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greenhouse super ghetto "kick down" greenhouse. carpenter advice appreciated

queequeg152

queequeg152

im looking at keeping some of my plants going over the winter. i live in houston where it might hard freeze just a couple of times in a year... however im looking to keep my rock wool plants PRODUCTIVE during the winter, meaning that i dont want them getting below 55-60 all night long.

this is what ive come with thus far.
Assembly1.jpg


keep in mind this is a super ghetto inventor frame assembly i came up with in 30 min. its not even close to 100% its JUST the ... upper part, just the roof and sides. im just not interested in spending hours in inventor, because i suck with it. ill do the final angles and miters... etc etc in 2d cad.

keep in mind im not interested in doing pullups on this thing, AND that it is sheltered from like 80% of the wind being surrounded on 4 sides by walls. by march this thing will be kicked down and burned/cut up and thrown away.
im not interested in any pvc because i need to hang about 50lbs of plants from it. the whole frame will be covered in some expensive poly i bought.
the reinforcing structure is not shown, but im planning on just mitering some pieces of 2x2 or 2x4 to reinforce the joints with pneumatic driven framing nails. im not interested in screwing it together. if i can find some small gusset plates, i might go with that, but i haven't seen anything that would work.


anyway this is 2x2 lumber at 2' offset. i would REALLY love to go to like 3 or 4' offset, but i dont know enogh about lumber to know if thats to much span or not.
does anyone here know what the max is i can span with 2x2's?
 
I did that last spring with rough sawn 1 inch board cutoffs from the saw mill on 2 ft spacing and yours with a 1-1/2 frame is good for 3 ft spacing.

Mine had the north side vertical to the ground and the south side at about a 60 degree angle so I could catch more light and heat. I had 2X8 ft 5/8th plywood shelves on both sides at 5 ft and 28 inches from the ground and sat my plants on them. They were supported across the length with a board on both sides and vertically at 4 ft. The south side had 2 sheets of plywood at 28 inches and a horizontal support at 4 ft as well so the plywood would not bend too much.

You will need 6 inch gussets at the 3 corners of the frame or else you will need a cross support across the corners to keep them together while you are assembling and raising the frames. You also need another person to help you with the connection of the first set of frames with the ridge---there is no way you can do that alone unless you are very good. They like to fall down as you try to fix the ridge support to the frames. Also you do not need the cross members at the corners; a single added board on each side is all you need to stabilize the frames. Otherwise it gets to complicated to cut and fasten all those little parts, just do it later after the frames are up.

You should also rip a board into 3/16th strips and use little screws to fasten down the plastic sheeting so it stays in place in a wind. Thin card board and staples will work as well but not for very long; depends on the amount of rain you get down there in winter.

I like to screw everything so I can deconstruct and save the parts but nails and a bonfire will work too.

Good luck
 
60 degrees on the south side huh, thats a good idea.

Assembly1-1.jpg


heres another version at 4' offset, probably to wide. my problem is i dont need a lot of width. id rather keep it 6' wide. shelves are a good idea too, i was just planning on buying a plastic table from Home depot.

i was planning on just bracing the frames as i went with clamps and some 8' pieces angled onto a cinderblock? idk i can get my brother to help me out for a while.

lol i was planning on using cap nails for holding the stuff down? is that wrong? i used the stuff to hold vapor barrier when i resided my moms place. the cap nails go in with one hard blow on a sturdy wall stud, this is another matter tho lol.

thanks for the input, any pics of your setup i can look up on THP by chance?

edit:
same thing at 3' offset
Frame0001.jpg


edit: not sure about that last one tbh. i like the symmetry of the first.

Frame0002.jpg
 
Here is a kind of frame diagram that I did---My ridge pole was a 4 inch wide board with cut outs every 2 ft to accept the frames which I screwed after they were all raised.
Greenhouse.png


Here is the internal frame members I had that I added to the frames to hold my plants---the blue are the tables if you can figure them out and I put in red the two center supports for the benches that hold up the inside plywood at 4 ft.
Greenhouse addon.png
 
2x2 is going to be a PITA for frames like that it will warp and will probbaly be difficult to find straight pieces in the first place. PVC would probably be the better route.

I built my small greenhouse out of ripped 2x4's and I still had to pull the entire thing straight. PITA!
 
From a structural standpoint, it will be much stronger if it symmetric. That last wire diagram will put a bunch of stress on the back legs when the wind blows. You're also going to need some diagonal bracing unless you can figure out a way to keep the connections rigid.
 
Jeff - The thing has all kind of bracing---It is all that blue lines who are screwed into the black frame and then the plywood shelves sit on the supports.

bluemeanie---you had wet wood if it warped on you. 2X2 is fine to make a temp green house out of--like I said I made mine out of 1 inch stuff and it was fine. I suggest you go to a local saw mill if you can and get some cut offs that they discard; If the wood is a couple weeks old sitting out in the sun it will be warped by then so you will not get stuff that is junk.
 
It will warp even if it is dry and it sits outside. What I was using was dry 2x2 and it warped while I was building it from moisture in the air and temp flucutations.
 
mmm wood warping isnt something i had thought of. im inclined to ignore that possibility however. im going to hope that if it happens it wont be hard to correct.

pvc is a horrible and offensive building material imo, and i would never build anything with it if i could avoid it. if i ever build something more permanent it will be with marginally more expensive 1" EMT tubing... its just as easy to bend, and not a floppy donky dick like PVC.
 
Jeff - The thing has all kind of bracing---It is all that blue lines who are screwed into the black frame and then the plywood shelves sit on the supports.
Click to expand...

Ok, whatever you say; but just so you know, those blue lines don't resist any wind forces. You need collar ties and diagonal bracing of some sort OR you need rigid connections which you can't get with 2x2 wood or PVC, maybe EMT, but it is pretty thin wall metal.
 
Find some old metal hoops for a greenhouse and buy really good UV plastic and build your own. Mine is still standing for 5+ years. You may need to fashion some walls at the open ends with wood and maybe a door.
Plenty of info online. Its easier and more cost effective. Plus its stable in high wind. Just ask Sandy, she tried to rip it apart last week, but failed!
 
problem there is that 1. i need a small real small enclosure, just for a few plants.
and 2. here in Houston there are very very few greenhouse growers, so there are very few secondhand polytunnels.

that would be awsome tho. real commercial polytunnels are made of real tubulal/channel type structural steel. emt is a poor substitute for real steel, but w/e its better than pvc.

anyway i got my film in the mail

image001small-2.jpg


thing looks like a giant doobie, not that im personally familiar with doobies or anything.
 
bluemeanietsi said:
2x2 is going to be a PITA for frames like that it will warp and will probbaly be difficult to find straight pieces in the first place. PVC would probably be the better route.

I built my small greenhouse out of ripped 2x4's and I still had to pull the entire thing straight. PITA!
Click to expand...

ok so, yea , im dumb. it turns out that 2x2's are insanely warped right out of the box...so you were 100% on that one.

i bought just like 10 pieces...the straightest i could find, but i can already tell these things are utter crap. im not sure if they can even handle the framing nailes im going to shoot without splitting into match sticks.

im going to try and build the end pieces, if all goes well ill go get more, but in all likely hood im probably going to go buy EMT tubing and go from there next weekend.
 
I didn't read everything here, but I would suggest something a lot more simple.
You have a lot of angles going on there and a complex way of building something you will just tear down.

View attachment 2539

This is the first shed roof I could find, but you don't need to cut birdsmouths out or do any notching.
just make one wall taller than the other, and nail the rafters o the top.

Or you could make frames out of three pieces, One High side piece, one short side piece, and the rafter.
Like a tiny pole building.
 
its actually not that bad with a miter saw. i did an end piece in less than an hour. tbh im not crazy about the non symmetrical shapes and this is going to be in partial view from the front of the house.
and there are no birds mouths in this thing ill link a pic when i can.

edit: here
Assembly2.jpg


Assembly3.jpg
 
lol, ive had the base and the two end pieces of this thing erected for like a week and a half now.
ive been entirely too apathetic considering its still above 60's at night like 90% of the time... but im going to wrap this up this weekend because i have finals and such that will occupy my free time for a while.

turns out that i was wrong again about the 2x2... ive found that most of even the most warped and crappy looking pieces are still useable... you just have to chop out the straight bits. ive been useing the badly warped ones for the roof structure, and the straightest ones for the wall pieces.

im useing 6" pieces of furring strips i used for shimming windows as fake gusset plates. these pieces are fastned with like 8 tiny crummy brad nails. when i want to remove the gussets, i just break off the wood piece and hammer in the nails. works like a charm. im blasting two 2-3/8" framing nails into each 2x2 wall member that hold it to the 2x4 base, this is awsome because it takes like 15 seconds...

so far the whole thing has taken all of 2 hours of my time. i spent far more than 2 hours just screwing with it in inventor. hopefully i can finish it in another 4 or so hours, and just finish the wiring and electrical when ever i feel like it. heating/venting wont be necessary for a while i suspect. ill just keep the side rolled up during the day.
 
i have an attic vent that i will use. it will be run by a neat little product called a "duostat" i scored it on ebay for like 15 bucks. this will handle all the cooling and excess humidity which i suspect will not be a problem in the first place.

heater? idk yet, ill probably go for something like a 1000w oil radiator or something. keep in mind it might never even get below freezing here in Houston, im not anticipating a great heat demand inside this thing. also note that this is very close to my house, its surrounded by 3 poorly insulated walls, so there is some heat gain there lol...

for a fan ill probably just grab the one i use in my tent, should i need another, ill have to buy one at walmart or w/e.

no bug screens, i prefer to spray for them rather than fuss with keeping my area clean like that. yea im lazy.

i already have an irrigation system in place that i will just be moving slightly, all i need to do is shorten a piece here and there.
i have a thread anout it here
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/34550-diy-fertigation-controller/

i also am going to find some sort of cheep table for my young plants... im also considering putting my 220watt PLL out there over this proposed table since they are definatly getting leggy. this time of the year the house starts blocking alot more sun than id like...i get only about 6 hours of sunlight at best in this atrium. it is definatly not meant for winter growing.
 
im a big fat liar, im totally not going to tough this thing over the weekend. its going to be in the 80's all weekend and i need to study for something.
 
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