Well, Need to get the doors done. I could have just screwed them together, but since I’ve got this fancy schmancy square hole puncher thought I’d use it to make some mortise and tenon joints.
The faster I get these done, the faster I can finish the green house!
Well, it’s a workday, so had to work, but took a little time to make a little more progress.
One of the things I was trying to figure out was how to reuse the roof vents. The old green house had an aluminum extrusion along the ridge. Part of it’s function was to hold the poly carb panels in place.
So here is the peak extrusion. The top part is what clamps the roof panels in place, and acts as a hinge for the roof vents. What I need to do is get rid of the bottom part so I can screw that right onto my wooden roof beam.
Probably lots of ways I could have done it. The table saw just didn’t feel right, as there’s really no good way safely move the material through the blade.
Didn’t want to use my woodworking bandsaw due to the metal shavings, and even though I know I can, didn’t want to potentially damage a woodworking blade.
So I pulled out my little hand held metal bandsaw and clamped it up vertical. Wasted a couple of pieces figuring out the best way to make the cut, but got it down. There were extra pieces because the corners of the greenhouse used the same extrusion.
Finished product. This should work well. I’ll put some flashing down on the ridge and then screw this on top.
Roof is all built up, added some supports to keep the sides from racking.
This thing is rock solid right now. I can’t budge it at all, so it should hold up to the winds.
Next up is build the doors and the roof vents. Once those are built up, all I have to do is put the polycarb panels on. Very close. Really liking the extra vertical room this gives me on the inside as well.
Well, It was fun while it lasted. A couple of years ago we bought a little greenhouse package from Costco. It seemed nice, had some clear polycarbonate panels, which I thought would be nice since you could see out of them. Well, after a few years, that green house should a few drawbacks.
First, it was kind of leaky, airwise, and was not really easy to seal up to keep the drafts out. To be honest, It was pretty well engineered and I’m amazed it stayed up in the winds we get out here. I know that sucker had put up with over 60 mph winds in the past.
Here’s what it looked like to start with. It was fantastic. Clear windows, everything looked great. It worked pretty well and I have to admit I have enjoyed using it. If I knew then what I know now though, I would not have bought it.
Fast forward a couple years and the roof has held up well, but the clear poly carb side walls just could not take the beating from the wind and the sun out here. They have gone hazy and brittle. If you touch them, they just fall apart. You can literally just poke your finger right through them.
The unfortunate thing is that they just are not repairable. I can’t replace them with something else. So I’m pretty much faced with the only option being to tear down the green house and completely rebuild.
So, Why not. No big deal. I bought some 2’x6′ twin wall polycarb panels similar to what was on the roof. I figure if they lasted, why not by some more like that. Plus the twin wall poly carb has at least a little bit of insulation value.
It took about 2 hours to tear down the old greenhouse. Here’s whats left.
And I made some progress on the replacement. Got three walls framed in. Tomorrow I’m hoping to get the rest of it framed up and maybe get the panels on the walls in place.
The nice thing is I was able to take advantage of all the prep work I had previously done and reuse the same base and footprint. The 4×4 foundation is anchored into the ground with concrete piers and with the 2×4 construction should prove to be pretty sturdy.
More posts to come as I continue on with the project.