Greenhouse construction begins

[GpsFrontier]

Well progress is rolling along now. I took all these pictures between yesterday and the day before. I also bought the 3 pumps I will need. The two large ones pump up to 18 feet head height, and are rated at a 505 GPH at 13 feet. They cost $100 each. The smaller one is for the bottom level of the hydroponic system. It has a head height of 14 feet, and is rated at 375 GPH at 7 feet. I will need to check once I open them, but I expect that they don't have filters. So I expect to need to create a simple filter for each of them.

I've added resting blocks to all of the vertical support structure framing wood that the horizontal framing rests on. That will just aid in support of all the weight of the water when the systems are flooded. Each level will likely be over 2000 pounds when flooded (6000 pounds for all 3 levels). They aren't pretty, but functional. I could have cut them all to the same size (etc.), but I wanted to use the scrap wood I needed to cut earlier for it (most of it won't really be seen much when finished anyway).

Also note how I did the top "A" frame at the end. I've added some more wood to it for attaching the plastic to, but don't have a picture of that at this time. I will do both ends the same way, but I need to build a temporary later/platform that will be attached to the greenhouse support structure on the other side before I can do that (the one that's built wont fit between the greenhouse, and retaining wall).

Not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but all of the vertical supports are attached to the electrical conduit tubing with 3 inch decking screws at the top, middle, and bottom. I took a picture if one of the screws and you can see that it goes through the wood into the conduit tubing. I always pre-drill the holes through the wood and tubing using a drill bit that's a little smaller than the screws. That way I they are easy to screw in, and wont split any of the wood. There wood deck screws and not self tapping, so they wont screw through the electrical conduit without a pre-drilled hole anyway. But as long as you don't use a drill bit that's to big, they screw into the electrical conduit nicely, and are extremely tight with no chance of them working their way loose.

I also took better pictures of where I attached pieces of pressure treated wood to the foot of the regular 2x4's. That way it's only pressure treated wood that touches the ground. The guy in the pictures is a friend from across the street that has helped me work on the greenhouse, he just happened to stop by that day to see how the progress was going.

I have the outside horizontal support framing for the top level up, and I am working on the inner support framing. If things go as planed, I will have most of that up by tomorrow night. Then I'll be going to get more of the 'cull" wood Tuesday morning. Then I'll need to paint it Tuesday afternoon. And hopefully I will have the rest of the hydro system support structure finished and started on making the hydroponic system by Wednesday.

[CrossOps]

Post updates :P

[GpsFrontier]

OK, I now have another update ready to post.
Even though I'm happy with the progress at this point, and how it's coming along together, I could be farther along if I wasn't going through the "cull" wood faster than they stock it. I didn't get much done two days this week for that very reason. Friday I decided to buy some of the more expensive 2x4's just so I had some wood to work with. I now only need 4 more pieces of the cull wood to finish the hydroponic system support structure, and it probably wont be restocked until Tuesday. In total I need about 90 more pieces of the cull wood to finish both the support structure and the hydroponic system.

But I am still making progress. All the areas of the support structure that are covered with the OSB board are finished. The only sections left are the ends between the long rows. On one side I have 2 of the 3 sections finished, the other side I still need all 3 sections. They are easy to do, I just needed one piece of the cull wood for a cross beam for each of those sections to finish it. I took some pictures of the center sections with the OSB removed from there so you can see how I did the support structure underneath.

I also took pictures of the top A frame end section where I finished adding the wood strips to. The wood strips will be what the edges of the greenhouse covering will be attached to on the top ends. The sections of OSB are the bottoms of the hydroponic system, and will rest in place on the support structure (right were they are). But right now I'm just cutting them to the right size, and making sure they fit in place on the support structure correctly before I complete each section. Once I have all the sections cut to size, and in place to ensure a good fit, I'll take them out (and mark each one so it goes back in the same place). Then laminate the 6 ml plastic to the tops of the OSB, and paint the bottoms with the white reflective roof coating. Then I'll create the sides of the hydro system using 2x4's that are laminated with the 6 mil plastic as well.

I also ordered seeds a couple days ago,
Sweet Basil (common) Seeds - Ocimum basillicum (one pound)
Dark Opal Basil Seeds (one ounce)
Lemon Basil Seeds - Ocimum basillicum citriodorum (one ounce)
Dill, "Bouquet" Seeds - Anethum graveolens (one ounce)
Chives Seeds (common) (one ounce)
Catnip Seeds (one ounce, plan to market it to the pet supply stores)

I also ordered some lemongrass seeds from another company. I wanted to order some tarragon, and oregano but they are much more expensive and will get them later when I have money coming in. I forgot to order sage, and probably will later this week. I added a drawing of the completed hydroponic system for anyone not familiar with how it's supposed to look when completed.

[GpsFrontier]

Just thought I would mention that the link I posted about the heater was probably a typo. After looking into it farther I haven't found any that were near 500 watts. It is most likely 1500 watts, and not 550 watts. Therefore would cost three times as much electricity to run. Also all the inferred heaters I found had the same space requirements (nothing spaced within 2-3 feet) regardless of output. I will continue to look into them, but don't hold much hope for electric heaters. If I can get one that has sufficient BTU's using only about 500 watts it would be cost effective, but not at much more watts than that.

[CrossOps]

That's a considerable difference. Looks like I am back to the drawing board also. I may just setting for an element or ceramic based heater that can just hold a constant.

We need to get this figured out.

[GpsFrontier]

The last week has been filed with obstacles. I was able to finally get about all the "cull' wood I needed. But I have had regular weather problems with wind and rain every other day. As well as a issue with the rubberized coating I planed to use for laminating the plastic sheeting to the OSB not having good contact. I do have (come up with) another economical option, but wont post anything about it until I have tried/tested it and seen the results. But so far it looks promising.

I have pictures I have taken over the week, but they aren't downloaded to my computer yet, and it's 3:35 am now (and I still need to make dinner), so I don't feel like doing it right now. But will definitely post all the pics later. Just thought I would make a small update.

Also I have some consecrations for heating, but at this point I'm mostly back to looking at "propane" options. I can elaborate later on the options I'm looking at. But so far the small camping heaters still look like the best option. All the other options (even under $100) put out too many BTU's (30,000-50,000), not only wasting the propane, but even more importantly would likely damage my plants in such close quarters. Even if they were on timers and/or a thermostat, unless the heat could be dispersed differently.

[GpsFrontier]

OK, I finaly have the pictures downloaded to post. Now that the hydroponic system support structure is finished, I have been working on building the hydroponic systems. To do that I need to laminate a lot of wood with the 6ml plastic before I can put it together. In total I need to laminate 24-2x4's (8 foot), 60- 1/2 pieces of 2x4's (the cull wood) I'll cut them to size later, 12-3 feet by 8 feet sheets of OSB, and 9 more sheets of OSB (about one square yard each). As of tonight, all I still need to laminate is 36-1/2 pieces of 2x4's (the cull wood), and 6 of the small one square yard sheets of OSB. The rest is laminated. So most of the pictures are of the process of laminating the wood. I hope to be able to get the rest of the wood lamination done tomorrow (baring weather problems, and/or needing to run back out to Lowe's for more contact cement which is almost a certainty).

By the way, the alternative I came up with for laminating the plastic sheets to the OSB is working very well. I decided to use "vinyl tile adhesive" But you've got to be sure not to get the stuff for feltback vinyl tile, and get the stuff for vinyl composition tile (VCT). This is the exact stuff I'm using: HENRY 430, 4-Gallon Vinyl Tile Adhesive. It's very sticky with the consistency of something like a thick elmer's wood glue. I'm using the smallest notched trowel I could find for spreading/applying it to the OSB. Once it's applied to the OSB, I just roll out a pre-cut piece of the 6ml plastic sheet and just use a dry rag to push out any air bubbles for a clean/even lamination. It will take a good 24 hours for the tile adhesive to cure/dry, but I'll give it a minimum of 48 anyway. It does seem to want to make the OSB bend/bow as it drys, so I've placed them face down on the garage floor, and placed a lot of weight on top to press it down (the 5 gal buckets you see are full of water). I got 2 boxes of the 4 gal size of the adhesive ($27 ea), but in total I will probably only need about 6 gallons total to laminate all the OSB I need to.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not, but I'm using contact cement for laminating the 2x4's. It's a simple process, but kind of boring. I first cut one foot wide pieces of the 6ml plastic from the 20 foot wide roll, then cut them into 10 foot long pieces (I pre-cut about 50 of them). To laminate them I just roll them out the table, wash them off with a wet rag and let dry. Then I roll on a coat of contact cement to one side of the 2x4's, and then to the plastic sheets. Wait 10 min, and apply the two sides together on the table. Then I apply contact cement to the rest of the surface of the 2x4's and wait another 10 min before rolling it over the plastic sheet and pressing it on using a dry rag as I go. To make the seem, once all the sides are done I apply a more contact cement to the bottom edge and cut the plastic edge so it overlaps the bottom edge, but the seem stays on the bottom edge and wont wrap around (sorry I forgot to take pictures of that part, but will try to remember later). When I construct the hydroponic system, that will be on the bottom edge and wont come in contact with water, so water cant get inside the seem.

In case anyone is wondering why I don't just use the contact cement on the OSB as well, there are two reasons. First it would simply be to expensive, the contact cement is $30 a gallon, and I would need about 8-9 gallons for the about 450 square feet of OSB I need to laminate (costing in excess of $250, verses the $60 for the vinyl tile adhesive). The second is it would take at least 3 people to apply the plastic to the OSB once they were coated. If it's not attached perfect the first time, I' screwed. Simply because you cant redo it (once it touches it's stuck), and for the same reason you cant just roll up the plastic sheet to roll over the OSB once you apply the contact cement, or it will stick to itself.

P.S.
Notice the borders I made to keep dirt from falling into the sub "T" system. I just used a flexible flower bed boarder, and screwed the end's together, placed them around the sub "T" system lids, and back-filled around it. I couldn't stake them down because of the high likelihood of the stakes going through the tubing. Also if my beard looks funny, it's because I tucked it inside my shirt so it wont get stuck to the contact cement.

[CrossOps]

GPS that looks awesome. I had not idea you were constructing this, this way, perhaps I misunderstood you when we talked. This is pretty slick. Any idea on the longevity increase utilizing this method of coating/covering the wood?