Erecting a greenhouse

Good afternoon all

After the last weeks incidents with high wind and my plastic greenhouse being repositioned in the garden I think its high time to invest in a proper greenhouse of my own. Due to the cost it would need to be second hand. I have seen in Friday ad/Gumtree etc ones which look reasonable for £50ish.

I have two questions, what should I look for / look to avoid in a greenhouse and secondly- for the majority of these its at a price that the buyer dismantles at. How hard is it to dismantle and erect a greenhouse and what tools are required (any specialist ones?)

Thanks in advance,

James

 

Both mine were second had off eBay. One of them was probably 40 years old. Good strong aluminium frame though, so not much to go wrong.

The heads of the bolts wrung off on about half the bolts, but new ones are readily available, as are glazing clips, so that's not a problem.

I couldn't find a source of the rubber? profile extruded tube that goes between glass and metal, so I used the sponge window draught excluder that comes on a roll (I got brown, rather than White, as someone advised me it would have better UV protection). Some people use silicon (and a caulking gun)

I took LOTS of Photographs from ALL angles. Make sure camera fully charged and with an empty memory card

Need gloves to handle the glass ...

Check with owner what the longest piece is (normally the ridge or side rails that run end-to-end) before you set off so that you know that you will be able to get that in the car.

Buy the biggest greenhouse you can find / afford. Keeping a small greenhouse cool in Summer can be difficult (generally it is necessary to throw open doors and windows and that causes draughts and in turn they cause transpiration stress to the plants). I reckon the breakpoint is around 10' x 8', bigger than that it becomes "easier".

You will most probably need a "base". My old fashioned aluminium greenhouses have a base of two courses of bricks, on a concrete foundation.

Some pictures etc. on my blog in case any help
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/greenhouses/

 

Same here james,we are off to view one tomorrow for the allotment off gumtree ,glass missing but hopefully might be ok once ressurected good luck fella and i hope your not chasing the same one as me in derby

 

Quite right. But, not only that, you'll soon find that you'd wished for something bigger. Dead easy to fill up a greenhouse!

 

Thanks for the tips guys , will keep you posted with how I get on


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk