Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Do-it-yourself projects such as greenhouse or shadehouse builds and related topics.
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oldcat61
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Location: Southern NJ

Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by oldcat61 »

Dave W. - interesting that you prefer a concrete floor. How does water or overspray drain? For our lean-to, I used 6inches of gravel over our sandy soil & then put pavers down the center as a walkway. I have 2ft deep raised beds in the outside corners & wanted to be sure they drained well. I suppose if you are only growing desert cacti the solid floor would be OK. I have a fair number of jungle types which seem to thrive with spray/mist so a wet floor was a consideration. To throw another variable into your wood/aluminum discussion, my GH is made of resin rafters/posts with polycarbonate. Very impressed with how it handled all the snow we got this winter. Sue
DaveW
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Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by DaveW »

As I laid the floor Sue (being in the building trade for 52 years) I put a couple of drain holes in it. Where I built the 2ft deep centre bed on top of the concrete I knocked a couple of drain holes through so excess water would drain out into the layer of hard-core under the concrete. Nurserymen growing tropical plants used to wet their concrete floors down once or twice a day with a hosepipe to produce humidity.

Wayup' has made a beautiful job of his greenhouse, my only thoughts are it is a little over engineered regarding timber sections if it is eventually to be covered with polycarbonate sheet, which is even lighter than horticultural glass. 3" x 2" rafters or roof bars would have been more than adequate on that span to support glass, let alone polycarbonate, therefore saved him some money towards the polycarbonate sheeting. Up to a point stronger is always better, but eventually it becomes stronger than will ever be needed, therefore unnecessary cost.

As I recall when I was an apprentice in the 1950's we used standard pre-moulded softwood glazing bars from the timber merchants for conservatories and greenhouses (no UPVC in those days) which were ex 2.5" x 2", with a rebate each size to take the glass that was fixed with putty in those days, but they carried the weight quite adequately for the life of the greenhouse.
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oldcat61
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Location: Southern NJ

Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by oldcat61 »

Dave - I'm sure you've posted it before, but I'd love to see a photo of your GH, especially the center bed. Do you have any experience with the resin frame kits? I'm hoping I made the right choice. No way would my husband have the patience for a stick built wooden GH. But they are sure pretty to look at!
keith
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Joined: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:50 am
Location: S. CA USA

Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by keith »

I like the greenhouse very nice . Question how tall is it at the highest point ? I would have to make one that's less than 10 feet tall at the roof peak to avoid HOA problems

Thx
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greenknight
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Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by greenknight »

Dave - Wayup is in Seattle (I'm a couple hours south of there), in a climate similar to Britain. There are differences, though. Powerful wind storms in the Fall and Winter are pretty routine here. Occasionally, we get Winter storms coming right down the British Columbia coast which draw Arctic air out of the Yukon. It circulates over the ocean for a short distance, where it picks up moisture, and dumps extremely heavy snowfalls on us. That greenhouse is not one bit over-engineered.
Spence :mrgreen:
xmzhuyue
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Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:56 am

Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by xmzhuyue »

Very very nice!! =D> =D> =D> =D>
KittieKAT
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Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by KittieKAT »

I'm gonna make u come to Salem,Ma and build me a new sun porch! Looks better then my Sun porch i and my plants live in!
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oldcat61
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Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by oldcat61 »

How is your winter going with the new GH? We've had some cold snaps here in NJ but not a lot of snow. Got down to 10F last night but the GH stayed in the mid 50s. Some of my mamms are waking up & the rhipsalis are so pretty. Do you have any new photos to post? Sue
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majcka
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Re: Wayupthere's Greenhouse

Post by majcka »

Wayupthere, I snaped some details from your GH to design my own. I hope you don't mind too much. :oops:
Maja

Strange is fun, cacti are funnier!
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