Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: celjaci on April 12, 2009, 22:28
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I would so love to have a greenhouse but no chance at the plot - everything gets smashed. So I've moved a shed in the back garden and think I can get one in a corner against a wall, possibly 15ft by 9ft. Would like to build in wood & glass
So anyone any ideas or sources of plans/information? Particularly size of timber needed for frame, spacing for glazing bars, pitch of roof etc
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if you could give a little more information it would be helpfull .is it going onto bare ground or concrete ,do you want glass or twin wall poly .For the main frame work i would use scant this is swiss or Norwegian timber in lengths of 10 ft to 14 ft and its two and three quarter inch by two inch .if your using twin wall i would make the roof supports with this as well .if you need more help pm me and i will give you more help and my phone number phil
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I am building just that , a wooden greenhouse, lean to style.
This will be sat on a dwarf brick wall, ( just got 1200 bricks, handmade circa 1830)
The timber is not quite as large as suggested above, I am using 2"x2" sawn and treated, built with housing and halflap joints, glued and screwed.
It will be in sections, sides, front etc which will be joined together as it is built up on the wall.
The wall will be on footings, with no oversite, ( oversite is the infil concrete used as a base or floor) so it will be soil inside. Probably a line of pavers or gravel down the middle and sides left clear for planting... A grapevine probably .
For glazing I decided on acrylic, clear 3 or 4mm.
The frame is rebated out to take the glazing and will be held in with a glass beading pinned on.
Glass is heavy and of course can break more easily than other glazing materials.
The doorway will be in the middle front rather than one end and the doorway will be projected forward about 30" and have a pitched roof above it that will run into the slope of the lean to roof.
The doorway will be 50" wide because I am using a set of french doors, georgian glazed so the overall look will be more a victorian summerhouse, mainly because most greenhouses detract from the looks of a garden.
Thats another reason why I am using clear acrylic , glass I have mentioned, heavy brittle and expensive, and polycarbonate twin wall is just ugly.
It will be built against a workshop gable end and so I can get power into it easily and there is a water butt nearby so I will pipe in a water feed from that.
I only got my first greenhouse 2 seasons ago and its done great, but it is only a roofing batten timber frame with polythene over and is not big enough and will not last much longer anyway , but its been enough for me to decide to build a better one.
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Sounds like you are planning to make something lovely, so I hesitate to suggest this, but I have bought two greenhouses on eBay with good results.
I made a search and carefully refined the search to keywords and attributes that I wanted, and then did the "Save this search" and "EMail me any matches" ... and then sit back, wait, and delete the majority of, inappropriate, matches that arrive by email.
I have eBay searches that run for years before I find what I'm looking for, and that seels at a bargain price. Obviously no good for something you need NOW! but I have lots of nice-to-have, non urgent, things that I'm on the lookout for.
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The only greenhouses I saw when I considered buying one ( a consideration that soon passed) either looked ugly and mechanical or looked graceful and complementary to a garden but cost thousands.
I realise that people make things from old window frames and pallets, with odd bits of bubblewrap and PET bottles, plumbing pipe and such, but the aesthetics are thus sacrificed for something that may or may not be a successful functional design because of the constraints of the raw material.
I think a greenhouse is a green enough statement as it is. So it might as well look pleasing to the eye as well.
Interesting point about the alert on Ebay, never used that, just done occasional browses for such non urgent things, but obviously the longer one can leave it the more the chance of a really good purchase
I will however be purchasing the glazing from Ebay, so might use the method you suggest. Not in a rush to finish the greenhouse before winter.
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thanks for ideas everyone
Philskin, I will PM you tonight but I'm sure others will be intrigued to know what is scant and where can you get it??
Stree, I've got similar idea to you - dwarf wall and french doors in the middle - sort of half conservatory half victorian kitchen garden.
Kirsten thanks for the idea but I thought I would have to build it myself as off the peg would either be too utilitarian or too expensive, I've been looking at some of the adverts in ''Garden'' magazine - wow!!
will keep you posted but it may be a few weeks before I get started
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I have a fairly generic search+alert on eBay for greenhouses. It has turned out ONE gorgeous wooden greenhouse in the last year. Probably not worth holding your breath!
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Without sounding too AOL "Me too".
I've got this project on the list of things to do this/next year, after i've finished the hard landscaping. Partly due to aesthetics but also due to build quality and cost of anything better than a plastic tent. Although Id be building a free standing one.
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Seems like a good opportunity to pool ideas and resources..............Maybe a home built greenhouse thread/section?
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So far...
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That looks like CLS timber. Is it pressure treated?
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Looks good so far Stree - have you figured out the glazing around the "dorma" yet? looks like it might be tricky.
I see you don't get the "banana wood" I get from my local timber merchant - if must take all the fun out of build things square :D
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That looks like CLS timber. Is it pressure treated?
I am using 2"x2" sawn and treated,
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I know what to look for when selecting timber, and always go for the straightest and nearest the finished cut size. Never buy wide boards to rip into narrower sections. It will twist.......
avoid knots. In Burr walnut they might be decoration but in any construction they are a liability.
Yes its all 2x2 apart from the wall plate and the ridge timber front to back. These will be all 4x2 as will the rest of the roof timbers. It will be strong enough to walk on when done.
The "Dormer" angles are tricky because its two unequal pitches, and its a different set up when glazing as opposed to tiling. so a bit of working out to do.
As you see it above it is in six sections, sides, fronts and two sides of the "sentry box" doorway,,, Mixture of joints, half lap, housing joints on the sections, already screwed and glued and butt joints dry screwed between each section. .
Although it is constructed from 2x2 when a section is jointed to another it becomes a 4x2 adding stiffness and strength.
Wall for it is built, remember its more summerhouse than greenhouse, so its taller than a dwarf wall, sand is laid inside on top of 6" of ballast, and will be topped with gravel for a finish......
Heres a pic of the wall
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afaik
CLS is Canadian Light Spruce
Scant is Nordic Pine
CLS is what the merkins build everything out of, both are smooth sawn and slightly smaller than the normal 3x2 ect and are very size consistant.
If you pick a stright one from the pack theres a good chance it will stay stright.
very few knots.
HTH
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If you do use CLS then try and get the type that is stamped C16 or C24m this is a construction grading and ensures its decent stuff.
If its for outside get pre treated........
Be aware that some cheap "CLS" is from far east or vague eastern european sources and is very inferior, same applies to scant........
Explanation from afaik is as near as one can get.......Thanks for that
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afaik =
as
far
as
i
know
2peasinapod =
mark (me)
and tracy.
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wwdyjtiitfp
Well
why
didn`t
you
just
type
it
in
the
first
place?
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FYI
For
Your
Interest....
CLS = Canadian Lumber stock. generally available in 38x63/94mm ( 1 1/2" x 2 1/2") finished sizes. (planed finish)
Scant = 1/4" scant finished size 44x69mm (1 3/4" x 2 3/4")sawn finish.
All above are usually supplied in 2.4/4.8m (8/16Ft) lengths.
IMHO
In
My
Humble
Opinion...
It's worth spending the extra on some joinery grade Redwood, if you can afford it.! ;)
Bom
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WTF :O
What
Thorough
Feedback
:angelic_look:
¥
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Anyway. we digress, Back to building a lean to greenhouse. I will be using gravel on the floor of mine.... Any comments on this? Should I have a solid path down the middle or is gravel OK? Only growing one thing in the ground inside it and that a grapevine and I have a space reserved for that. a few breeze blocks wich will not be removed until the floor is done, then removed leaving a good area thats still natural soil.... I reckon the gravel will be easy to pick weeds up from and easy to hose down. Am I right? O know some have concrete bases and some have just soil. Pros and cons anyone?
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I think gravel is a problem if you are likely to walk on it with muddy shoes / boots - e.g. Winter time & heavy soil.
A solid floor allows damping down, to reduce temperature / increase humidity in summer. Might be more weed-proof too.
I favour paving bricks as looking prettier.
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Thanks Kristen, good points.
I will have a good think about this.
Might even run the block paving from the path up to the greenhouse to continue inside..
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plan for mine is to have a central area with terracotta tiles so we can use it like a conservatory - cafe chairs and table plus pot plants.
But then I'm still at the clearing the site and digging foundations for the wall stage - have got the French Doors for the entrance though :D
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Right, time for an update on this:
It all came to a halt because I needed to get some new roofing on the building that the lean to is to lean against. It would be difficult to get to the gable end to reroof it after the greenhouse is put up.
Anyway, reroofed it last week, so on with the greenhouse.
If you remember from the pics from before, the building ( my workshop) is a steel shed sat on a 2 foot block wall, which meant that the back wall of the greenhouse would be old steel sheeting which is past its best.. so I decided to take off the steel sheet and skin it with plywood which could then be painted.
I went and bought the sheets yesterday, three 8X4 of OSB which is a cross between ply and chipboard, cheaper than ply and more robust than chipboard.......and then changed my mind......... The whole gable end right up to the roof will be dismantled and rebuilt with the same reclaimed bricks to match the greenhouse dwarf wall, not only that but a glazesddoor and sidelights built into the back wall so I can have a way through to the workshop and which will let light into that end of the workshop as well.
One reason behind the decision to have a door there is so that in winter it can be left open to get heat from the workshop, because my woodburner is only about 3 feet from the proposed doorway and it a decent output rated at 15KW . and in winter is left on overnight slow burn,
On the other hand, in summer I can open the door into the workshop and help to get cooling airflow through the greenhouse. Thats the theory anyway.
Another bonus of having a brick back wall as opposed to steel sheet or ply is that the mass of the brick will act as a heatsink, so even on a sunny winters day the heat will gain in the bricks and be released slowly overnight.
The roof of the greenhouse will be 8 foot to the eaves and another 2 foot plus up to the top wallplate, so I am going to get some auto vents from ebay, only £17 direct from China......
I am also working on getting power into there from the workshop, a couple of exterior grade double sockets, and a lighting ring in there as well.
and some speakers from the workshop hi fi as well ! Music is good for plants!
As for the floor, I am going to extend the block paving from the garden path up to and inside the greenhouse......
As for the OSB I bought, it will not be wasted. I will build a new henhouse from it, and paint it with masonry paint inside and out ....... Just an experiment..
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How is it coming on??
We need more pics and a new update :tongue2:
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Thanks for the prompt Deucecoup!
The bew roof is on, so work has begun again on the greenhouse part.
Some pics of work so far to follow.
I was out this morning at 7 to strip the walls of the workshop ready for the brickie arriving at 8:30..Its 10 now and after some initial work with the Stojl saw for the new doorway and some confab on design etc ( make up as we go along basically) the first batch is now in the mixer.
More later tonight when I can see what we have got done today. (and the pics.......)
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Pic update:
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Hm lots of pics, spent an hour trying to post them, its not having it so I give up. looks like no more pics from this project so looks like thread closed. Ah well.....
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Hm lots of pics, spent an hour trying to post them, its not having it so I give up. looks like no more pics from this project so looks like thread closed. Ah well.....
You can only upload a total of 128K of pictures per message (I think) and your first picture was just over 50% of that and your second around 80% ... so you will either need to reduce the quality, to make them smaller; upload one picture per message; or upload the pictures to a Photo Site and then just link to them from here
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Thanks Kristen.
Been busy this last week or so and had no time to fiddle about with pics, but hopefully I can post a few now. ( I can`t find a sticky of posting pics so I will bear in mind the 128k you mention )
2 pics as a reminder of what it was like and then the progress.
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hmm only one pic out of three. Try again
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stil only managing one at a time even though they are quite small now.......... Try again !
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Aha!
The brickwork has started here, design changes on the fly.......
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The greenhouse base material has been decided in the last week as well, been offered a trailer load of block paving which will be enough to do inside the greenhouse and the area outside..................
I have decided to run the downspout and rainwater pipe inside the building and out of the side and place the water butt there, to keep the front clear.( plastic water butts are ugly ! Useful but ugly )
a piece of 4 inch X 4inch angle iron for the doorway was going to cost about 60 quid, and a cheaper concrete one would look awful, so I decided to use what we had hence the soldiers arch. This will be glazed once the former is out, and the former used on the other half when the brickwork gets that far
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The doorway is not standard size because of girder work inside the building, so buying a door to fit was a nono. So I have made one, a chunky stable door which is only softwood but will be fine as technically it will be an internal door....... Traditional mortice and teneon with drawn oak pegs. Those are the little squares near the joints.
Makes for a strong door.........
and a pic of how it looks from the house..................
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This is really going to be a gem when its all done, your making it look fab so far
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Moving along a bit, in between showers and having to work for a living...........Using Forest green wood stain / preservative and a top coat of Baufix clear preservative from Lidl. Both waterbased, so no smell and easy to clean up.#Decided to board the top of the gable, not much point glazing it, its only a storage area behind it.
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The window took some working out, interesting joints to make and some angles and arcs to work out........... Perspex is ordered for the stable door and the fanlight window, going to be 5mm thick, cost cut to size and delivered is about 20 quid.
Frame is fixed to the base and partly to the wall. All pretty square and plumb and level. The frame sections are routed out to take the perspex and a glazing bead, its treated timber so its ok outside as it is, but it will get the same green treatment as the rest soon.
The drainpipe is only temporary, I am going to reposition the running outlet inside the wall and run it out to the side ( right side as you look at the building) and it will feed a row of linked waterbutts. Big roof and easily fills a large waterbutt overnight with a decent showery night.. The electric submerged pump to feed it into the greenhouse.Got the butts and the pump, just need the time to do it all !
The sideways shots give an idea of the size that will be available inside. its tall, but not huge, 8 foot to the top of the brickwork, 11 foot wide and 6 foot deep plus another 2 foot where the doors are going at the front. Getting there slowly.
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its amazing - keep at it !
I did something like this with a summer house a few years ago and found it very hard work once I started the roof. I did find it amazing how much I was able to get done if you get in a couple of nights during the week (6pm to 8pm).
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Thanks for the kind and positive comment Mrk, much appreciated !
Yes, I expect the roof to be a bit tricky, but I have an idea or two. As per the rest I will make it up as I go along. Necessity is the mother of invention and ad hoc roofing!
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Very impressive stree! Particulary impressed with your joinery. My skills begin and end with old pallets and my brad nail gun...
amc
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Im following this avidly too. :D
Im guessing your workshop is slightly better equipped than my shed.
How are you planning on joining the wooden frame to dwarf wall - I'd be concerned about creating a flat spot that would collect water. I can't see from the pictures have you built sills at the bottom to deflect the water beyond the wall ?
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Firstly, Thanks AMC for you points about the woodwork, I do have some experience and enjoy doing it and its nice to get chance to do some for myself.
Never had much luck myself with pallets, I find it hard to get enthusiastic when the quality of the timber is so iffy as it is on most palletts. Apart from one I got from China which as a wonderful red Cedar wich is scentd and fine grained. Probably plane that up and make a cabinet from that one but the rest usually get put on the woodburner.
Lardman, I had no idea I had an avid follower ! Sometimes I think I am posting and nobody is looking at all ! Then a bunch of nice comments like this ! Thank you.
Your question about the frame to the dwarf wall.
Right: The bricks are 4" commons, the frame timber is 2"x2", so an inch of brick work is left either side of the timber when the frame is on. The frame is fastened with wall plugs and 3" screws to the horizontal members and 4" to the verticals.. These will be sealed with framing mastic.
The cill is to be fixed to the outer face afterwards, from treated timber again, but shaped so it has a chamfer and a drip groove underneath. The cill will be about 1 1/2" high ( thick) and about 2 1/2" wide, so it will overhang the brickwork by about 1 1/2".
This will be fastened like a weatherbar is fastened to an external door, screwed through from the inside..... This means that if the cill ever needs replacing then the frame is left and the cill is just removed and new cill refixed. If it was sat on a cill then that would be a messy replacement job.
It also means that the 1" brickwork left inside the frame can be used for staging to sit on which will assist greatly is getting a positive fix rather than having it freestanding.
Hope thats clear enough ! Easier to explain it when you are stood next to it !
As for my workshop, it will be 2 yrs come 14th August since I inherited it, it was a damp dismal mess. New roof ( I mentioned earlier) had to go on, new electric feed to it and total rewire. and being about 175 feet from the house meant a lot of armoured cable !.
its a lot better now, I will try and get a pic or two to show what I have done with it.
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hopefully 2 pics. a workshop when we moved here August 14th 07 and as it was lately. not taken a pic in there for a few months but its moved on a bit more.....But still lots to do....
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It also means that the 1" brickwork left inside the frame can be used for staging to sit on which will assist greatly is getting a positive fix rather than having it freestanding.
Hope thats clear enough ! Easier to explain it when you are stood next to it !
Makes perfect sense (should I worry :D ) - I just hadn't seen it in your pictures. Love the workshop, wish I had the time / money and space ...
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Hi Stree, yes pallett wood is usually rubbish stuff anything I use it for is "allotment quality" ie compost bins, rudimentary gates, patching fences etc.
I'm v.jealous of the workshop too. Keep up the postings when you get chance, its good to see how its all progressing.
amc
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Well I have to say, the quality of pallet wood is variable.. In fact I defended the use of pallets for decent joinery work at one point and even made something from pallet timber to prove the point, a stable door about 24 years ago, and its still in use today. Its an external door as well so gets all the weather, and was never treated with preservatives, just stained and varnished..
I always recycle timber when I can, ( its no good when its gone rotten ! ) and anything else for that matter.
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Some of the older pallets are made of ash (have used them for making new door frames on our vintage lorries) but sadly these are few and far between now :(. The best ones around now are the blue painted ones - but they are supposed to be returned to the manufacturer and therefor I think they charge a deposit on them. Although not everyone can be bothered to return them.
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Joyfull, I think the blue pallets are leased, whereas the bare timber ones are not.
The size is important for stacking on wagons and odd sizes are often left at point of delivery.
Our local animal feed place always has odd sized pallets that no drivers want back and so they are free to whoever wants them.
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Btw, next time you hit a low moment, when every effort is increased ten fold, and on top of all that you think "why the hell do I bother typing and uploading images ... it's not as if any one gives a $hit" .... normally followed by a few tears ... and maybe a punched screen and a thrown mouse ... anyway .... next time you hit that point?
I read this thread ;)
¥
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Thank you Yabba,
a very prescient and thoughtful point. Appreciated.
*
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Well I have to say, the quality of pallet wood is variable.. In fact I defended the use of pallets for decent joinery work at one point and even made something from pallet timber to prove the point, a stable door about 24 years ago, and its still in use today. Its an external door as well so gets all the weather, and was never treated with preservatives, just stained and varnished..
I always recycle timber when I can, ( its no good when its gone rotten ! ) and anything else for that matter.
Reminded me of a looooong looooong time ago, ::) when I used to peddle timber, and in particular to the pallet and packing case industries. We used to import mostly Canadian lumber (N0.3's) which consisted of mainly Hemlock or Douglas Fir. Occasionally, we received what appeared to be a 'Friday afternoon' pack, that consisted of the finest, clear, knot free, straight grained lumber. Luuvvvrly stuff. Far too good for Pallets! ;) :D
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Ohh, By the way.........
I read this thread! :D
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Glad you do Bomber, makes it worthwhile knowing I am not just typing into the void when take pics and shrink pics, type things and edit things. Lifes busy enough without inventing an audience, so its nice to know there is an actual one there *
Its surprising how much these little words of support, nods of encouragement, mean.
If there is a particular aspect you are interested in, let me know and I will be sure to include it. Not that I know everything, still learning and making it up as I go along.......
As they say, necessity is the mother of google searches..
And there probably was some hemlock in that door all those years ago......
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Hi
Sorry Ive not read all the replies to your post as there are loads.
I just wanted to mention, that if you haven't already purchased on e-bay and you are going to bid rather than the buy it now the trick to getting what you bid for is to watch the bidding war, have your price in mind and at the very last second put it in, outbidding the higest bidder by say 1 or 2p if you can.
My other halfs sister buys loads of stuff this way, pays no more than she wants and usually wins.
I am totally useless at e-bay as I suffer from very mild dyslexia if I am under a lot of stress and I tend to not be able to read words or numbers properly - they tend to wobble on the page and move up and down so I cant actually focus. I usually get someone else to do it for me if I want to buy something from e-bay or the internet.
OVP
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"have your price in mind and at the very last second put it in, outbidding the higest bidder by say 1 or 2p if you can"
I don't see how that would work?
If you are the last person to bid even if you bid a million pounds (by way of a silly example) your proxy bid will only rise to £1 (depending on the price the auction has reached) above the highest proxy bid. So you'll pay £1 more than whatever anyone else's highest bid is. If its worth £50 to you bid that ... if the next highest bidder only bids £40 you'll get it for £41 :)
eBay forces you to bid £1 higher than the currently shown highest bid.
So if the current bid is, say, £10 you have to bid at least £11. If the current highest bidder has a proxy bid of, say, £20 you will immediately show as outbid and the current bid will rise to £12.
You can rebid at £13, be outbid again, and continue on until you get to £21 and then you will be the highest bidder. If you try to do that close to the end of the auction you'll run out of time!
You can bid 1p over the quid, and then when the price gets to £19 if you then bid £20.01p you will indeed have outbid the highest bigger by 1p. But if they are playing the same game you will have to bid £21.01 to secure it ... whereas a £21 bid would have saved you a penny - so you are as likely to win by a penny as lose by one.
I definitely agree that bidding at the last moment is the best approach. That is because people don't just place proxy bids and walk away. They try £10, then £20 and so on ... and that drives the price up.
If everyone bid in the last second it would go to the person with the highest bid, as everyone would only be able to make one bid.
Not really in eBay's best interest though is it? :D getting punters exciting by the auction, and bidding beyond their intended maximum is better for the auction business. Hence why auctions start at 1p or 99p - relying on the price being "talked up" by people thinking they might win the auction at that price, the reality is that there are enough people using eBay that those sorts of bargains don't happen (or not often) - and unscrupulous people will have a mate place a Shill bid for the "reserve" price, just-in-case :(
I bid using a "Sniping" software program. I put the auction number into that, enter my maximum bid, and then forget about it. It bids in the last few seconds of the auction, and I either win or not. But in the meantime my bid has not been sitting on eBay tempting people to bid beyond their maximum.
(Sniping software also has the benefit that you can bid on multiple auctions, but as soon as any one of them is successful all further related auction bids are not bid. I've used that to buy a number of things that occur frequently on eBay, but I wasn't in a hurry and wanted a rock bottom price - sooner or later an auction will come along where fewer people bid, and then a bargain is yours for the Sniping!)
I bought the sniping software I use on eBay 8)
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Ahh, that makes sense, I know she does bit literally at the last second or two, having tried only once and made a total hash of it I don't know how it works, thought she did it by increasing by 1 or 2p it must have been 1 or 2 quid and thats how she gets her stuff.
Personally I leave it to the other half or a friend to bid for me as I get too stressed in things like e-bay, Im happy searching for the product on the net, doing all the research but not the actual dead.
OVP
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All very interesting and informative, I am sure it must have a link and relevance somehow to building a lean to greenhouse, nut it escapes me for the moment.
I will wait until you are done before my latest progress report.
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I'm watching avidly.
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For the Ebay symposium or the greenhouse build?
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LOl.....
get on with it Stree..
dont keep us in suspense
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Ah.. Been sidetracked a bit, but plodding on slowly.... Apart from the greenhouse I have the workshop to sort out before winter, walls roof machinery, racking, benches, windows. and in the house I am redoing the bathroom, putting extra radiators in here and there, gutting the upstairs rooms, cladding the walls with rigid insulation, plasterboarding and skimming, which means new windowboards, electricals, skirting, architrave etc, then insulating the loft, half of which is a flat roof so will be very tricky...25` X 16` and only about a 10" high gap to work in............and working for customers as and when called on.
Where in N Lincs are you Zeb?
Wootton here........
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I'm in sunny Scunny.
Not too far away ,but I haven't been to Wooton for around 25 years.
Only went then because I had dealings with a lorry place there (I'm an ex trucker)
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Right..........................
After a rather extended teabreak, the project is now underway again.......
Having worked out those tricky double bevel mitre cuts for the rafters, the roof frame is on,
Glazing has been ordered today after much measuring and laying out of potential ways to cut a 3m x 2m sheet of clear acrylic to get the best yield with least waste.
The windows will be in 3mm and the roof and canopy in 4mm.
Two automatic vent rams are sat here in boxes, waiting for me to fathom out the best way to use them, I think the best place to vent for cooling would be the highest point, but probably need one lower down to let air in at the same time......
I have already put staging around, its fixed to the walls and supported by braces so it leaves the floor clear. As it is over engineered it is easily robust enough for me to stnd on to paint the inside. Not real paint, that green waxy fencepaint, I really like the finish it gives and its added protection for the timber although its all constructed from treated timber anyway. One thing about treated timber most people don`t realise is that if you cut it, say for a joint or to length, then effectively its no longer treated and you should treat the cut faces to retain its integrity.
Hmmmmmmmmmm Do you think if I daubed creosote all over some politicians it would help them retain their integrity? Always worth a try I think..
Anyway, The floor is already about 6 inches of compacted hardcore with grit sand over it, and hardly anything is getting a grip growing on it. ( apart from one area left clear to put a grapevine in ) I scrounged half a dozen octagonal paving slabs, about 2 feet across and 2 inches thick and these will be spaced out on the floor stepping stone fashion with some large gravel or pebbles in between.
Have a nice pair of Georgian glazed French windows for the doorway and these will be furnished with the black antique handles although I can`t decide whether to have them opening inwards or outwards... Whichever it is I had better do it sooner rather than later because the goose & gander seem under the impression I have built it all for them and take up lodging at every opportunity, which would be fine apart from their predisposition to nibbling anything remotely green. and they are still not forgiven for eating 4 dozen autumn sown sweet pea seedlings the spring before last....
More later. and probably pics too.............
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Pic...............
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Great thread Stree! It makes a good diary of the ups and downs of your greenhouse!
An inspiration to all would be constructors.
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Sent off my cutting list to the perspex supplier last week and collected it the other day. Quotes for the job ranged from £760:00 to £379:00 but I settled on one at £384:00 which with careful manipulation included half of it in 4mm instead of 3mm and one long diagonal cut for two roof sections which I did not relish doing at home...... I opted for collection in my van rather than take the £35:00 plus vat delivery charge. If anyone wants to know anything about perspex supply I think I am moderately qualified now.
For fixing perspex is really quite fussy: Holes drilled for screws need polishing to avoid stress cracking later, and of course there are certain limits on the size of spans related to thickness, and requiring deep rebates for all round edge support.
Initially I was to use screws and cover with glazing beads, but I have found a way round this and am fixing with no screws at all.
I looked up on what sealant to use. This is not straightforward either.....Silicone is good but must be a particular type: Low modulus and neutral cure.
Low modulus means low resistance to movement when set, so it allows for expansion and contraction movement and the cure is the means by which it sets. Most are an acetic acid cure , the smell of vinegar is a giveaway for this. However the acetic acid reacts with and degrades the acrylic and it will make a right mess before long.
Found a batch of suitable tubes of silicone on EEbyGumBay for £3:89 so promptly ordered.
Began glazing yesterday.......Tricky diagonal bits on the roof first. I had drilled holes and lightly screwed the panels with screws with rubber washers, but on final fixing after running silicone on all the faces where the perspex touched the frame, found that the screws were not needed. The silicone acts as an excellent adhesive as well as a weatherproof sealant.
I also found that the DIY adhesive backed lead look flashing sticks really well to perspex as well ! So progress is being made.
Now with the fixing described above, this means that sections of the roof are put together ( with an small expansion gap between( and so the whole effect would be of one sheet covering the whole roof, which I think looks a bit dead and dull.........So to get a more traditional pleasing look of glazing between roof bars I am using fence panel capping, also fixed with silicone, to follow the lines of the roof timbers, with the odd nail through the capping into the gap between the panels. This should look bonny and act as an extra sealing barrier.
Pictures would be better I know, so will try for some today weather permitting.
PS the spec on perspex is really quite good, ideal for gardening purposes.
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"EEbyGumBay "
Not heard that one before. Stolen!
Seems like it has been pressed into use with plants and clutter before being glazed, now there's keen!
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Yes, I had it all wrapped in polythene sheet through winter, primarily so the timberwork did not get soaked, but it warmed up nicely in the sun, so I started using it .
What you can see in there is a large seed tray full of sweet pea seedlings at the far end and nearest is a mix.... Something like a lemon thyme I found while digging over, put it into 3 pots and its doing well. Some Yucca new growth taken from a neighbours plant, just sat in a pot of water and willing it to root. Some overwintered spring onions that are just getting going for this season, and a hyacinth that died off before Christmas but is showing a gloriously healthy flower bud coming through..............Whats not in there now are the cauliflower, carrot, white onion, lettuce and gallardia that I sowed 2 months ago.......They took off really well and are now in another cold greenhouse..........
Its really nice having a proper little greenhouse staging, and its been really handy for standing on whilst constructing the greenhouse around it.
Got some more roof on today, even though it was raining, all going to plan so far and rest of the roof should be on this weekend..Then the windows and doors....
Then getting a waterproof double socket and some bulkhead lights on the wall...........
And a set of extension speaker leads from the workshop sound system so I can have radio 4 and music in there. Not many greenhouses will have a 400 watt amp in to rattle the windows..
I have been chopping and changing as I go with the design...I have made changes to the front, and have been busy on a lathe making a finial as a finishing touch. If you look carefully at the latest pics you can see on the block above the doorway right in the middle, a small roundel. and a matching one on the bottom centre of the half round window above the inner stable door. These roundels were obtained years ago ( 25?) when we went to look at the house that my wife was born in, which was due to be demolished.... So I climbed a drainpipe and used my penknife to get these roundels from the trim around the bay window.................They have been sat in a drawer in the workshop since then but I knew I would use them one day. Built in memories..........
I have 3 old stone sinks i the garden waiting for a final position and I might use them in the greenhouse somehow.......I thought of flowing water from a pump in the rainwater barrel so I could grow watercress properly. Be good for humidity as well. I say water barrel because "Butt" sounds like an oversize American bottom.
Rest of the roof tomorrow I hope, just hope it doesn`t rain as much.
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Stree - you still working on this thing of beauty? I'd love to see the finished job!
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Yes, its still a work in progress! Although I did get a rather handsome crop of toms in it last season....It has stood up to all the snow rain and wind over this last year with no problem, although I still have to get around to final touches.
Got some sweetpeas starting in it right now, with more seeds to get started very soon.
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Hi Stree,
I've just finished reading the thread covering your lean to greenhouse build and am fully geared up for building my own now...without the requisite woodworking skills and tools that you have but hey, a girl can learn and beg/borrow/cadge!
Anyway, I sent you a message asking for advice - ANY - and if you could offer any further advice then great, but if not thanks anyway for the vast amount of info given in the thread :-)
I now need to locate suppliers for 2x2, 4x2, perspex, automated vents, go to Lidl for wood preservative paint, locate the relevant sealant etc etc...and check out if there are any scrap pallets at TCAF going begging for raised beds, coldframes and compost bin ;-)
Thoroughly enjoyed reading, thanks for the posts!
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Stree hasn't been active on the forum since April so you might not get a reply from them. Why not pop over to the 'welcome' forum and introduce yourself. :)
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I was hibernating:
I have replied to DittyDoyy`s PM and hope its in time for me to be useful.
My summerhouse/greenhouse is in full and good use now, got lots of seeds starting off in it at the moment, some spuds grown over winter in a barrel, some winter lettuce and carrots, some plants taken in for the winter too, waiting for the last frost so they can go outside again.
Its a nice place to be for me, rain or shine.....
PS anyone else growing Mirabilis? I have some started and looking forward to seeing it in bloom.