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Easy to build greenhouse, 12 x 24, greenhouse foundation and assemblyThe goal, build a homemade greenhouse, including a greenhouse foundation on a slope in a wet area, that will survive the winter's high winds (60 to 70 MPH) and shelter the garden plants in the meantime!
Works with Arrow T50 staples.
The high wind situation was concerning and shortly after completing and covering the greenhouse structure, weather with wind gusts to 70 MPH arrived. Watching the building shudder in the wind was entertaining! But it stayed there and is still sound. The hurricane the next week would be the real test but the wind peaks were only 60 MPH; nothing! If you find this article useful please consider making your purchases for whatever items through these links. You will be supporting BobsHowTo at no additional cost to yourself. Thanks! A link to the kit at Gardeners' Supply: Sorry my particular kit is no longer available. Maybe it will be back in the Spring? Start off by cheatingStart off by cheating, purchase a kit. Remember the typical low cost kit does not provide the foundation, nor the structural wood. The kit contains instructions, custom brackets for joining lumber, assorted hardware, PVC pipe and PVC brackets for the arches, plastic UV resistant glazing, batten tape, adequate window and door hinges, some nice frictional window supports or closers, some cheap handles, and the deluxe model does provide window and door framing wood. The kit is a bit pricey but you can spend a lot of time buying all the little hardware pieces you will need. A good source of UV plastic is Farmtek A gothic arch style kit was selected which turned out to be a very good choice considering last winter. There were extremely high winds and plenty of snow. The building tolerated the winds, and the gothic arch truly helps the dissipation of the snow. Snow would have accrued substantially on a semicircular design building. The Foundation
Preparation continued on the site, with the tiller, until it was large enough for a 12 x 24 greenhouse. Again this is on a slope and there is a moisture problem so
intentions were to also bring in more material to raise the foundation above this prepared pad of topsoil.
Sorry Gardener's no longer offers this particular kit. One surprise with the 24 foot greenhouse kit is that there is a third support wall in the center of the building. It is sort of one and a half, twelve foot buildings. There is no hint of this on the Gardeners' Supply website. This central wall could be an advantage. It is hoped to keep one end of the building warmer than the other so this wall will facilitate this. Anchoring the building
Attaching the glazing plastic aloneUnfortunately two ends of the plastic were not squarely cut. But what was tried was to staple the sheet at one end of the building pulling it tight down the arch. Then unfurling the neatly folded plastic down to the other end of the building. Get a good stapler! This one was not the greatest. There is a lot of stapling to do with this design! And you do have to replace the plastic perhaps every 3 years, hope it lasts longer! An air compressor and stapler are the best choice. The instructions strongly suggest two people be present during the attachment of the large 24 x 26 foot sheet of polypropylene used to cover the buildings arch, but it was done alone, with one caveat. I believe the method of installation would have worked very well had the ends of the polypropylene sheet been cut perfectly straight. The manufactured edge of 26 x 24 sheet provided was straight, but you must use the 26 foot length along the 24 foot axis of the building and the 26 foot ends of the sheet were not cut perfectly straight. Pulling and re-stapling one end of the greenhouse was required to get a good taught covering. There were some minor mistakes in the plans that were specific to the 24 foot building. While it was not used, Gardeners' Supply has a support phone number; they encourage you to call. What is missing?Screens! Screens will be retrofitted to all five vent openings. Also the door was completely trimmed out and door sealing foam strips were installed, with the hope of using this all winter long. Wasps would love this place and just take over! The wasp sprays may damage the plastic and you do not want it near your food! A nice farm style door latch was added, that will latch the door while you are inside the building as well as outside. Also, a nice touch, adding a door closer just like you would have on a screen door. Some recommendations for this greenhouse kitTry installing the windows before you cut the plastic. Installing the door before glazing the end of the building may be helpful. In this way the glazing will already be taught, you then staple it to the doors and windows, as well as the frame and then cut it! Also to make the vent windows more air tight, skip cutting the plastic at the joint of the window and frame, cut it as far out as you can adjacent to the batten tape. This will give you an overlapping plastic flap when the vents are closed. And also for the windows, the cutting of the plastic was skipped at the top of each window where the hinges are located. This lets rain run down the outside of the building and prevents it from running in at the top of the window frame. For the door and window frames, which are just pine, one dutifully applies two coats of paint. Had the initial plans required a airtight seal at the start, corner brackets would have been mounted that hold the doors and windows together in a position which would allow placing a trim sealing strip around the perimeter of the door and window frames. As it is was a lot of custom fitting had to be completed which could have avoided. Was this an easy to build greenhouse? I would observe that it was a medium difficulty project. The foundation and the structure were both quite a bit of work, a lot of stapling. But the kit's design is fairly strong and has survived very high winds, and heavy snow falls. Some of the designs found on the Web would not have made it through our winters here in the North. I hope this helps you with your homemade greenhouse project. Thanks, Bob |
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