patio blocks because it rakes out easily and the very small, smooth stones settle in to provide quite a nice surface. But as nice as it looks and drains, it tends to get caught in shoe treads. However, if the area where you actually walk is topped with pavers, that's a null issue.

Another negative for using bark is that it attracts burrowing critters. Lay it down inside a GH, and every small creature seeking a warm nest will try to dig under your base to get to it.

In fact, and I hope you and other posters who have heard it from me before won't mind- I'll repeat my mantra on the subject of mice (and their natural predators, snakes) here.......

Whatever other cost cutting you need to do when erecting any structure set only on a timber or stone frame base, from GH to storage shed, if you want to avoid any diggers ever getting in, and having their slithering predators following them through the same little tunnels, lay out a barrier against them BEFORE you secure your base. The small additional cost for 2 ft. wide, 1/2" mesh hardware cloth will be well worth it for what won't be be destroyed later.

Before you secure your base, slide the hardware cloth under it all around, leaving no gaps. The remaining 18 or so inches out on the ground will prevent any mice from burrowing in under the base. Use large U shaped wire stakes to hold it down snugly all along the outside edges: Very important, as the object is to prevent them from getting under the wire.

Later, when you have recovered from your initial cost shocks, you can fancy up the GH exterior with additional timbers or stones laid on the outside edges of the wire, to use as a planting bed, as gardener did, or fill it in with nice looking river stone; whatever appeals to your esthetic senses. (You have lots of them, or your wouldn't be growing decorative plants)

Whatever decision you make regarding the floor in your new GH, just keep in mind that the last thing you will ever want will be the need to remove it from the base and retrofit beneath it.

So your spending the time and effort to try to get your base right- NOW- before you even unpack the GH, is a VERY wise move.

Hi Birdwidow. The advice about the hardware cloth will be used. We already have a 2' roll and will get more. Also, we nixed the use of shredded bark. We will use the small light brown gravel from Lowe's, and pavers down the center isle. This will be over the pegged down ground cloth.

Next is what the heck we're going to use for shelving. We used the white plastic covered closet stuff in the small GH but it's not really wide enough. I want the shelves wider than that. I don't want any wasted space with an unnecessarily wide center isle in the Rion.

All suggestions are welcome.

I'll upload some pics of the HFGH tonight.

crushed rock (modified stone, 3/4"minus) is good, and cheap.

Yes, the small brown gravel is inexpensive here. We're going with that and pavers in the isle since I wear a lot of sandles and also run around barefoot.

Greenhouser:

Yes, the 8 ft. width does present some issues re usable space. It also depends on your reach, and what you plan to grow. If you are able to stick with plants that would fit into a standard flat sized flat or tray, no shelf needs to be deeper than the 11 inch width of a flat, say 12 inches, to keep it standard width in shelving.

Then, if you can live with narrow aisles, you could use 12" deep wire closet shelves on the walls, and set a line of 24" deep plastic shelf storage units down the center, to hold double rows of flats.

That would leave you with 2- 2 ft. wide aisles. Not very wide, but wide enough to walk in, and would near double your space for flats.

Again, it all depends on your reach and agility to stretch, because if planting area is your most important issue, and if you think on it, you aren't really going to be hauling big wheelbarrows into an 8 X 16 ft. GH, you could buy or fabricate deep plant tables to use against the walls, and leave an asile just wide enough to be usable, but not waste an inch of floor space.

If I were trying to maximize plant space in an 8 X 16, I think I would go with 12 deep, waist high shelves in a U shape, along the side and back walls, with a center table adjoining the back in the center, extending toward the door, stopping about 3 ft away from it, like a 3 pronged fork, with a shortened center tine.

But while that would suit my shorter, elderly body and arthritic arms, it might not, for someone larger and more agile.

I'm tall and agile so want the U shape shelves, as deep as possible. Down both sides and across the back like in the small greenhouse. But there is still plenty of time to decide.

This link is to what I did for mine to help extend both the shelving size and the sturdiness of the greenhouse itself.

I started out with shelving in the U- shape, (across the back side too), but found I could make better use without it for now and removed it. The back shelving is a wire stand that fits just perfectly within my other shelves. That way I can use it for more plants of a potting bench, if I decide to.

The shelves are 2' front to back leaving me with a 4' walk way. That I do need for my bigger plants that sit on the flooring, so this set up accommodates me for my own personal uses.

Just thought this might give you some ideas of your own.

Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: My home made shelving units.

Hi Anya, thanks for the link. I'll have my husband look at the pics and see if he can make something similar. Where did you get the bubble wrap used as insulation? It seems pretty expensive at Staple's or Office-Supply.

I bought two rolls off Ebay from an office supply place for a rather fair price. Most also have actual websites.

Here is a link that might be useful: 24

Wow... those are GOOD prices! I saved the URL. Thanks! :-)

The own problem I've had with multilayer shelving is the bottom layer tends to be shady, and the plants get water damage from overhead dripping. If I did it again I would put some kind of roofing material between layers (old PC or something), and spread the shelves out further.

Can't you just cover the shelves with heavy clear plastic to prevent the lower plants from getting dripped on?

I personally don't have a problem with what I grow in mine, Cacti & Succulents. I even have a lot of cacti on my lower shelves to try and keep them from sunburn. They (lower shelves) all get MORE than enough lighting. Still having to use some shade cloth for some plants down there.

As far as watering, when I do water, I water to soak all anyway & no, not enough water goes onto lower shelves to hurt a thing. If I have things that don't need as much watering as the rest, they are on the top shelves anyway.

I have no use in putting "anything" on top shelf to keep things watered less. If I did that then yes, I would have a major problem with having to much shade to make lower shelves of any usable value.

I think it all just depends on everyone's own individual green house and just what they grow as far as what is useful and what is not.

My shelves may look like a problem for some, but isn't for me at all. I wouldn't change it if I were growing much of anything else either, as they seem to serve their purpose well enough.

Can't you just cover the shelves with heavy clear plastic to prevent the lower plants from getting dripped on?

Then you get pooling water, then fungal problems, mossies etc.

I had some dripping problems in my small HFGH but it did the plants below no harm. Most of my plants were still in pots with saucers as I kept them in my sun-room. Saucers many be you answer.

I have 3-shelf units and I avoid dripping onto the lower plants by keeping all of the plants that don't have saucers in standard 11" X 22" plastic trays that retail for about $1.50. It not only prevents dripping, but it reduces moisture that gets onto my wire shelves so that there is less opportunity for shelf corrosion.

HELLO,

I THINK I HAVE A GREAT SETUP......NO EXPENSE FOR A FLOOR. MY DRIVEWAY IS INCREDIBLY LONG AND I KEEP MY GREENHOUSE AT THE VERY END. THE BLACKTOP HELPS KEEP THE HEAT IN TO DISPERSE AS NEEDED.

THE GREENHOUSE SITS ON A PRESSURE TREATED FRAME SO THAT THERE IS NEVER ANY WORRY ABOUT DRAINAGE.

I plan to use treated decking for mine.

Where do you get those trays for $1.50? I never saw them for sale anywhere unless they're part of a seed starter kit for $4.99 and up.

We still haven't decided what kind of flooring we're going to use. Everything is so expensive - from pea gravel to shredded bark. Next we're going to look at buying something "in bulk" and have it delivered.

Greenhouser-
As for those inexpensive trays, I have a huge nursery supply store near me and they sell everything you can imagine, from pots to greenhouses...and they sell to the public at the same prices as they do to nurseries. When I discovered this place, I was shocked at how cheaply I could get my basic supplies compared to what I had accepted as normal at a regular garden store. My suggestion is to ask a few of your local nurseries where they get their supplies, and then call up and see if they'll sell to you.

Thanks for the information. I just got a bunch of free trays from Lowe's that they were throwing away. The lady suggested I check out HD. So I crossed the road to HD and they also had trays they were going to toss out. I took them. :0) Now what I need are new cellpacks. My old ones have seen their better days. There are no nurseries here anymore. They all have the stock shipped from the Carolina's or places further south. The last place to grow their own closed up a few years ago.

For GH flooring (10x12) we used crushed rock over weed block but down the center we put large tan colored pavers (Home Depot) on 2" of sand. Only needed 6 bags of sand.

For trays, we've been using cheap aluminum roasting pans from the dollar store.

It appears we're going to get a load of crushed limestone for flooring. It's all we can afford at this time. Down the center we're going to use those templates (looks like stones) for a cement walkway. We finished using tons of caulking on the roof and where the roof meets the sidewalls today. The top/roof is very poorly designed and Rion doesn't supply enough felt insulation material to seal all those 1" openings. The caulking looks terrible but we had no choice.

Someone was asking about shelving for their GH.
While I was looking for shelving, I did some temporary shelves that have done the trick for the time being.
I have used slotted bi-fold doors with concrete blocks to seperate the shelves.
I have gone to the back of a grocery store that was being remodeled and found TONS of shelves and wire racks for free.
I find those closet racks quite often at flea markets and thrift stores. HTH NT

One recommendation no one made was you could use some landscape timbers laid flat on the pea gravel and nail/screw composite deck material or treated lumber across to form a walkway. You could even do the whole floor that way, leaving spaces for drainage, but it might be more costly than some of the others.

The plastic plant flats were also at Lowe's, Wally World, and many of the hardware stores this year. They were going for under one dollar to just under two, depending on where you looked. Good snag on the throw outs! Most places anymore want them returned to the greenhouse that supplies them.

As far as 4 packs or 6 packs I am sure you can get them through one of the seed outlets online, but might have to order them early. If not, you can try using the shaped peat pots. Some of them come in 6 or 8 pack shapes.

You mentioned that you were short on felt gasketing/insulation material, you might check Lowe's or a smaller hardware store. They might have it with the insulation and weatherstipping materials, or you might look to see if your heating and cooling guy using anything like it.

Just some thoughts.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin, you've given me some ideas. :^)

We picked up over a ton of crushed limestone and made the floor with that. It's nice and level and not bad to walk on. It ran around $25. We're going to see how that works out before putting in walkway. We decided the shelves will run along the north wall only. The shelving is the next step. Closet shelving is costly so we're looking into welded fencing materials.