Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: utigers on December 01, 2012, 17:05
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Just ordered a greenhouse, it hasn't arrived yet so cannot inspect the parts/base where it touches the ground.
How do you fix a greenhouse house down, even the bases want you to have slabs/concrete.
What's the best way to do it?
Cheers.
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There's been quite a few idea's disscussed before. I used railway sleepers from the garden centre and have had no problems. It gave an increase in height also (which was useful)
Others have used slabs, some concrete and I expect a few have just put it down on the ground.
Lets wait and see who replies! ;)
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I think the greenhouse is quite light so this is fairly important.
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Mine, three rows of bricks with the holes horizontal ensuring plenty of ventilation. I had to extend the door downwards to reach the ground. ::)
Cheers, Tony.
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There's been quite a few idea's disscussed before. I used railway sleepers from the garden centre and have had no problems. It gave an increase in height also (which was useful)
Others have used slabs, some concrete and I expect a few have just put it down on the ground.
Lets wait and see who replies! ;)
I also put mine on railway sleepers three years ago, It's been fine ever since and I would certainly do it the same way again, I used the new sleepers nice and clean and no rubbish oozing out of them and coach bolted the frame to them, as Gwiz said the extra height inside is nice, especially if your tall.
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Although I had a pre-existing concrete base I wanted to raise the GH height so used concrete bricks (to match colour) to form a raised base and then frame-fixing screws to secure the GH to the bricks.
Possibly not the quickest way of doing it, but almost certainly one of the cheapest, and it's all still intact after 2 years so I can advise that extremely modest bricklaying skills are adequate for this type of work! (Tip: coating fixing screws/bolts with Waxoyl helps with driving them home and should prevent them rusting away.)
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My OH uses bricks too, and bolts the greenhouse down sometimes. OUr biggest greenhouse isn't bolted down as its quite heavy, and in 6 years it hasn't moved much in our winds over here.
But I think the sleeper idea is a good one as it would be easier to fix the bolts into the wood rather than brick or concrete.
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I used a levelled course of dry laid bricks, covered with some DP fabric with 2x2 wood ontop of that.
Drove some angle iron pieces into the ground and screwed the wood to that.
Lifted the greenhouse frame onto the top of the wood and screwed the ali frame onto that.
So simple even I managed to do it on my own :lol:
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I bought greenhouse anchors, which are just angled aluminium, they go down 18" and are concreted in. On a windy site, but it hasn't moved yet!
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Like the sleeper idea.....and i have some. How does this effect the doorway thou? Does it create a big step.
Also the base of my gh does it have fixing points or do you create them?
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It sounds as if the frame of Kleftiwallah's GH does not extend across the bottom of the door so he was able to extend the door to close the gap, but I would have thought that most frames are continuous so yes, there would be a step (Klefti is obviously a bit of a handyman so may have sawn through the offending section but I'll let him explain that if it's true!) ::)
Don't know whether yours will have pre-drilled holes (again, I doubt it - mine certainly didn't) but it's only aluminium so quite easy to drill if necessary (just remember to do it before you glaze the frame!) ;)
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my Halls greenhouse had holes pre-drilled - but yes you have to screw it down before glazing!
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I'm going to have to take out the foundation bearers from our cedar greenhouse, and replace them next spring.
I reckon I'll chop out a two ft length of the rotten wood, and shove in an 18" slab with a piece of DPC to take its place, and just work round the three sides (the door end is fine).
Then I'll slab the whole lot internally, as from now on, we'll grow toms and cuces in bags or big pots. Have to really, we had some blight in there, and so I may as well bite the bullet!
Then I'll have to paint it again, which is always a funny sight as the ladder sometimes does a Michael Caine in 'The Italian Job', and I finish up saying to anyone in earshot 'Now listen, I've got a good idea...'
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Like Herb I uses greenhouse anchors on the corners and stuck them in half a bucketfull of concrete (B&Q Mix).
Most important to get it absolutely level and square. If it's not you won't find the problem until you come to fit the last panes of glass.
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Like the sleeper idea.....and i have some. How does this effect the doorway thou? Does it create a big step.
Also the base of my gh does it have fixing points or do you create them?
It does create a step. As for your geenhouse, I've never seen it so I couldn't say. ;) :)
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I have the same as Gwiz, railway sleepers on each side, yes it creates a step but also adds about 10" to the height of the greenhouse.
I laid 5-6 small slabs down the middle and gravel beds on either side, it's also not as permanent as other types of bases :)
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I have a concrete ring for a base. It's a 6in wide and 10in deep. The green house is screwed to it.
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As my garden slopes ive gone for moving some soil, adding 4 pegs in each corner and level each one off. Then Im going to add boards to create a bock section and then lay concrete solid base, level off with a bit of wood to get a smooth level surface. Im going to add a power supply and also add a drainage edge at the back.
Cost no more than £100 to lay concrete and about weekends worth of work. Currently digging at the moment.
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We couldn't financially go for sleepers, but went instead of large pressure treated fence posts and bolted the GH to these. It still added some weight and so far the GH hasn't moved in the winds that come off the English Channel. I just laid weed suppressing membrane down inside, tucked under the fence posts.
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I need to do a base too but still undecided about what to do.
I have a Halls metal base frame. What would be the best way to make this frame level, strong, and ensure that the wind does not get under it?
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Like the sleeper idea.....and i have some. How does this effect the doorway thou? Does it create a big step.
Also the base of my gh does it have fixing points or do you create them?
It does create a step. As for your geenhouse, I've never seen it so I couldn't say. ;) :)
Just be sure to drill through under the door (rigth through the step) to avoid a large puddle forming on the inside when you are watering with gay abandon, or damping down the path in the hot summer weather we might get
I painted the top edge of the step white initially, to remind me toactually step over it, as I entered the green house rather faster than expected on day one!!!
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I used old sleepers, as cheap as I could find, wrapped the inside with builders DPB (plastic sheet) so the there was not contamination from the preservative and screwed the glass house frame to the sleepers. In west Wales the trees grow at 45 degrees with the wind but I have had no problems.
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I had some 3 inch thick 3 foot by 2 foot paving slabs that came off a drive we did away with. I laid them to form a path around the outside of the gh and built a wall of 4 inch thick concrete blocks one course so it was about 9 inches high aligned to just sit on inner edge of that paving slab rectangle and plug and screwed gh base to that. It means I step over a block at the doorway but I like the gh being taller and it all looks neat and tidy and can be approached on all sides for cleaning on a approx 20 inch wide path.
R