Greenhouse Selection

I looked at all the options for housing my aquaponics setup, and came to the conclusion that I wanted nothing less than a custom built greenhouse with tripple wall polycarbonate panels.

Then I started looking at the price for pooring concrete, the panels, the lumber, and quickly concluded I was out of my mind.  I could probably buy a farm cheaper by the time I was done.

Next I looked at all those cool designs with the arched roofs, and they were actually affordable, but 8x10 was about the largest in my budget range.  That just didn't seem like enough, and the limited height of these units just would not let me do any vertical tubes or anything tall.  So I started looking seriously at the Harbor Freight Greenhouses.  A 10x12 unit could be had on sale for about $600.00 USD.  It was not the quality or the high insulation value that I desired but it gave me the financial freedom to actually get it started in 2015. I'm a bit impatient at times.  Once I considered the room needed to do a couple of preliminary designs I quickly opted to get two of these units and tie them together.

Now, two units joined together is technically not per zoning in most areas. The total square footage is over most zoning regs, but this is TWO greenhouses that are really (really) close together so I'm good, right?  If not I'll put the walls back up in the middle and be legal.  In short DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME, unless you are willing to chance it. Check your zoning rules.  Most areas around me say a single structure of < 200 sqaure feet and at least 5 feet from property lines do not require a permit.  Fortunately I am in an unincorporated area, and I'm on good terms with my neighbors.  As a matter of fact this is a good place to put my disclaimer.

The following information is how I decided to build my system.  Following my example is likely to lead to broken parts, emergency room visits, angry significant others, and is in general not a good idea. No, it's a bad idea. Don't do it. That said I am not responsible for financial, material, or any other losses (like your sanity) you incur from being stupid enough to follow my lead.  You have been warned.

The boxes arrive by a big truck, and the pieces can be moved by a single person with a good hand truck.  But it's an effort.  Get help.  Shipping was none too kind to the boxes either, and I have a couple pieces that were damaged, but I'm planning to mod the thing anyway, so it's all good.  Yes I know the bottom box is upside down.  But they were hand trucked to the back yard 10 minutes later.

 

Preparing the foundation is by far the most difficult and time consuming part of the build process.  Whatever time you may think you will need - triple it.  In my case I worked on it when my son could come help on Sundays.  Let's just say it took a while.  I opted for a 5/8 minus crushed rock floor, and 4x6 inch treated lumber around the base of the wall to put the greenhouse on.  Harbor Freight recommends burying the baseplate, but most of the people online that are happy with theirs set the baseplate on a solid foundation instead.  The crushed rock is not cheap either. I got twice what I needed for other projects, but the rock was almost as expensive as one of the greenhouses.

The build site

I have a fairly small back yard, but only one place that makes sense to put my greenhouses up. Unfortunately a small tree is in the way, and the wife says that it gets moved, and not chopped up. Of course this has to be in the middle of one of the green houses, so that added a long time to the foundation preparation.