[snowdrops]

At least you have the photo to refer to..

I think I'll probably need it too, as it now looks like the attached.

Seems Crittall has gone bust, instruction manuals aren't available and neither are direct replacements for the screws/nuts/bolts  I can't seem to put my hands on the left over standard bolts I have to see if they'll fit or if I'll have to cut a slot in them.

I hosed everything down yesterday and removed most of the moss but having measured out for the base there's a 9½" difference in height between the ground level over the 8' width    either I dig out the the high side or raise the low. I really wish whoever built these terraces had done it properly, I'm not expecting glass flat but 1:12 is a pain.

Very nice,max will like sunbathing in there

Don't encourage him ! He has already Christened it several times despite my protests.

Yes but now it's yours & Max's & he needs everyone to know that he & Dad own it now

[madcat]

....................he & Dad own it now

Hummmmm  ....  I dont know that Dad gets a look in.  He owns it now and needs the world to know so is doing the necessary advertising.  If Dad wants a share, he knows he has to do likewise - and it is a bit draughty for that!   

[Lardman]

Why is nothing ever easy here ? 

I pegged out the space for the base a while back, it covered a gravel section and a bit of lawn. No biggy I thought, clear the gravel dig out a couple of inches of lawn jobs a good'un.  Having cleared 3 drop sacks full of gravel the couple of inches turns out to be 8".  Who puts gravel down 8" deep ! Add that to the 9½" difference in height anyway and that little bit of lawn has turned into yet another drop sack full of soil.

I've managed to pour 1 side of the strip footings so I have something level and flat to take measurement from    but it's all stop again whilst I wait for the builders merchants to deliver and the weather to warm up again 

I would take a picture but just imagine a bomb crater and you'll not be far off 

[JayG]

I feel your pain Lardman! 

Having got a pre-existing concreted area of just the right size I thought it would be a piece of cake to build a concrete brick base on top of it to raise my GH by 6-9" or so - I knew the base sloped slightly towards the house, but until I really got down and dirty I hadn't realised it also sloped from side to side. 

Result - some very slow "creative" bricklaying, which didn't come easy to someone not exactly skilled even in simple bricklaying!   

By leaving a small gap at the bottom of the brickwork at the lowest corner I did have the unexpected bonus of having a self-draining greenhouse, which is very helpful when it comes to flushing the whole thing down internally. 

[Lardman]

I was trying to avoid the creative bricklaying by levelling the area first, I've posted pictures of my brick work before - it can be rather 'rustic'    I don't recall a picture of your finished base - did I miss it?

My rough calculations are for the base to be 4 bricks high, I'll have to put some of the gravel back as the greenhouse floor so that brings it down to 3  (9") . There should be 230 bricks, 1t sand and 6 bags of cement arriving tomorrow, I really need to get a move on otherwise I'll have forgotten how the greenhouse bolts together. 

Once that's all done I'll have to build a retaining wall on the high side as the 18" step is too much to slope in the space left on the terrace   It's a huge ( and costly) amount of hard landscaping for a few extra toms, Im really going to have to make good use of the greenhouse to justify it.

[JayG]

I was trying to avoid the creative bricklaying by levelling the area first, I've posted pictures of my brick work before - it can be rather 'rustic'    I don't recall a picture of your finished base - did I miss it?

I probably did post it, but it was over 3 years ago now. As you can probably see it varies from 2 bricks with some rather thick mortar fillets, to 1 brick with hardly any mortar at all. It's all been painted with masonry paint since the picture was taken, which effectively covers up a multitude of bricklaying sins!

I thought it might be easier, and therefore less likely I'd cock it up, if I built the brickwork underneath the (unglazed) frame already levelled up, square, and propped up at each corner.
Wrong on the first count, correct on the second! 

Much easier than your project though Lardman - good luck with it. 

[Lardman]

If anyone want to know what to get me as a present next winterval, Id like a mini digger please. 

I spent Friday afternoon moving all the bricks from the front of the house to under cover at the back, but today I managed to make some progress    The footing are now in, I have a nasty feeling that the low corner is about 1" down on the high one, but I can make that up on the first course of brick.

Im still guessing a bit at the moment about the actual base measurements, I think I'll need to check out how the corners go together otherwise I think things will end up 2" short if I just use the frame lengths as the measurement, the width of a brick doesn't allow much room for error 

So glad to be out of the soil though !

[Lardman]

Wake up at the back ! 

Can you guess what it is yet ? valid answers for today could include; swimming pool and mud bath.

[mumofstig]

At least you are making progress, which - considering the weather - is a miracle 

[Lardman]

Im all done thankfully with the exception of the pointing The weather earlier this week was good and I pinched a couple of hours to get things sorted. Today though was terrible at one point things were white over with hail ! I'll grab a picture tomorrow without the covers on.

[Lardman]

Just managed to get the pointing on the outside done before the heavens opened. I was  bit worried about doing it all in class b's but I think it looks ok.  If anyone is considering doing the same here's roughly what it's taken for 4 courses.

Aggregate 0.5t
Cement (25kg) x 8
Sand 0.7t
Class b Bricks x 210  (I allowed 54 per course)

Im not sure what a bricky would have charged but materials/delivery cost me just over £150.  It's heavy work but DIY-able.

[mumofstig]

Looks a proper job to me 

[JayG]

Very nice work Lardman, assuming it does turn out to be the right size for the GH (only kidding!  )

[Lardman]

assuming it does turn out to be the right size for the GH (only kidding!  )

Bad lad !  I'm not going to be able to tell until I've assembled the greenhouse, Im not entirely sure how Im going to manage that yet all on my lonesome.  I'm keeping my hammer on standby just in case something needs 'adjusting' but If everything is correct it should sit right in the middle of bricks 

Looks a proper job to me 

  I was surprised how much like a real wall it looked too    It also looks huge, but I remember thinking that about my 6x10' before I tried to cram millions of tomato plants into it   

[mumofstig]

Bad lad !  I'm not going to be able to tell until I've assembled the greenhouse, Im not entirely sure how Im going to manage that yet all on my lonesome. 

If I can manage to.......................................................