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Greenhouses & Garden Structures

My 10 x 12 HFGH build

8 years ago

Been working on my HFGH over the past few weeks. So far it has gone up ok. The only big issue I've found is the corner connectors on the foundation are drilled wrong and makes the corners not line up right leaving a gap.

The slab was already there when we bought the house. It was a kids basketball court. I drilled and set 1/4" wedge anchors every 18" or so to secure the foundation to the slab.

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I put down the closed cell sill seal foam and wrapped the foundation metal in a tar and foil flashing tape to prevent rusting. I think later I may fold the foam up to touch the side of the foundation and secure a piece if right angle flasing to prevent water from penetrating under the foundation.

Below is a picture of the flashing tape on the metal foundation.

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I thought it was silly that the bolts on the bottom side of that right angle joining plate were sandwiched between the foundation and the bottom plate of the green house. It made that section bow up and my OCD nature wouldn't put up with that. So I drilled holes in the foundation so the bolts could come from the bottom side of the foundation and up through the plate. This sucked the plate tight to the foundation thus adding a stronger anchor point than just the clips. I did this on all 4 sides of the green house.

The structure went up as per the instructions.

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I've braced the walls like most others. I put a section of 1/2" EMT conduit from side wall to side wall in the middle going front to back of the green house. I mounted L brackets and drilled holes in the conduit and bolted the two together. This took the flex out of the walls.

Cross bar of conduit

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Said L bracket connection

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To brace the front and rear walls I attached another L bracket just to the left and right of where the cross bar is mounted. I also attached L brackets to the front and rear walls. I made a brace out of conduit that will tie the side walls to the front walls.

Just above the door

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There will be one of these braces at each corner

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These braces keep the front and rear walls from moving in and out.

At this point rain is holding me up. I'm going to seal the ends of the pannels with silicone in my garage to stay out of the rain. We're forcasted rain off and on the next two weeks so I don't know when I'll be able to get the pannels in.

I'll post more later when I get more done.

Comments (6)

Randy Montgomery
8 years ago
Nice job on the bracing. I haven't used any yet. It seems that once it was all together it got stronger. I even think the panels added to the structural integrity. I did use self tapping screws and caulk to tighten and seal the panels. Other than that mine is all stock so to speak and seems very strong even though I fell through the roof when I was finishing up and had to make some major repair.
Matt Smith
Original Author
8 years ago
I'm in a fairly good area for wind. As the pictures show I have it right up next to the fence and about 20ft away on the other side is my house so I have a significant wind break. I have a Davis weather station out in the open about 30ft away and it sees far less wind than my dad's station that's about a mile and a half away. We have a lot more obstructions here.

I'm going to put 4 screws in the pannels at the cross bars and then clips along the edges. I figure that should work for my situation.
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When I built mine I posted some of the problems encountered. Click on the link that I put here for you. Their are some others also. You should do a search for several posts on this subject. One of my post just below where I outlined the modifications that I did is a link to pictures of the mods that I made. Here is a link that might be useful: HGH
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Hi funnylady, Yes, we did... The important word to note here is 'did' :-( Not sure if you have heard of the horrible wind storm the NW had a few months back.... Well it hit here with a vengeance. Normal high wind speeds of 15-20 mph (and that is a wind storm! Usually it's abt 0-3 mph) was clocked up the street at 84mph. Good new was.... Greenhouse frame still standing... other good news... I was able to locate all of the panels, even though several were abt 5-7 acres away behind our barn or some in the other direction out at the road ... Basically all went together well, (except we had planned on changing the doors to hinged rather than sliders) and we didn't get around to screwing the panels down (although they were double clipped). Overall the GH fared winter well... rain, snow and ice were no problem... but those horrific winds, well that was another story... We were without power for abt 3 days and friends had nineteen 100'+ Fir trees that came down (we were lucky, only branches everywhere) all our trees held their ground. Not sure any greenhouse could have withstood that windstorm, but had we screwed the panels in as planned we might have had even less damage.... Ah well.... BTW panels were all fine... are installed and screwed in now... don't want to tempt fate, but think it just might withstand that huge storm this time....
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If my HF were to fail, that is probably exactly what I would do. I do not think that what we start with, does not really matter that much, It is what our final result is that really matters. I see people here talking about wrapping and inflating there greenhouse, I think that when it gets that far, it does not really matter where your original parts came from. I have seen some really amazing pics of what people have done with things that started as HFGH, that are really amazing. If anyone needs some examples, Just look what Conifer has done with his 8x6, or Oraylawson, or Gardenerwantabe with his ceiling fan. I can just imagine Nathan's greenhouse, it sounds better than my last apartment (Yeah I know nathan's is not a HF) With what everyone has done with their their greenhouses, it really humbles me, with my meager changes to my greenhouse
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Thanks for posting the pics, seeing the construction helps a lot. You've got some great ideas. The weather is supposed to take a drastic turn on Wednesday -- even snow predicted, so I decided to put off my HFG purchase and building until next year. Good thing is I'll have more time to compile and memorize that list of needed modifications. I see you have three roof vent openers visible -- can you choose which sections of roof should pop open, or is that predetermined? I assume they provide some kind of hinge assembly, for the fixed end of the vent -- do you need to drill any holes in the roof framing to mount them, or do you find pre-drilled holes provided? Ouch! On those spikes on the Lemon. I've sometimes snipped them off to prevent myself from being impaled. Dee
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Matt Smith
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Here's some more pictures of the bracing. As you can see the weather is better today so I was able to work. Tonight after the kids go to bed I'll seal the ends of the panels with caulk so they can cure.

This is the side wall where the corner braces and side wall braces connect. They are anchored at the top of three center most studs.
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Showing where the ones connect on the back wall
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And a closer view on the back wall. Bracing this wall is mandatory as far as I can tell. Far too much give in it as designed.
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This thing is rock solid now. Its going to take some major wind to hurt it. I'm a huge fan of this green house and the design (for the most part). The track design to hold the bolts makes adding stuff down the road super easy. I'm already thinking of adding bolts to let me attach shade cloth to the inside of the roof. Grommets in the shade cloth and fender washers would allow you to attach the cloth right to the ceiling snugly. The back wall at the peak is just begging for a fan too. I won't caulk the panels in so I can take them out to add things to the structure as needed. Oh the options are endless!!!!!!!
Matt Smith
Original Author
8 years ago
Posting a tip for making spacers to keep your panels flat where the screws hold it down.

I cut this tubing 1/4" long and then place it between the panel and the cross bar where the screw comes through. This is much cheaper than having to buy washers and you can cut it to any length you want to fit your needs.
oakhill (zone 9A, Calif.)
8 years ago
Good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.
Matt Smith
Original Author
8 years ago
Everything is up and secured. We've had some good wind and rain the past few days and all seems well.

The first test was after dark the first night so I was out in the rain putting in a few clips I missed at 11:30 at night. That was fun.

What have people done about making latches for the doors? I'm just using the trusty clamps I have lying around for now.

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