New Greenhouse construction
6 years ago
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wood construction greenhouse input desired
Comments (10)How long ago did you get this kit? About 4 years ago. What kind of wood is it? Unfortunatly it is pressure treated pine, it is all I could/can afford. what dimension is the wood? It is built of 2x4s. Some 1x4s and 1x6s in there but they are mostly non-structural. The plywood is 1/2 inch sheets. What did you use to cover it? For the first 3 seasons I used cheap construction plastic that gave out after 6-7 months. I was covering it in Oct-Nov and the plastic was wrecked by the following May. This October I covered it in Tufflite IV Should last me 3-4 years. How has it held up? It is WAY over engineered. 80-90 mph winds have had no effect on the structure except to punch holes in the poly by flying objects. Then the poly tears itself off. I am however seriously worried about the poly coming off in a strong south wind. The north wall is solid, so is half the north roof. With no poly on it the structure is a giant air scoop. The emergency plan is to cut off or rip holes in the poly on the East and West walls to try to prevent the whole thing being blown over. I like the idea of having the north wall solid, for sure. A solid North wall is the same as a lean-to. I only have half my north roof solid for a very good reason. I built it on my own, a 4x8 sheet of damp pressure treated ply weighs over 50lbs. I couldn't get the sheets up that high. :) I only have room for about half that size. These things can be scaled down. The reason it is 14ft wide is that with a 30 degree roof slope and using 8ft lengths of wood the numbers fit. When I said a "kit" I may have misled you slightly, What I should have said was "I saved up $700 and did a lot of head scratching and worrying and eventually called up the local hardware store and had 50 cement blocks, 120 2x4x8s and 14 sheets of exterior ply delivered. I didn't work from a "plan" I just looked at how the old chicken shed and hog shed were framed, and the only angles I needed to cut were 30deg, 60deg (tricky) and 90deg. Taking that big pile of wood and building the frame was the most fun I ever had in the snow with all my clothes on! A note on the picture. Notice the biological shade cloth? It is a Mulberry. A weed tree, but it seems to be ideal because it gets its leaves very late in spring. Also, check out the abandoned coldframe... That damn thing got me hooked on gardening. Here is a link that might be useful:...See MoreQuestion about construction of a lean-to greenhouse
Comments (5)For what it's worth. My first greenhouse was a pit/leanto built onto the side of a garden shed. It was 8x12 and had a door leading into the shed. The moisture from the GH got into the shed and the drywall panels i used to finish the shed ceiling (was a nice shed!) all sagged like 3-4 inches! I might not have had that issue if I used greenboard but i don't know. The shed was 12x12. The point being, there is considerable moisture in the GH. Note: I did use a rubber membrane along the south wall to prevent moisture from getting into the wall framing....See MoreIncorporating water as a heat sink in greenhouse construction?
Comments (18)I was away for a couple of days. #1. Absolutely! You're transferring BTUs from the collector into your pit during the day. It's essential for the operation of the system for the pit to be warmed. If you have direct sunlight, that collector will get hot very quickly. Depending upon the angle of the sun, and hours of light, you should get about 30,000 to 40,000 BTUs per day into the pit. It can hold a lot more than that, but you're limited by the hours per day, and also the relative inefficiencies. If you had a warm spell during the winter where you didn't really need to run it at night, theoretically, you might be able to charge it with maybe a couple hundred thousand BTUs. #2. You should wet the ground thoroughly once you've completed the structure. It should remain sufficiently damp after that point with the factors you mentioned. Make sure you wrap the tarp up and over the foundation such that outside rain won't be able to fill the pit -- otherwise, you'll have a swamp in there! #3. The hinged covers have three purposes: a) reflecting additional solar energy to the collector via the mylar film (make sure they're angled correctly when attaching the chains). b) avoiding snow/ice/freezing at night during the winter. Depending upon your hardiness zone, it may also be necessary to circulate some water through the collector at night to avoid cracking the cement or damage to the water lines. If severe freezing is a sure thing during the winter, then the collector should run day and night. Your "day/night" valve will just open the loop through the radiator, instead of shutting off flow to the collector too. c) to protect the solar collector during the warmer months when the system won't be running. Hope this helps. -Bruce...See MoreNewly Constructed Greenhouse
Comments (3)That looks great to me too. I'm happy to see a photo of the Solexx material installed, and to hear your thoughts about working with it. I've considered it for replacing some of my Harbor Freight greenhouse panels. I know it has very good insulating qualities, and because it can be shipped in a big roll, the shipping/crating fees didn't give me a heart attack when I priced it (twinwall poly is really expensive to ship.) Hope you will keep us posted with how everything progresses....See More- 6 years ago
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