A 8X20 temporary greenhouse built on my front deck. Gonna use it to test some design ideas for a larger 12X40 structure built from 3″ square tube and all polycarbonate.
This will be covered with 6mil plastic. All half lap construction. Polycarbonate on the front and back. 1″ EMT. Designed to use all 10′ materials. Takes two ten foot 2×4’s to make each frame less the door. Capture strips at the tops and sides of the frames. Obviously not desigened for snow load.
Gotta have someplace to keep 30+ Boganvillas, hibiscus, and other assorted tropicals.
Cover it with plastic in a few days.
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Had a 6'x 6' project built from 2" aluminum tube and polycarbonate this summer. The polycarbonate is easy to work with and forgiving. Order it in bulk if possible . . . was able to waive transportation costs and keep 4'x 8'sheets down to about $100/sheet.
The corrugated stuff from Lowe's is cheaper and easier to detail for roofs (just overlap the ends). Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up to hailstorms . . . found this out the hard way.
This is just really an experiment. I already have a 10 X 12 in back that's built on the ground, and I want to see what the heat loss is by placing one on a deck.
I used the "SunTuf" available from Home Depot. For the permanant structure I'll probably use larger sheets. Cut real great and no splintering like fiberglass.
Good thing about the "SunTuff" is that's the same size of corrogated metal sheeting, 26" wide and up to 20' long. An 8' sheet is $17.48 at the Depot.
I'm sure Junkman is getting a big laugh outta this, as he could probably have scrounged and built it for $3.00...
The polycarb that you used, was it the double wall? If so which supplier did you use?
Yes, double wall (roughly 1/2"). The manufacturer was either Polygal or Ex-cel. One got bought out by the other so i can never keep them straight.
Use a 3year UV-6mil like Monsanto's if yer planning on keeping it up that long.
Thought about that, but with the summers here, it's not feasable. Bought a 100' X 20' roll of 6mil for about $78 at Home Doofus, so I can put it up and take it down about four times. This is just a test so I can exprapolate the heating requirements of this small structure, for the larger permanant structure that will be built behind the shop.
Looks very nice! Here's another shot of mine. I use it mainly to winter over our plants as well.
I like that. Looks like you take the roof off every year so it won't get too hot, right?
I know where you got that bench...got one just like it.
Here's a couple more shots.
I like the simplicity of yours. You could heat that with a small ceramic heater. One idea I've heard of is to line the interior wall with bubble wrap to hold in the heat and diffuses the light a bit.
Believe it or not I just haven't had the time to finish the GH. I have twin wall for the roof and another temp activated vent to install on the roof side your seeing. It's been a few years now I have the poly covered with green fabric. Here's a few sites.
http://www.charleysgreenhouse.com
http://www.gardners.com
http://www.waysidegardens.com
http://www.ortho.com
I got my mister system and auto roof vents from Charleys.
Edited 11/2/2007 8:30 am by jagwah
Tom...how did you seal the corrugations at the gable ends?
I've seen the wood and the foam gap-fillers, but those would only work perpendicular to the corrugations.
?
Didn't. Just made the cuts real close. There is strip foam stuff you can get from GH suppliers that will do the trick, but I didn't use it. Air infiltration is very small.
I did find out that erecting it on a deck doesn't give you the advantage of the heat trapped in the ground, so it takes more to warm it.
Without sealing it at the corrugations and the base, i can imagine heating it, as you were expecting to do, would be difficult.
It occurred to me that you could cap the corrugated area with a piece of wood padded with foam. IOW, the foam would seal the cut edge instead of from the face of the sheet.
Yes, you could do that, however, the fascia structure is the same thickness as the corragations on the polycarbonate, and tend to mate up well. In a super cold climate as you are in, it would make a difference. Here, not so much. I'm playing with the idea of doing them out of 4" metal purlin with a wood stapling strip. These could be set in the ground permanently and only replace the stapling strips and plastic.
Building out of wood, the cost was $500 +/-. 6 mil plastic, 20' X100' was $74 at HD. Enough for five coverings.
My 16 x 50 hoophouse will be less than $200 for hoops and plastic. I'm pushing a thousand by the time i get beds, irirgation, labor for hiring the kid. After that, i just have plastic replacement @ $40. Cheap food...
What sort of plastic do you use ?
Does it hold up for more then one season?
I've been using 6 mil UV stabilized construction plastic from HD for $80 a roll, 20x100. I've gotten as many as three years out of it if i take it down in winter, but wind is the hardest thing on it. In NY where the sun isn't very harsh...i'd give you three years if you remove it in winter and wind isn't horrid.
You can also get reinforced greenhouse plastic from TEKSupply for a good price. Here's another alternative about half-way in price between the two.
Your quick!
Thanks, I was thinking in terms of using it in winter tho.
we are very sheltered from the wind, I imagine snow load will be my biggest challenge ( and heat). Thanks again.
My hoophouse has stayed up all winter before and never been damaged by snow. It's so slick and the shape offers no resistance to sliding. I have one of those 10x20 poly storage canopies that i had to pull the snow off a couple times during our biggest storm this year, but the hoophouse shed the snow from that storm without my help.
Frugal food.
We just use ours for tropicals.
Guess I could fry up some Hibiscus flowers...
Here's a current shot of the GH and one from the interior. Had to move the plants inside already due to forecast of frost to freeze coming monday when I'm out of town.
Where are you located? A lot about the use of your GH, will as you may know, depend somewhat on orientation. Not much choice on mine but it is on a NE SE axis on the south side of the shed which houses the door and buffers north wind.
We're located just east of Austin, Texas, in Bastrop County. No freezes predicted here.
Greenhouses down here have to be usable all the time. The permanent one I plan on building will be built under deciduous trees (water elms) and have the 80% shade cloth to moderate the summer temps so we can propagate Bouganvillas and Hibiscus. We only get about a couple of weeks of freezing temps, plus a few frosts, so heating can be relatively cheap. My 10X12 in back is heated with a milk-barn heater, and is under a deciduous Post Oak, but even then it gets over 120 degrees inside before the fan kicks in during the summer. Might heat this one with a small propane for really cold nights, and a milk-barn heater to keep it up in the '40's.
In that second picture, that's not Romex I see hanging down is it? ;-)
Worst. at the moment it's the cord from a temporary fan in the roof. Ya I know...bzzzzt.