Building PVC Greenhouse

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ziggyross

ziggyross
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This is the greenhouse I am going to build. Any ideas how to improve would be great.

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Hmmm thinkin ifin yuals builds it they will come and grows ;). Yual look to be walkin trails well pilgrem much luck with your journy! Yual be excited bets!

BWD
 
BackWoodsDrifter said:
Hmmm thinkin ifin yuals builds it they will come and grows ;). Yual look to be walkin trails well pilgrem much luck with your journy! Yual be excited bets!

BWD

Thank you and yes I am very excited.
 
I marked the picture where to add pipes for extra support for high winds resistance and better structure strength. The quick klamp)way to expencive to me) is just to give you a idea of how to hook the 2 hose clamps to each other and the pipes. The stainless steel hose clamps will work fine

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Ive really been wanting to build one to grow veggies in outdoors.. Im really interested in seeing how it turns out, and the costs involved :).

I don't know much about them but it would be nice to not have my tomatos beaten to death by storms :D.
 
The thing that I see that I don't know how they get around is the slip tees for the doors and windows. Since they are going on an arched piece of PVC, the door supports are going to be perpendicular to the pipe they are put onto. The supports for the doors and windows will not be parallel and perpendicular to the ground, but rather perpendicular to the arch and the supports will not be parallel. Do you understand? It is hard for me to describe this and I don't have time right now to do a drawing.

I would also be concerned about not gluing the frame together. I think that I might be for cutting the pipe into smaller sections and gluing regular tees rather than using slip tees. Other than easier teardown, I do not see any advantages to them and some drawbacks (expense being only one of them). In fact, I wouldn't use tees across the top to connect the arches--I would use crosses (4 way connectors) rather than offsetting the center roof support as you must do with tees.

Where did the plans come from? I'm thinking of a small greenhouse for starting flowers and veggies.
 
I found that the problem is not the structure itself, but little things like how are you going to keep it from blowing away.
I purchased a 10 X 20 "car port" for under $200. Good steel frame that snaps together in minutes. Be sure each leg has metal feet. I then nailed each leg in place with re-bar capped with a cable clamp as a hold down. Then comes the cable extending from anchors placed about ten feet out from each end. The cable runs from anchor one, up to the first peak, down the length of the structure, and down to the second anchor. Tighten it up and secure the cable against moving relative to the frame, and you have a skeleton.
I then put a single piece of greenhouse plastic over the entire thing. secured the sides down with lath and self tapping screws. I left the ends free to be adjusted by ropes and clip ties for ventilation. Nothing that looks like a door, but rather more like tent flaps at the ends.
This worked well last summer, and has survived winter winds and snow loads with regular servicing by using a push broom to avalanche snow by working from inside, pushing genteelly up on each section.
(The black plastic is on the North wall as part of a light deprivation / flowering inner shelter)

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I love this thing.
Not pretty like those $10,000 metal and glass events, but this is what I needed.

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ozzydiodude said:
I marked the picture where to add pipes for extra support for high winds resistance and better structure strength. The quick klamp)way to expencive to me) is just to give you a idea of how to hook the 2 hose clamps to each other and the pipes. The stainless steel hose clamps will work fine
Very good idea ozzy. This would really help make it stonger.
 
Lemon it looks like this is going to run between $250 and $300 to build as shown. I will post picks when I get it done.

Hemp I'm not quite sure what you are talking about. I do plan on gluing when all said and done.

Dunge very cool man thats a ton of snow. I plan on digging a 2 ft trench at the base and filling it in. My dirt is almost a packed clay so it should help to hold it in place. I will also add some anchors of some type. I like the idea of the inner shelter.

Than you everyone for your suggestions.
 
Have you are thought of a solar greenhouse?

Where you build a solid North wall and about 1/2 of the sides, then place your covering over the rest? They also place water barrels along the N. wall to help heat the place in late and early Winter.

I have kicked it around for a couple of years but still have not pulled the trigger. The link(change XX to tt) show what type of covering I was thinking of using.

hXXp://www.greenhousecatalog.com/category/greenhouse-covering
 
I used to have an outdoor greenhouse before I started growing mj, we used to keep 2 big 55gal drums of water for that same purpose, it can make it like a sauna almost if you have a hot hot day followed by a cold day, it works very well.
 
I was wondering whether I might be able to use the exhaust from my flowering room to help heat a small greenhouse space, like pcduck mentioned, and get a head start on the season. I still have about as much snow as Dunge. We are getting a lot of rain now, so I expect it to start melting fast, though.
 
pcduck said:
Have you are thought of a solar greenhouse?

Where you build a solid North wall and about 1/2 of the sides, then place your covering over the rest? They also place water barrels along the N. wall to help heat the place in late and early Winter.

I have kicked it around for a couple of years but still have not pulled the trigger. The link(change XX to tt) show what type of covering I was thinking of using.

hXXp://www.greenhousecatalog.com/category/greenhouse-covering
PCDuck That is a good idea but unfortunately i'm working with a very tight budget. That's why I am going the pvc route. My wife said I could spend $300 and I think I can bring this in just under budget.
 
PartyBro420 said:
I used to have an outdoor greenhouse before I started growing mj, we used to keep 2 big 55gal drums of water for that same purpose, it can make it like a sauna almost if you have a hot hot day followed by a cold day, it works very well.

Party, I like the idea of the drums So is sauna like good for the plants. It can get pretty warm here in Virginia. I was thinking I may have to coll it in mid summer. Guess we shall see.
 
The Hemp Goddess said:
I was wondering whether I might be able to use the exhaust from my flowering room to help heat a small greenhouse space, like pcduck mentioned, and get a head start on the season. I still have about as much snow as Dunge. We are getting a lot of rain now, so I expect it to start melting fast, though.

Hemp that's a fantastic way imo. Not only heat it but it's also green in a way.
 
The drums of water are closed and act as thermal buffers. Keeping humidity inside a greenhouse under control requires active ventilation in my experience.
 
Let me try again on the door framing. I still see this as a real problem. For the slip tees that make up the door frame to be perpendicular to the ground, the piece of pipe they are attached to must be parallel to the ground. What is going to happen when you put a slip tee on a curved piece of pipe is the it is going to be perpendicular to the curve. So on your first diagram on the rearmost section where it shows the slip tees "J". Those vertical pieces of pipe will not go straight down as they show because they are connected to a curved piece of pipe. Draw a half circle, draw lines perpendicular to the curve--these are not straight and they will not be parallel. I am just not seeing this working for the door and window framing. I also do not believe that these slip tees are meant to be glued--I believe that that will be a problem unless you drill and pin them, I believe they will allow the greenhouse to lean and sway.

No, a sauna is not a good environment for plants.
 
IMO you could use a tee the next size bigger than the pipe THG. Say a 2"x1 1/2" x2" tee for the slip tee that way there woulld be enough play to let the curved pipe pass thro the tee and still let the down pipe be plumb.
 

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