Greenhouse Design Feedback

9 years ago

Hey guys

I'm working on a design for my Greenhouse which also incorporates wood and tool storage and would like some feedback

From the design you can see that I have 6 bays in total. Each bay is 6' x 8'. The bay on the far right will have doors and is designed for tool storage, the next 3 coming down are for seasoning and storing wood and the last two are connected (there is no wall between the bays) and designed to be a green house.

The roof of the wood and tool storage bays is going to be corrugated iron and the walls made of 1"x6" panels (the tool shed will have a back but not the wood storage). The green house will have roof of corrugated transparent plastic and walls of the same material.

The roof fascia is made of 2"x6", with the trusses being 2"x4". The walls of the greenhouse is going to be secured to 2"x2" with cross supports (not yet shown). South is the left most end of the structure and north is the right most. This means the front we are looking at is East and the back is West.

Besides general feedback on the above, the following are some specific questions I have:
- Can the greenshouse have a floor, raised 6" off the ground, which has 1/4" gaps. My gut says that this would let too much cool air in but, in my case I would prefer this as the site is on a slop (not represented in the sketch). Or is it best to be directly on the ground?
- I mentioned that I'm looking at using corrugated plastic for the roof and walls of the structure. Am I best to use see through poloytunnel type plastic with wiggle wire holders for the walls
- Is the roof design ok for a greenhouse. Most designs aren't like this (single pitch) but due to the rest of the structure I can't really avoid this.
- Am I best to build venting into the structure (http://www.custommade.com/blog/content/uploads/2014/11/greenhouse-001.jpg) or am I ok with this structure.

Other notes, the main supports are 4"x4", the front is 7' and the back is 6'. As mentioned, the site is on a gentle slope which I haven't yet represented in this - haven't yet fully worked out how to deal with it. The square footage of each bay is 48, which means the greenshouse is about 96.

Thanks for all your help

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Comments (2)

CanadianLori
9 years ago
You might want to create vents at the "peak" wall under the roof to spill hot air.

are you growing in beds or containers? I see soil getting washed out or filling in your gaps if you're going with in ground.
gnomeinplaid
9 years ago
Hi,

If you have a slope, I would go with raised beds, and infill with gravel. I would think that when it rains, the rain is going to flow toward your structure. If you have gravel laid down inside your greenhouse, the water will flow on through instead of being a problem. Also, if you place your raised beds under your trusses, you can run chicken wire up to the ceiling and have tomatoes or green beans or what-have-you. Will this pitch allow for snow load and shedding of same? This new houzz website, I can't tell where anybody is. I'm new here, liked the old site much better. You'll need a 36 inch door to accommodate your wheelbarrow and other implements. The wall closest to the solid frame could be made into your tool storage/work area.

This is a picture of my 30x50 greenhouse, what you see outside the door in the distance is about 4 feet of snow. I am showing the truss design so you will have an idea of how to make it sturdy. It is designed to carry heavy snow loads and withstand 150 mph winds, like near a tornado or other crazy weather that we have nowadays.

This is an "after" picture, looking East toward the same door. I put in raised beds and have started filling the paths with gravel. On the left side are tomato plants growing toward the ceiling. I ran a 2x4 across the bed every 4 feet under the trusses so I could attach the chicken wire. The 2x4 also helps to keep the bed from falling outward from the weight of the soil. On the right is my greens bed. It has row cover on it in this picture, but under the row cover is a 2x4 square with wire fencing running across it to grow miniature peas on.
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Comments (2)

CanadianLori

gnomeinplaid

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