It's building season!

[Cole_Robbie]

I put up a 14x48 Clearspan kit last winter. This year, I am trying to forge my own design, which is a hodgepodge of other people's designs. This year's greenhouse is 18 1/2' x 48' with four foot vertical sides. I had intended to make the hoops from PVC, but I just splurged on a chain link top rail bender that should arrive any day now.

Except for the composite hoop ends and the doors, all my lumber is treated, which is why I'm so compulsive about the paint. The treatment chemical is corrosive to poly. The posts are 4x4s, set 2' into the ground. I dug all the holes by hand, with an old-fashioned post hole digger. All of them have concrete except for two on each side, on each side of the middle post. I'm planning to use a typical farmer's fencing "T-post" and attach that to each chain link hoop end. That will help firm up the sides. My end hoops are 20' composite decking board. They're expensive ($50 each), but they last forever, they're very strong, and they're also easy to work with.

Here are my first pics:







By my calculations, the load-bearing capacity of the end hoop is > 1 fat redneck:

[Redbaron]

Nice start! I even bet it would hold 2 fat rednecks!

[Tania]

Beautiful!!! Both the frame and the place around it.

Good luck with your project Cole Robbie!

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks you guys. Things are going well. It is indeed a journey, mostly because I keep changing my mind. Originally, this was supposed to be a pvc structure. I changed my mind after I started, so then had to figure out how to make it out of metal.

I bought a hoop bender:
http://shop.hoopbenders.net/modelc-1...gtool-1-1.aspx

That company's web site has some great pictures for anyone interested in greenhouses. They are some good ole boys from Texas, and I am very happy to do business with them. I'm recently interested in the "scissor door" fittings they sell.

I built a table to mount the bender. It looks like a picnic table for giants. The top is 2x6s with 16" centers, decked with typical decking board. The legs are 4x4 posts. All of it is treated lumber. It would hold a thousand pounds, maybe two:


Here's the bender mounted on the table:



The bender is supposed to make a 20' wide hoophouse from three pieces of 10.5' chain link top rail. But my straight sides were already built, so I used just two pieces of top rail. The dilemma then was how to connect it to the sides. I started with a t-post and u-bolts:


The elbow is emt conduit cut in half, 1" I think. It works, but it looks sloppy. By the third hoop I had switched to a chain link post with a 1.25" 90 degree emt elbow cut in half to make a 45.




I really like that design and the rest of the hoops will be that way. Both the swagged and unswagged ends of the top rail fit into it.

So far so good:



The Clearspan 20x48 high tunnel is in the Farmtek catalog for $2,895 plus shipping. To duplicate what they give you for that price, my design is $635. I think I might go in the greenhouse building business

[Redbaron]

Looks like it is coming along nice!

[mdvpc]

That is going to be a real nice greenhouse!

[ZachAttacksPHX]

Nice!

[davidstcldfl]

Looking nice Cole...

A few years ago, I bought one of their conduit benders for the 4 ft hoops. Easy to use and they sent it very quickly.

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks everyone. I finished the last hoop just now. I think I am going to end up building a lot more of these buildings. The value is tremendous compared to buying a kit and assembling it. The cost of each hoop, including ground posts, elbow connection, and purlin clamp is just $45. For a similar hoop, which is all you get with the kits, Clearspan wants $225. Their kits are made of heavier gauge tubing, which is supposed to make them stronger, but they lose some of that strength when cut up into 4' pieces to ship. I really like the Clearspan structure I have now, but I can't afford another one. The top rail structure is 80% cheaper.