[Goosegirl]

Mods, please move as appropriate.
I really want to spruce up my old inherited greenhouse but, after spending some time using a plant label and the splintered end of an old bamboo cane to remove the accumulations of moss and other bits of grunge from the edges of the glass panes both inside and outside, finding that the previous owner has bolted on some safety glass on the original panes in a couple of places where lots of algae have taken a like to and no way can I can't get anything down there to remove it, tried sanding down an aluminium support strap in case it might look somewhat better and might as well not have bothered then wondered about using some light oak Briwax to seal the surface so it doesn't deteriorate, cleaned out the bits of guttering where the door opens then applied some 3-in-1 oil to stop it making the most awful pig-squealing noise only to find that it made not the slightest bit of difference plus the left-hand side needs a little jiggling to set it back on its track, I kinda lost a little bit of heart today as I planned to paint it with some dark green smooth Hammerite to make it look nicer. Anyone got any suggestions?

[Fishplate42]

Hi GG, I have just refurbished our old aluminium greenhouse after being in store for 15 years. It was in service in our old garden until it was taken down to make way for a workshop. It has been stored in a barn ever since. It was absolutely filthy, and 'decorated' by the resident bird population. 

A wash and a scrub with a Brillo pad cleaned up all the sections. The glass was scraped with a Stanley knife blade and then washed using soapy water and one of those cheap scouring sponges. It was then rinsed off with clean water and dried with newspaper. It now looks great. I would not recommend you try to paint yours as you will be giving yourself a maintenance problem for the future. Apart from that it is not easy to get paint to stick to old aluminium. Also. unless you strip it down to its component parts, you will not be able to get to all the areas covered by the glass.

I am not sure what you mean regarding the hardened glass, but the glass is easy to replace and can usually be found on the 'free' stuff sites like freecycle and facebook marketplace. When I was rebuilding mine I was looking for some free glass and ended up with a whole greenhouse for free! As it was a green powder coated one we rebuilt that too and had to find the glass elsewhere, which we did a few weeks later. We now have two fully restored greenhouses in our back garden, one green and the other silver. One advantage is that we now refer to them by their colour and everybody knows what we are talking about.

Ralph. 

[New shoot]

Mods, please move as appropriate.

I have moved this but it would be better to post in the right section of the forum to start with.  We are all unpaid volunteers doing this is our spare time after all 

[Goosegirl]

Pardon me.