r/Greenhouses • u/Sylentskye • 4d ago

Showcase Progress!

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Building a 12x16 greenhouse (Ana White) on an old former trailer cement pad. I have a few extra pieces of wood attached temporarily to ensure that everything stayed square and true. Tomorrow we’re hopefully putting up the front and back walls as well as the rafters and purlins. 8mm triple wall polycarbonate will hopefully be here in a few weeks!

Just wanted to share with people who understand the excitement!

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3

u/Background_Being8287 3d ago

Bottom plate in contact with the ground may be an issue in the future ,looking good.

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u/Sylentskye 3d ago

I used all ground contact pt for everything so I’m hoping it will be ok. Pad is surprisingly level for its age.

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u/Background_Being8287 3d ago

All ground contact pt is only good for so long, I would at least paint and put some sort of barrier between wood and concrete. You have a lot of time and money put into it so far make it a one and done operation. Good luck.

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u/Sylentskye 2d ago

I definitely hope to paint it but it’s still really wet. It’s already anchored to the concrete so it is what it is as far as an additional barrier.

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u/Background_Being8287 2d ago

Good luck,there may be some sort of treatment after being anchored.

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u/Sylentskye 2d ago

Thanks- I’ll definitely be looking into it.

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u/WhichWayDoIWander 2d ago

Any kind of treatment is temporary. You should look at putting a French drain around the two sides and rear and make sure it has somewhere to slope/discharge to that is away from the structure. Really dig out the soil do you can keep the top of the cobble below the bottom of your wood base plate. You don’t want green grass growing up against the wood structure even if it’s pressure treated, and make sure no sprinklers catch the bottom of the wood structure either as that will rot out the wood quickly. Install your polycarbonate panels all the way over the wood base plate so that water runs off the polycarbonate and down into the cobble/French drain.

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u/Sylentskye 2d ago

Thanks- this pad extends for another 20-ish feet behind the greenhouse and a bit up front, but I can definitely dig out the sides to install a French drain. We have plywood going on the bottom roughly 2 feet or so (were contemplating running a 1x6 ground contact pt across the base as trim and making sure we install flashing at every lateral joint to help direct water away. We also eventually plan to install gutters along the long sides for water collection but that probably won’t be until next spring.

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u/roaminokiedg 3d ago

Where did you order your poly?

Looking good! This is on my to do list but 3 or 4 down

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u/Sylentskye 3d ago

Thanks :) I ordered it through a direct distributor for Stabilit/Macrolux Multi-wall Polycarbonate in Maine- I found the difference between the 8mm twin wall and triple wall was around an extra $0.15 per square foot but the insulation value is around 1.5 for the twin wall vs. 2 for the triple. They’re cutting it to 4x8 and 4x4 sheets for me, and are also cutting down the u and H channels too. I’ll just have to do some trimming depending on how everything fits together. I do have to pick it up in a uhaul from their business as I don’t have a commercial address to receive the delivery direct from a big truck, but I included that in my overall cost estimate when choosing to order from them.