[arugula]

 My husband built ours basing his design on the ideas shown on the overthegardengate site, and a fine looking tunnel it is too.  Looking at the pictures on overthegardengate, we have sturdier bits of wood and some very tough black pipe which he obtained, rather using than the blue MDPE.

Good advice on that website though  .

Lorna. 

[Paul Plots]

Any chance of a few photos Argyllie? 
I'm sure any tips, advice or photos could help those wanting to build their own. 

[arugula]

Any chance of a few photos Argyllie? 
I'm sure any tips, advice or photos could help those wanting to build their own. 

I'll have a go, Learner.

Lorna. 

[arugula]

Well, here are a couple of pics, I'm not sure how much help they would be... They show the overall shape and size: 3 metres L x 2.5 metres W x 1.8 metres H. This is dictated by the size and shape of the piece of polytunnel plastic which we were given (mentioned elsewhere in a previous thread and I haven't got the size to mind or to hand atm  ). Scaffold pole cut up and driven into the ground to hold the ends of the lengths of black pipe - 3 metres IIRC - which then form the hoops. Trench dug around the outside to be back-filled to hold the plastic in place. Wooden door frame and roof struts fixed into place. Plastic thrown over and placed as well centred as possible  :blink:, then ground frame, which has been constructed out of situ, slung over the top and slid to the ground. Then the plastic is tweaked into place as best as possible and fixed around the door frames. The doors are made of windbreak fabric and as such can be blocked up with something solid like ply or even insulation sheeting if a warmer or in our case less windy tunnel is required. Some lengths if large bore pipe insulation came in handy to buffer the plastic away from any roughness on the black pipe and serve to taughten the plastic further.

I hope this is useful.

Lorna. 

[noshed]

That looks grand

[arugula]

Thanks Noshed, I'll tell OH about the praise! Its not very big but there are only two of us to feed. It only went up late May/early June this year so we spent the summer experimenting with what it might do, i.e. planting things like toms, french beans and peas inside when they didn't really need to be. We'll use it for extending into autumn, early bringing on, hanging basket toms next year, chillis.....

Lorna. 

[Paul Plots]

Thanks for the pics argyllie....... what a nice looking job. Perfect cover and looks as if it'd stand a really hefty gale without bother.

Your time in posting the photos much appreciated - gives me a better idea of what I would love to achieve. 

[arugula]

Thanks Learner  . We're just approaching the time of year when the gales will test it as we are only 100 metres back from the Atlantic shoreline. We placed it on the site of "Chickenopolis" after the girls went and the chicken run came down, so this is a relatively sheltered spot being protected on three sides with the main day/sunlight side being the only one totally exposed. (I understand you are by the sea?).

A note for frugal living enthusiasts. The whole thing cost very little, as everything (plastic sheet, scaffold poles, black pipe, pipe insulation) was free apart from the windbreak fabric, which we bought by the linear metre from eBay and the timber and fixings which my husband gets at staff discount from the builders merchant where he works  .

Lorna. 

[scenic]

im starting prep for what will be my second full season on mine..  used my old patio doors as a cold frame this year, but im SO tempted to throw up a polytunnel to get earlier starting and for £80.00 or so? 

Its can be get windy, so apart from the obvious of "nailling" the * down, anyone now just how robust they are?

[mumofstig]

see my earlier post about the cheaper types!

[Laverne88]

Try the www.firsttunnels.co.uk website..... they have 'how to put up a poly tunnel ' instruction video's which I thought were really good.

[Poolfield2]

We have used the pipe lagging stuff to stop the bars rubbing the plastic but itisn't working very well as the lagging stuff breaks down in the sun (yes we did have enough to find out this year)