New Greenhouse Construction Progress - Roof and Benches Finally Done
Tuesday, 27 Jul 10 Sunny 27°C / 80°F
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I spent a full week digging footers, pouring concrete, and building a 12′ × 16′ floor for the new greenhouse. I set 16 concrete pillars three feet deep (below frost line), for supports for the pressure treated floor joists. After digging the first hole by hand, I borrowed my friend’s mini-backhoe/bucket-loader. I also dug for drain lines, water lines, and underground electric cable. I already had a 20 amp circuit run to the shed, but I ran some 8-gauge wire underground and put in a 220v / 40amp breaker box. This way I have 8.8 kilo-watt to run electric heat and grow-lights.
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Mon. July 9, 2010: http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5725/decku.jpg I installed 3/4" pressure treated plywood floor. Since this is a greenhouse and will be sprayed with water quite often, I sloped the floor so the East side of the floor is 1.5" lower than the East side or a 1/8" per foot slope. This make leveling (plumb) the South wall a little more complicated.
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Tues. July 10, 2010: http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/9378/westwall.jpg I installed the west wall which uses a 72" wide patio door, and three 3-foot wide sliding glass door panels. I caulked every seam with silicon to make it air-tight.
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Wed. July 11, 2010: http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7779/wall3.jpg I installed the 3 glass panels on the South wall – one more to go. At this point there are 25 feet of wall installed. I only have two more door panels left at this time, so I’m going on a scavenger hunt this weekend for four more patio door panels. So that I can continue with framing, I have a back-up plan of using 16-mil Eskay-Lite for the remaining wall, and replace them with glass as I locate them.
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Thu. July 12, 2010: Hit one of the glass panels with a screw and it exploded, so I found two more exactly the same size for $25/pair on Craig’s List. Cleaned the glass on the West wall, caulked all the seams, and finished off the South Wall. Scored Big on Freecycle with 9 aluminum storm windows for free. http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/7653/stormsz.jpg
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Fri. July 13, 2010: http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/5071/gh11.jpg Finished Framing the walls today. Radiused all the studs and sanded the edges so there are no rough spots against the plastic. Started cutting and routing roof-rafters for the trusses.
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Wed. August 4, 2010: http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9245/168zd.jpg Finished roof panels – . Started to build benches.
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Thu: September 2, 2010: http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6453/172yv.jpg Benches are finally done, roof is done, and only one small section needs closing in.
October 15, 2010: http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/8933/199u.jpg. Installed four 400watt Halide Grow Lights.
This entry is about
Previous Journals
-
What can I do with Pickling Cukes? - too many sweet pickles
Backyard Vegetable garden , Cucumbers: Smart Pickles - 160 plants , and Cucumber: Pickling (90 s...
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Canned 13 more pints of pickles and 6 pints of pickled beets
Backyard Vegetable garden , Beets: Dark Detroit (430 Plants) Preserved, and Cucumbers: Smart Pick...
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Thinned Beets (9 pounds), picked 25 cukes, & pulled green beans
Backyard Vegetable garden , Beets: Early Wonder (430 Beets) Harvesting, Beets: Dark Detroit (430...
Later Journals
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Covered 10'x40' Tomato Hoophouse
Glass Greenhouse garden and Hoop-House Hardening garden
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Prepping my beds - a major ordeal
Glass Greenhouse garden and Backyard Vegetable garden
Comments
N20863 wrote:
Very cool!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Posted on 27 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
twbigdogsgirl wrote:
Awesome!
Posted on 27 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
twunky wrote:
I look forward to your greenhouse!
Posted on 27 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
West Wall – 4 of 5 panels installed. Sliding Patio Door Installed – (what a pain that was). http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/9378/westwall.jpg Tomorrow’s plan is to finish the 5th panel and install the South glass wall. The entire greenhouse consists of 12 glass door panels, a two pane sliding patio door and a 16-mil clear Eskay-Lite roof.
Posted on 28 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
creme wrote:
Do you ever sleep?
Posted on 28 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
Getafix wrote:
So jealous! Both for the time to do a project like that and the space to do it in!!
Posted on 28 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Day 3: Last panel of West Wall & three panels of South wall are installed. One more South wall panel, and five West wall panels and I can start the Plywood North Wall and frame for the roof panels. The time consuming task is to build all the benches….. or better yet, cleaning all that glass … and they are grungy. http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7779/wall3.jpg
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Posted on 29 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Day 4: So much for my Budget Target …. I hit one of the glass doors with a screw and it literally exploded into a thousand pieces. Now I have to scrounge up 5 instead of four more glass doors.
EDIT (2 hours later)… Just got a response for two patio door panels without the frame – $25 for the pair. Heading to pick them up now.
EDIT (5 hours later) … picked up two beautiful glass doors. It was exactly the same size as broke.
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Posted on 29 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Day 5: Finished Framing the walls today. Started cutting and routing roof-rafters for the trusses. Saturday will be spent cutting rafters for the roof trusses. Everything will be milled lap-joints to provide structure for those 24" wet-snow storms. Installing the plastic roof is going to be a real challenge since it is in 54" widths. I either need to rent a cherry picker or learn to fly. I really need to get tomatoes picked and soon, since they’re getting very ripe. There’s probably a bushel ready right now. I’ll plan a canning run this evening after it cools down.
Posted on 31 Jul 10 (almost 3 years ago)
blurdom wrote:
wowee!! I’m really impressed with your scavenging/budget construction: it’s really inspiring.
it’s also probably a good thing you have that cat to help. :-)
Posted on 01 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
flowerweaver wrote:
Lookin’ good! Our construction project is in the home stretch. I’ll be glad to have a camera again to document the progress. Good luck with your greenhouse, it’s going to be wonderful!
Posted on 02 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
arw01 wrote:
Great idea for a greenhouse, and a great way to repurpose some other waste.
Locally it’s much cheaper to heat with gas.
A kwh costs about 9.2 cents here, and a therm is about a $1.00. 5200 btus of electricity is about 14.6 cents, but with gas it’s .05.
Posted on 02 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
TumbleWeed wrote:
Jealous ;)
Posted on 02 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
fionasfarm wrote:
Wow!
Posted on 03 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
My Eskay-Lite Clear Greenhouse Covering arrived today. Directions say to install on a warm day, over 70F. That won’t be a problem based on this last two weeks in the 90’s F. The game plan is to install on Saturday and Sunday since it requires wooden battens on all the studs, rafters, and seams. Good thing my daughter’s 6’-4" boyfriend is helping to reach the seams between 54" wide panels on the roof. I have a lot of framing left to do and battens to cut, mill, and edge on the shaper. I really wanted a triple-wall clear plastic corrugated panels
for the roof, but they were $45.00 per panel and I’d need 16 panels. That’s $720, which is $120 more than the entire greenhouse will cost …… Maybe next year.
Posted on 05 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
cristina wrote:
Complimenti: è un lavoro bellissimo!!
Posted on 08 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
La ringrazio, è un sacco di lavoro
Day 17 – It’s been too hot to work outside, and I have been canning up a storm. I worked on the greenhouse till about 11:00am and the heat got to me, so I canned 3 quarts of tomatoes. Went back out at 4:00pm and finally got nearly half of the roof finished. This Eskay-Lite 16-mil plastic is really miserable to work with, but once it’s installed it is crystal clear with no wrinkles, and when I look up, it’s hard to tell that there’s a roof there. I finished installing the double hung aluminum windows on the east Wall (on left of photo 1), and started building the benches.
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This damn thing is almost as big as my garage. I’ll have 148 square feet of bench space, which is enough space for about 1330 4" pots. I have two Halide fixtures from street lamps that I’m going to install. I just need to locate four 400W full spectrum bulbs to light this thing. Eventually I want to install LED lighting but not until next year.
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Posted on 19 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
digfrance wrote:
Wow thats a greenhouse very nice!
Posted on 19 Aug 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Finally, Finished the roof and benches …. had to work at night because it’s 110 F inside during the day. I have to close in one area around the ventilation fan in the peak. Tomorrow I cover the North wall with mirrors. I’ll photograph the finished building and post it soon (after harvesting is done).
Posted on 03 Sep 10 (almost 3 years ago)
Deanna wrote:
Very, very nice! And nicely documented. Now, would you like to come build me one? LOL!
Posted on 09 Sep 10 (almost 3 years ago)
arw01 wrote:
How is the Eskay-lite poly holding up? Made it through a couple of snow seasons I would gather.
Posted on 18 Aug 12 (10 months ago)
hotwired wrote:
The Eskay-lite is incredibly strong. It made it through heavy snow, 60 mile per hour winds, and a 3" diameter limb bouncing off of it. Normal 6-mil Greenhouse Film wouldn’t have held up to the storms we had this last two years. I was worried that it would get brittle from prolonged direct sun exposure, but it’s still as pliable as the day I put it up.
Posted on 18 Aug 12 (10 months ago)
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