Harbor Freight Greenhouse Construction

[dragoneggs]

He's done his research as per his previous posts. I expect to see some pics of the upcoming mods too.

Nice pics. Nice location too. I spent my years in high school on Whidbey Island.

Now you'll have to build some benches. Redwood fencing worked well for me.

And don't forget the outside.

Thank you Dennis, your website was indeed one of my inspirations!

 

[dragoneggs]

Glad you made it home from China safely. Great looking project...and million dollar view! Am I right in concluding you built it in one day (not including site work)?

Thanks wngsprd. Yes we are blessed with a view here!!! :cool2: Yeah sure built it in 8hrs, no problem.... just kidding. Really about a 3 to 4 day job for me. I also took some video and might put that together at some point. Also had some help from the better half. I suppose some can do it faster but I was pretty slow and deliberate making sure I did it right, and even then there were a few steps backward! Maybe due to jet lag??? :confused3:

 

[dragoneggs]

We used to have one of the 10x12 Harbor Freight Greenhouses. I had to do a few modifications to it. First was the back wall. It was facing west and caught the wind pretty good. I had to use a piece of 3/8" rebar to reinforce the back wall and hold it in place where the sections of the back wall supports were bolted together. Then came the panels. We couldn't keep them in the frame. We ordered more clips from a green house supplier. Put 3x the clips on it than it came with. They still blew out. I used silicone on them and the 3x clips. Still blew out. Finally I drilled a hole in each panel with a bolt through the aluminum frame, silicone them in place again, and 3x the clips (less what had been lost in the previous blow outs). I told Monica that we weren't losing the panels any more. If we did, we would lose the whole thing. Got a call at work one day from her, she said the green house was gone. I was like what do you mean the greenhouse is gone? We had a bunch of rain and the ground was soft and mushy. Then we had a big windstorm. It picked the entire greenhouse up and rolled it into a ball back to the neighbor's house. After spending the better part of a day collecting pieces of a greenhouse I think I got $30 for it at the recycling yard. That was the end of her greenhouse dream.

Man... so sorry to hear. I am very much worried about the wind here too. I am planning to add extra clips and screw panels in place too. I don't think it can pick up the 4x6 pressure treated foundation but the panel installation is flimsy. I have half the clips in backward too until we figured it out seeing a pic on the internet, but my fingers are too tired to change them and I am sick of them at the moment. I am not sure the clips regardless of orientation will do much in a strong wind.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I drilled a few holes in the timber foundation and drove 4foot pieces of 1/2" rebar into the dirt. I've gone thru some very heavy wind gusts, the greenhouse came thru ok but you have to secure the vents as the wind will blow them up and sometimes they detach.

 

[dragoneggs]

I drilled a few holes in the timber foundation and drove 4foot pieces of 1/2" rebar into the dirt. I've gone thru some very heavy wind gusts, the greenhouse came thru ok but you have to secure the vents as the wind will blow them up and sometimes they detach.

Yes, the roof vents are not secure... even when latched, I can push up about an inch. Really need a better latching system. I am looking at these for auto roof vent opening and better secured. Bayliss Autovent Opener - Greenhouse Cooling | Greenhouse Megastore. Problem is they are pricey and don't know how good they truly perform.

 

[Green Power]

Nice greenhouse dragoneggs.

 

[dragoneggs]

Nice greenhouse dragoneggs.

Thanks Green Power,

Now it is time to start reinforcing this structure. We have pretty good winds coming off the Hood Canal here and I need to do much to stiffen up the structure and tighten the glazing. Here are the first of the improvements...



There is no truss system so that a down force on the roof will cause the long sides to bow out. I used electrical conduit to stiffen the sides here.

 

[dragoneggs]

I also need to stiffen up the end walls. My solution to the front (door) wall was to add an aluminum angle stretching across the full span and tying into the existing T-bolts. But I needed to swap out the existing T-bolts with longer ones (happened to have just enough extra in the bag of hardware) to account for the increased stack-up. And yes I used a couple of Click Bond studs on the ends to secure the ends where no existing hardware was available. This stiffened the span nicely.



But looking at the rear side of the greenhouse, I think I will do something similar to what I constructed for the long sides.

 

[dragoneggs]

I also got water plumbed both inside and out. I used a frost free faucet at the end of the run.



Sorry for the cable tie straps... this is temporary until I fabricate some straps or make another trip to Home Depot for some pipe brackets.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Look up SAND AUGERS, to ties down temp buildings. They use them to tie down trailers. They can go down 4ft or more and have variable size auger heads. Guarantee whatever it's attached to will break before the sand auger comes out of the ground.