Thinking of building a greenhouse about 5-600 sq ft. This’ll be in central Texas, so heat removal will be a priority. We’re gonna place it under some deciduous oaks and elms so it will have some shade in the summer. Probably pour a perimiter footing to support the structure, backfill the subfloorfloor with gravel, and put something like pavestone for a floor so it will drain. Wanna build it out of steel or aluminum framing to foil the termites. Any suggestions or sites that have some good info. Could use a good local contractor that has experience in this too. Thanks.
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Tom, Why a greenhouse in Texas? I`ve built many here in Canada, the commercial type 30'x200'. Some pointers, your foundation is not there to hold the GH up but to hold it down. Many ways to vent, roll-up side walls, opening roof vent, this runs the length of the ridge and both end walls with large doors. Then there is the adding of fans. Again why a GH in Texas, live in northern BC, Smithers area,and the summer here is nothing like yours, been there in the summer.Now winter time would work after storms have finished.We need to have fans going in the summer and heaters in the winter. Just what kind of crop are you going to have? Those trees, do they spit sap,not good, never mind the leaves.The pavers on the floor sound real nice, just make sure it will drain.As for the frame work, the commercial one are made from galv.steel. Seen home made ones from 1" pvc pipe, worked well and cheap to build.Are you using glass or poly to cover the house? As you can see there are many ways to go here, as for web sites just try greenhouse and hit search and get lots of coffee. Hope this helped some, good growing!
Ed.... Telkwa Canada
where everyday is payday
I know it doesn't get as cold here as it does in Canada, but there are plenty of greenhouses here. Commercial growers use them a lot for tender veggies during (what we call) the winter months. A "blue norther" can dump snow and have freezing temps down in the 20's for several days, followed by more temperate weather. We just need someplace to store our tropicals such as boganvillia, hibiscus, and similar plants during this period. We also start tomatoes in the houses in February for early planting in March so as to have them in May. The heat is a problem during the summer, but most tropicals love it. I think I'm gonna go with the stiff vinyl because I've seen too many houses built with the sheet stuff destroyed by hail and high winds. Thanks for the info.