Harbor Freight 10 x 12 Greenhouse Build

[shadytrake]

Well here is the latest installment. We haven't dug the trench yet, but the rain we got today should make the ground nice and soft for this weekend.

[shadytrake]

Today's updates to the greenhouse. It is slow going, but doing it the right way the first time will prevent headaches and extra costs later. We installed the pressure treated base pieces. You can see that one corner is really kattywompus, but that is the reason for the 4x4. It allows for elevating the corner to level and attaching with treated star-head deck screws. We must have squared and leveled it a dozen times. It is now ready for the concrete anchor bolts. That was hubby's project today.

My project was preparing the ground for trenching in the electrical and water lines. With all of the rain we have been having, it is a perfect time to fix the grading issues. The picture showing the cypress mulch was an ankle deep lake this morning. After an hour of digging and amending the soil with 15 bags of topsoil and 7 bags of organic humus, I finally got the grading up. I topped it with 4 bags of cypress mulch. The other strip behind the greenhouse has been amended, but needs more humus before digging the trench. I just got too tired to do any more. Will need to fix the grading in between the greenhouse and the old shade house as that is where the water and electrical will make a 90 degree turn.

I'm exhausted but it is looking good. The swamp cooler has been ordered and should arrive this week.

[nutgirl]

This brings back memories! Don't wear yourselves out.


Maureen

[shadytrake]

So I'm thinking about building one of these to heat the greenhouse.

Thermal Mass Rocket Stoves on our Minds... Midwest Permaculture

I've order the book and I've watched the YouTube videos. This is excellent and is CHEAP! It is also more environmentally friendly. The bonus is that the "bench" can be heating pads for seedlings. I cannot wait to get the book so that I can start planning this.

[shadytrake]

Right now I am supervising, because hubby doesn't need my help. We decided to put in a ridge pole, because I had a BRILLIANT idea. BRILLIANT I SAY! We have always had a problem with the rafted wet wall orchids dripping more water than needed into the potted orchids. So I was looking at the floor plan design and it came to me. EUREKA! Put a skinny wet wall in the middle of the greenhouse creating two walkways. It serves three purposes. The floor to ceiling structure provides support for the ridge pole. The west side of the wet wall can hold the hotter sun loving orchid rafts and the east wall can hold the medium sun loving orchid rafts. We can put smaller seedling rafts at the bottom so there is no "trip" hazard.

I measured it out and penciled it on the floor and it allows a 3' walkway at the door and the opposite end and 2' 7" on each side. Perfect! The wall will be the width of a 2x4 and 3' long. It will be covered in galvanized rabbit cage wire.

Last night I went Craigslist hunting and I found three 16 gallon barrels for the Rocket Mass heater. I also found a guy with salvaged kiln fire brick. 100 brick pallet for $100. The barrels were $40. My original budget for the system was $150. I see now that I will be going over, but it won't be by much. The rest of the supplies should be under $100 total. This project is really taking shape now.

[shadytrake]

Back to HFGH updates for today. I have photos! The wet wall in the middle eliminates the need for the EMT tube supports so I will return all of those supplies tomorrow. The wet wall ends up saving us about $50 in supplies. I love it when that happens. Now we finish the shelf framing and start the RMH design. It will take a bit of experimenting and we are researching the thermal mass material that we want to use. The standard is cob (clay mud mixture), but we can't use that in a greenhouse. We have seen some folks use sand. I dunno about this one...more research required.

Next step, build the frame for the swamp cooler and trench for water and electrical. We are going to run PEX underground for the water line and that grey electrical PVC for the Romex.

[shadytrake]

Sunday's update. It was quite hot outside today so we spent the better part of the day discussing the RMH design. We finally got around to working on the greenhouse in the early evening. After determining that our hammer drill was no match for the concrete slab, I sped over to Home Depot and rented a real hammer drill. Got that and the bit and was checking out with 5 mins to closing time! I'm sure my neighbor didn't appreciate our hammer drilling until 9:45 pm. Oh well, at least we finished before 10 pm. We had one oops moment where we didn't drill deep enough. We put the lead sleeve in the hole and it wasn't deep enough to take the screw. We'll have to plug that hole. Just cosmetic.

[shadytrake]

Monday's update. We are moving right along with the project this evening. I'm out here supervising and taking pictures. Hubby is putting up the shelf supports. We liked the previous design that we used in the shade house so we will duplicate that almost exactly.

In the interest of reduce, recycle, and reuse, we are definitely eco-friendly on this portion of the greenhouse. The shelves are bread trays that were thrown out years ago. I found them on the side of a dumpster the year that we first built our shade house. We will use the brown ones that are slightly smaller on the East side of the greenhouse and the larger grey ones on the West side. This allows us to have four trays of shelving on each side without interfering with the RMH.

The wall with the styrofoam is where my potting bench will go (bigger of course) and to the right will be the sink. Above me in the gable, will be the swamp cooler. That way the nice cool air will flow down on me as I am working.

The top shelf will be reused Closet Maid shelving from our old shade house. I'm hoping that we have enough to avoid buying any more. We salvaged a bunch of the wall brackets and supports from the old junk left from the previous home owner 15 years ago. How's that for junk hoarding!

As for lighting, misting, and the sink: all will come from the old shade house. I don't think we will need all of the lights now that we are in a better light location, but you never know. We'll have to see how much (if any) supplemental light will be needed in the winter.

We are now searching for some freebie stuff on Craigslist. Hubby is convinced that we can find cinder block or brick free. I found some for 0.30cents / brick and that is the best deal so far.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[shadytrake]

Craigslist score! Someone posted free brick on the curb so we hauled butt over there at 10pm tonight and picked it up. It isn't good enough to use for the thermal box, but it makes great rubble for the thermal mass fill. We are getting close to securing all of the needed supplies.

Today I did a small dry fit to see how big the thermal mass box needs to be in order to get the amount of heat needed. Here are a few pictures. We found some really cheap fire brick on line with free shipping. Decided not to go with the Craigslist fire brick because it was the wrong size. At this point, we have to get the thermal mass box built before we can go any further with the shelf construction. Since we are trying to get some freebie stuff, we might be stalled for a bit. Orchid meeting this weekend.

[nutgirl]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the rocket heater works for you.


Maureen