[The Norfolk Turkey]

Woohoo!! Our maiden voyage into the land of greenhouse is under way - delivery in about 4 weeks!

Question - whats the best flooring (not necesarily foundation) to have?

We'd initially thought gravel with a few slabs for a path down the centre, but then Ive read that concrete/slabs all mover might offer better heat storage?

Were getting a fair bit of work done in the garden so cost/amount of work arent necesarily a limiting factor!

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[Tattyanne456]

I guess it would depend on wether you wanted to plant straight into the soil or grow in pots/growbags. I have an all concrete floor in mine which I guess makes it easier to clean. You dont get a build up of anything nasty that you might do if it were soil. Its very exciting isnt it!!

[Lardman]

Theres a thread on design & construction worth a read...

I think if I had the time/money/energy I'd have a proper concrete pad done, with a dwarf wall of 5-6 courses and the greenhouse on top  of that. Allowing you a completely sealed environment that could be cleaned out with the pressure washer. I don't like slabs.

It does mean you'd have to grow in pots or bags though.

[Roll Roll]

I asked the same question when I had mine.
  In the end I went for a slab base. That way when I water in their, any water on the floor will run away. Another concern of mine was if I had a soil base Rats or mice might tunnel in their and make a "nice" nest in their during the winter

[The Norfolk Turkey]

Well be growing in pots and bags anyway as the soil is useless - its pretty much just clay - so to leave any bare earth would be a waste = which seems a bit of a contradiction doesnt it?!

[mumofstig]

Well be growing in pots and bags anyway as the soil is useless - its pretty much just clay - so to leave any bare earth would be a waste = which seems a bit of a contradiction doesnt it?!

But you could dig holes to set your pots into, that way you wouldn't loose any of your growing height.
I always think that if you grow toms in pots you loose a truss, or two, because they get to the roof that much quicker, than if grown from soil level..if you see what I mean

[Roll Roll]

Slabbing isn't a cheap game, If  your prepared to put up with bare earth why not dig some compost in to it.

Are you thinking about having staging in your greenhouse??

[The Norfolk Turkey]

thanks to all. our ground is a total non-starter, so digging into it would be a total burden for the height gained and while slabbing is expensive, not doing so might mean the whole thing floating away next time it rains - our garden is THAT wet!! 

[Jonajo]

oo spooky  thread- I have just ordered our 8x6ft greenhouse for the allotment with some staging, shelves etc.. for the width edge - and have also only just thought about the floor, too.

To be honest, I am tempted to leave it as the normal allotment ground (the soil is brilliant) as it is simply easier/cheaper that way, and probably grow some plants straight into the ground and some in grow bags in its first year just to see the difference. Maybe 1 row of slabs down the middle of it though.

But it is exciting nonetheless getting a greenhouse. Happy decisions....

[goodegg]

norfolk turkey why not make a raised bed for your greenhouse if its so wetthat would keep it out of the water

[The Norfolk Turkey]

its definately a thought goodegg, as that would allow us to improve and control the growing conditions, but the floors gonna need some sort of substrate otherwise it will end up a total bog!! The base will need some fairly serious work doing, so the additional required to cover the inside isnt too great a burden, as mentioned.

[moz]

i waslucky enough tobe given an 8x6 greenhose by a neighbour and made a base from 4x2 treated planks with posts set in the ground at the corners. from the door to the far end I put up some shuttenering to makea path up the middle and put a membrane down covered with cheap split bags of 20mm gravel from b&q. I can then use a plank to bridge the shuttering and use as a seat when tending to the plants. At the sides I use grow bags direct to the soil but i always have the option of using the membrane and gavel (with grow bags on top) or topping the whole of the side with top soil if I want a raised bed.
A concrete base may be useful but it was  going to be too expensive, labour intensive to install, an permament (incase i wanted to move greenhouse) for my needs.
Ive noticed the only weeds I get tend to be big ones that are easy to pull anyway.
hope this helps

[SnooziSuzi]

Hi norfolk turkey, and other members I haven't yet met;

I have 2 gh's - one with a completely concrete base and the other with 2 raised beds and slabs in a 'T' shape (ie 3 slabs up the middle and 3 slabs at the top end where the staging goes).  I built the beds so that I could plant directly into them, meaning less watering as the soil would retain moisture better than compost in containers and because it meant I wouldn't have hundreds of containers & growbags for bugs to hide under.  Admittedly, they are probably all there anyway, just not as visible!

The fully concreted one doesn't get much use, simply because I find the one with the borders in much easier to manage, although I do make a lot of use of the staging in the concrete one for bringing seedlings on as there isn't much room in the other one to do that, so really, both methods have their pro's and cons.

Incidentally,  I didn't lay anything special for my slabs; just leveled out the earth underneath just as I did for the paths outside.  Because they aren't being constantly walked on and flooded with water they have remained really stable.

I laid out the slabs first, then built the beds; otherwise I'd have surely made an error with my calculations and one or the other wouldn't have fit!

Su

[madfoxdog]

I've used slabs in my greenhouse for a number of years and it definitely is very easy to keep clean and pest free. Another point worth thinking about is crop rotation which is not easy if you are planting straight into the same bit of soil each year. Needs a lot of attention to stop diseases building up. Grow bags work very well and I always get great crops from them and then empty the compost on my outdoor raised beds in the Autumn as a bonus.

[mumofstig]

Doesn't take much attention to stop disease. The area of soil each tomato grew in is removed with the plant itself at the end of the season and replaced with either new compost or soil from  the garden beds. Easy.

Then I can grow my winter salads there before my tomatoes start again in spring