Gothic greenhouse

[tomaatti]

Here is a picture of my new greenhouse, by now it is all finished, in the image some parts are still missing. The structure is quite easy to make, even for one person. For setting up two is better. Cannot wait until it is spring and I can start planting!

[Salsacharley]

That is very nice! It does look gothic, but not so easy to make unless you are a "Finnish carpenter" (no pun intended). Your picture must have been taken earlier because surely you have snow cover in Finland about now.

Charley

[tomaatti]

Thanks, we usually would have snow, but this year is odd, it is still above freezing for most part. I found a more recent photo from November 11th, greenhouse is looking more finished. Really, it is not so difficult, I found a couple of great sites full of information on building these types of structures and just followed instructions. Gothic structure is ancient and really clever, the arches are not that heavy at all, and pretty quick to build. Although I have to say that building the first one is a bit of a prototype thing, even with instructions. I am sure the next house is far easier.

[nicky]

That is a pretty greenhouse! Nice job.

[mdvpc]

Very nice!

[Worth1]

Sweet.

Worth

[Pappi]

Very cool design, great repurposing of older architecture. Would love to try building one of these. I would be interested in the links you found on building one.

Pappi

[Douglas_OW]

Originally Posted by Pappi

Very cool design, great repurposing of older architecture. Would love to try building one of these. I would be interested in the links you found on building one.

Pappi

Here's an older thread on a similar project:

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=21535

Jim

[ddsack]

The tricky part looks like making the long arches with the slots in them that hold the cross pieces! Did you design them yourself, or can you get them pre-fab somewhere? I really like your gothic looking doors in the 2nd photo. Nice salad bed too!

[peppero]

nice!

JON

[gssgarden]

one day…..maybe one day….I'll have one like it.

Looks great!!

Greg

[Zana]

Love it! Enjoy the benefits of having one in the dead of winter.

[tomaatti]

Here is an excellent link, this is a bit more complex construction, I will try it the upcoming summer. If you are placed in US, this guy is prepared to ship pre-constructed arches.

http://shamrockaquaponicfarm.com/videos/

Here is a link to a structure I used, this structure is most often used to make plastic covered shelters for boats during the winter.

http://www.puuvenekorjaamo.net/projektit/vk.htm

The page is in Finnish, but image sequence is really good.

I made the arches myself, that was not very difficult. I made a small mistake during the construction, I did not think it was that important to carefully line the small bits in the arches. It turned out to be quite important. When the bits are not lined, it is a bit tricky to insert the long pieces of wood between the arches. I had to use short pieces every now and then, and that was the most time consuming task of all.

[Cole_Robbie]

I just had a high tunnel collapse from snow, so I am very interested in your design.

Untreated pine doesn't last long in my climate. I would be tempted to use pressure-treated lumber. The treatment chemical dissolves greenhouse plastic, but it's ok if the wood is painted with several coats of latex paint. But with all that paint, I might even be ok with untreated lumber.

Composite "lumber" would be ideal. It's plastic and lasts almost forever, but it is very expensive. Using composite would probably make the costs come out higher than buying a kit of galvanized pipe.


Can you estimate the cost savings from using lumber, versus buying a metal framed kit?

[tomaatti]

I will have to check the cost of wood, but any case I did not use pine, because the branches are too big and the wood breaks easily. I used spruce, which was 22 millimeters by 50 millimeters and 6 meters long.