Let's Paint!

[Zombie]

Here, I took some pics (December 2) of the boards showing the polyurethane enamel side and the latex back.

 

 

The first pic compares the sheen and the other two pics compares the color. The polyurethane is more of a blood red while the latex is kinda pinkish red. In order to get the colors to show better I used a really bright flash and complete darkness in the garage so this is at the extreme end of the lighting spectrum. They look much closer in person and in normal lighting conditions. In the end it will not matter much as everything is getting the polyurethane on it.

 

Got a rude surprise this afternoon. A picture is worth 1000 words so I took two...

 

 

Partial roof collapse of the greenhouse due to two days of snow. It wasn't a lot of snow, just really heavy and wet. Now, I knew this was going to happen eventually as I patched a couple long tears along the poles in the middle this fall. Kinda surprised it held on as long as it did. It's just unfortunate it didn't hold on till after Valentines Day though as the space is basically unusable now. Oh well. But hey, think of the bright side - you'll get to see how I put on a new plastic top when the weather warms up this spring. Excited?

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Should the roof come down - furrow not your brow - for Zombie is around!

 

Holy cow, polyurethane and latex paint colour nuances be danged, how are you going to sort that whole disaster area?!

 

I assume you're joking about waiting for Spring though. I mean, you're bound to get some reprieve from snowfall for a day or two eventually, I'd imagine.

 

And at least there doesn't seem to be irreversible damage to what is fundamental - the support structure itself seems salvageable.

[Zombie]

Holy cow, polyurethane and latex paint colour nuances be danged, how are you going to sort that whole disaster area?!

 

What disaster area? The inside of the greenhouse? Well, I worked on that a little bit today. Thankfully it was above freezing (36-37F or +2-3C?) so nothing was frozen into ice. First I shoveled out the snow from the ground which allowed me to get at the stuff on the tables. Then I knocked off the snow from the wreaths, took the bows and decorations off (those can be reused for next year), piled the wreaths on to my gray cart I fixed this summer and rolled them to the dumpster for disposal.

 

 

I used some concrete blocks to hold down the flaps of the top to keep that from getting worse. I'd much rather have the center area with snow than the ends because that's where the doors are.

 

With the stuff off the tables, I shoveled the snow off them and squeegeed them so they were dry-ish. I needed the tables somewhat dry because the half of the top that was still good yet was starting to peel back from the wind and I wanted to put a ladder on the tables to fix that (polyurethane is very slippery when wet and I don't want to break a leg). I used some clear packaging tape to get the flap attached to the center pole, but remembered I purchased a roll of Gorilla tape recently so I thought that might be better as it's a lot stickier. So I used about a half a roll of that to secure the flap down.

 

 

Have no idea if this will hold. Probably will for at least a little bit until it snows heavily again or is super windy. All told I think I spent 2 total hours on this project.

 

I assume you're joking about waiting for Spring though. I mean, you're bound to get some reprieve from snowfall for a day or two eventually, I'd imagine.

 

Nope, not joking. Completely serious. Here's the deal: what happens if I somehow get the new top installed and then there's a huge snowfall and the top collapses again? Then we are out of new tops and need to reorder (and these tops aren't exactly cheap if you catch my drift - I think it was something like $400+ per top - 10 mil and UV stabilized with a 7 year life). Also all the snow along the sides of the greenhouse needs to be gone, the ground needs to be somewhat dry, and free from dirt, stones and anything else which might harm the plastic.

 

 

That old HVAC unit needs to get removed too (the guys are supposedly coming soon... we shall see). The sheet of plastic isn't just the top, it's a continuous piece that covers the sides too. That's why everything needs to be free from snow. Plus I need at least a day to unscrew the strapping, remove the old plastic and do any maintenance on the structure before installation can occur. Then I need a somewhat warm day (mid to high 40's F so 5-10C) because it's hard to hold on to plastic with gloves on and when your hands are cold. Call me a wussy on that but it goes so much faster when you aren't battling cold fingers and putting on/taking off gloves constantly. And I need a day where I'm not going to be interrupted with other projects (last time I installed the top I did it on a Sunday when I could focus 100% on it). Finally (and this is most important) the day I do this cannot have much wind! If the wind catches the plastic it's like a ginormous sail flapping in the breeze. And it would be nice to have another person there to help (I could maybe call in a favor to the guy that helped me the last time and maybe I can sweet talk the bosses young son into it).

 

So, long story short, tl;dr: There's more to putting up a new top than you might imagine and the weather has to be decent. The weather just isn't going to cooperate this early in the winter. With that said, I do have the top of the greenhouse from 2010-ish (at least a part of it). Might be able to chuck that over the busted out area and use that to limp us through to spring. It's an option if we have a few nicer days and I have the time.

 

The major issue is rushing to get it done quickly. You can't do that without cutting corners and making a mistake somewhere or risking the top getting damaged in another snowfall. I've found it best to wait till you can cross your t's, dot your i's, get your ducks in a row and eliminate all possible risks. The top has a listed life of 7 years and I want to do everything I can to get it to last that long. I've had a pretty good track record of getting these tops to last and don't want to mess that up.

 

And at least there doesn't seem to be irreversible damage to what is fundamental - the support structure itself seems salvageable.

 

Yep, nothing wrong with the tubing. Just the plastic that tore.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Yep, the inside of the greenhouse already shows a significant difference given your intervention, Zombie.

 

Your explanation also makes the big picture of what - safely - putting in a new top really requires. Numerous things need to come together just right not to waste the effort (and potentially run into more expenses), so I now get why it makes sense to wait it out.

 

I hope you get a suitable break with the weather so those makeshift repairs with what's left of the old top you mention can be done.

 

If not, you might perhaps consider instead some temporary way to cover those tabletops to better shield them from the elements.

[Space Voyager]

Damn, the roof collapsing is crap - though I AM excited to see your work, I learn something new with every post you make! Sorry, I'm a bit self-centered.

 

I hope this incident won't have a huge impact on the shop. You still plan to use the place before the renovation?

[Zombie]

I hope you get a suitable break with the weather so those makeshift repairs with what's left of the old top you mention can be done. If not, you might perhaps consider instead some temporary way to cover those tabletops to better shield them from the elements.

 

Yeah, if I find a couple scraps of plastic from the old top I could cover up the tables a bit. Trouble is, I'd have to put a ton of bricks or blocks on it to prevent the wind from ripping the plastic right off the tables. (I think some people think it's just the snow we have to deal with in winter. No sir, it's the wind too. It's almost always really strong this time of the year).

 

So we had another snow storm here yesterday. Something like 6-7 inches (15+cm for sure) and really strong winds too. The greenhouse was filled with snow again and the wind was so strong it ripped the plastic the concrete blocks were sitting on. I did a quick fix and put the blocks on the plastic on top of the middle table to keep it from getting worse. Thankfully, my Gorilla tape fix seems to have held up just fine with all the strong wind blowing into the hole in the top.

 

Damn, the roof collapsing is crap - though I AM excited to see your work, I learn something new with every post you make! Sorry, I'm a bit self-centered.

 

No problem. I'm glad you are interested. It's not very often you get to see a greenhouse top replaced so this is a good opportunity to show how it's done. I'm not exactly an expert in this field as I do it so infrequently (think of the maintenance guys at the big commercial growing operations where they might have to replace a bunch of them every year - hats off to them). That's why I want to get the bosses son to help - it's a great learning experience for him and gives him some experience in case this happens again (heaven forbid).

 

I hope this incident won't have a huge impact on the shop. You still plan to use the place before the renovation?

 

In the winter we just use the greenhouse for storage. For example, I'll fill up the back garage with deliveries for Valentines Day, but in order to fit everything in I usually move some things out to the greenhouse until the deliveries are out. And of course, there are other times where something is in the way and I'll temporarily store it in the greenhouse. Plus all the cardboard boxes that the flowers come in go into the greenhouse (we usually give the bigger ones back to our suppliers and I'll cut the smaller ones in half and staple them for flower arrangement carriers).

 

So we might still store stuff in the greenhouse but nothing of significance. I'm probably just going to use the smaller garage for storage.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you, Zombie - continually inclement weather and a busy commercial season in a little under a month to get ready for.

 

You're really not going to get any rest, particularly with the shoveling end of things in the greenhouse.

 

Unless you can find some way to make it so that, even if it snows considerably, stuff is safeguarded enough that you can let it sit a while, the extra daily workout is going to be a given in your fitness regimen for the season.

[Zombie]

Shoveling the greenhouse isn't going to be a priority for me as it'll be an uphill battle at this time of the year. So yeah, the snow is going to have to sit for a while and either melt on its own or wait for me to get some time to shovel it out to the driveway to melt. I will try to keep the half under cover clear from snow as much as I can though as both sides are accessible from the doors. It all depends how busy I am and whether or not I get some help (aka the bosses son likes to help me out on projects).

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So I've been trying to keep the snow out of the greenhouse as much as I could the past month and a half. Hasn't been exactly easy as I always have other things I need to do inside and out. Plus the weather isn't always decent so shoveling isn't practical. But this past week the weather wasn't too bad (above freezing during the day, got to 6C today with sun) so I was able to start removing the snow along the sides.

 

 

The north side of the greenhouse (the side that faces the small garage wall I painted and planted perennials) obviously had a lot of snow buildup as the top is still up along that side (the snow just slides down the plastic to the ground). The south side of the greenhouse faces the store and didn't have a lot of buildup there because most of the snow fell inside. The cleanup started with the south side first and then I tackled part of the north side. Most of the snow I piled up along the west side of the greenhouse which faces the parking lot and part also went along the wall of the back room on the driveway. Both those areas get sun exposure so the snow will melt quicker there. I removed the snow inside the greenhouse a few days ago so that area was ok but the tables in the middle were filthy dirty. Ended up washing them with some soapy water remnants which I used to wash the delivery vans with earlier that day.

 

 

Wouldn't you know it, but the tables were still pretty dirty today so I ended up washing them again with soap water from the van (if the weather is above freezing I try to wash the delivery vehicle we used that day to remove the salt and dirt buildup). The weather was even nicer today so I shoveled the remainder of the snow along the north side of the greenhouse and was even able to remove the ice from under the part I shoveled yesterday. Hopefully the remainder of the ice will loosen up and allow me to remove that tomorrow.

 

 

Hopefully the HVAC guys are coming soon to get rid of the old unit and the two reservoirs of Freon. If not, I'll end up moving them into the driveway to get them out of the way.

 

With the snow mostly out of the way I could now inspect the greenhouse to look for any potential maintenance issues. I did notice that some of the strapping along the ground have rotten spots so I'll need to pick up a few replacement straps from the lumberyard. And I'm probably going to put more fiberfill batting around the connection points (where the side rafters connect to the ridge pole) and wherever there are sharp pieces of metal. I put some fiberfill on those points the last time which really seemed to help prevent premature tearing. The door on the west side of the greenhouse isn't working very good so I need to work on that too.

 

After the maintenance issues have been addressed I can probably start to remove the old plastic from along the south side of the greenhouse first. I'm not going to touch the other part that's still up until I schedule a replacement date for the new top to go up. If the weather holds out and we don't get too much snow forecast I might be able to get it up by the middle to end of March. All depends on precipitation, temperature and wind. If those cooperate for a weekend I'll definitely try my best.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Why am I not surprised, Zombie, to see you soldiering on - be there rain, snow or glaring sunshine?

 

The inside of the greenhouse looks very well kept indeed, particularly given the circumstances. And I don't think even the tables are having much reason to complain, retaining their cheerful colours like that.

 

That HVAC unit sure is ready for retirement though, so a replacement is well in order.

 

Hope you get a suitable break in the weather soonish then, as I can imagine how much of a relief that would provide from constant shoveling duties.

[Zombie]

That HVAC unit sure is ready for retirement though, so a replacement is well in order.

 

It's an old unit that was used (far in the past) to heat/cool/ventilate the backroom and area by the back cooler. The ventilation aspect was the only thing that actually worked on it for a while (I remember turning it on in summer when it was blazing hot to at least give the guys in the back some respite from the heat). But that part died a while back and never got fixed. So it sat there quietly rusting in place for the last 20 years or so and just began to leak water inside. When we replaced the HVAC for the store this past fall we had to rent a crane to lift the old one off and raise the new one up. Before that happened I told the boss that since we would have the crane there we should take down that old unit and cap off the hole so it doesn't leak anymore. So the HVAC guys took it down and capped the hole but didn't get around to removing the old unit yet. So that's the story.

 

Hope you get a suitable break in the weather soonish then, as I can imagine how much of a relief that would provide from constant shoveling duties.

 

The bigger relief would be to get the new top installed. But yeah, constantly shoveling it out becomes tiring. Luckily, March has brought slightly warmer temps so any snow that falls should melt pretty fast.

 

Well, it was warmer on Wednesday but the wind was still blowing strong so I decided to do a little work on the greenhouse. One thing led to another and I figured what the heck, let's start! Taking down the plastic is just like putting it up except in the reverse order. Bottom first, then the middle and the top for last (it's easier to remove the screws and the slats when you are standing up).

 

 

The plastic is loose in this shot already. Since the ground was still icy and cold I used my low cart as a rolling workbench of sorts. I sat on a carpet remnant/sample to keep my bum a little warmer , then started removing the screws from the lowest slats with my trusty old electric Skil drill (wish we would have a cordless drill/driver but this works fine). Chucked all the screws into a bucket sitting on the cart and when I couldn't reach any more screws I rolled myself to where I could. When I removed all the screws from a slat, I took it off and leaned them up against a wall to dry so I could inspect them later. Here's the setup:

 

 

As I was rolling along I also removed whatever screws I could reach from the vertical slats. After I got to the end, I ditched the cart and stood up which makes removing the rest of screws and slats from the upper part a snap. When the plastic was loose I cut it into sections and hauled it into the greenhouse for the time being. I left one section of plastic in place as it was frozen to the ground and I figured I could use that to wrap up the park bench.

 

 

If you have good eyes, you might notice that something is happening at the far end of the greenhouse as there is a green ladder under the door and an extension cord running along the ground. I was inspecting the plastic-less part of the greenhouse and remembered that there was a spot where the ridge pole connects to the end hoop where the previous plastic ripped a little. So I took a look and this is what I saw:

 

 

To set the stage: the top metal tube is the end hoop. the lower tube is the ridge pole. The two are connected together by a figure 8 piece of metal with the loops offset by 90 degrees. That connecting piece has threaded holes so you can tighten in a set screw (in this case it's a machine bolt). Well, the ridge pole is sticking way too far out of the connecting piece and when it gets windy the plastic flaps against that sharp pole and ripped. Fixing this was fairly easy: I just cut about an inch (so 2.54 cm) off the end with a hacksaw which made it nearly flush with the connecting piece. The cut was crude and left some sharp bits so I used a rotary metal file in the drill to round off the end and remove the sharp edges.

 

The other issue is the set screw for the end hoop was improperly installed facing the outside of the greenhouse. That poky bit can can cause a stress tear to form with the wind and how tight I have to make the plastic. The screw should go on the inside where it can't touch the plastic. I thought about taking apart the end hoop and joints to turn the connecting piece around but that would take a lot of time and I might not get it back together properly so my fix for this was to drill a hole into the connecting piece from the inside to the proper size, then on Thursday I borrowed a tap from my dad to put threads into the hole. Found an unused bolt of the same size in my drawer of greenhouse parts/hardware, tightened that up then rewrapped the whole connection together with a sheet of fiberfill and kept that in place with sisal binder twine. No poky bits there anymore! I still have to check the opposite side of the greenhouse to see if that needs the same attention.

 

So with that bucket of screws I dumped the whole thing on the countertop in the backroom and sorted them into three piles: good, so-so and bad. The good ones I'll reuse. The bad ones were either rusty, chowdered (this means that the threads are messed up or the Phillips head is stripped out) or bent and those screws were tossed out. The so-so screws were looked over a little more carefully and I cherry picked the best ones out of that to keep. I luckily purchased a bunch of extra screws the last time I installed the top/side of the greenhouse so I can replace the bad ones with brand new. (Always purchase extra hardware, you never know if/when/where you'll need them)!

 

I looked over the slats when I removed them and some appeared pretty bad at that time. After I let them dry for a few days I can see that not all of the bad ones are garbage. I might be able to clean those off like I did to the other slats last year and reuse them. I'm going to wait a little more and check on them again. If they aren't worth the effort of cleaning then I'll just get some new ones. Besides, there is at least two bad ones I'll need to replace anyway and if I'm there buying slats maybe it's easier to get new.

 

Today the temps were nice and warm. But the wind was just terrible so there would be no way to install a new top with the plastic flopping around in the wind like a sail. Hopefully as we get later in March the temps will warm slightly and the wind will die down for one day. At this point I don't really care if the temps stay around the freezing mark, as long as the wind is quiet I'll tackle installing the new top no problem.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Regardless of means of locomotion you can always trust Zombie to set things in motion!

 

Plastic cover remnants on the way out, strapping/slat removal, bolt screening and replacement, slat inspection, metal tubing edge trimmed and defanged with potentially offending top bolt relocation underway, thinking to likewise inspect what's on the opposite end - I'm liking your careful prep work so far.

 

Speed bumps: inclement winds. Well, Spring is just around the bend and as you've said before, it's best not to risk ruining the new top by rushing anything.

[Space Voyager]

He he he, this will never end. Just like house maintenance, always something that either goes wrong or will do so SOON. Kudos, Zombie!

[Zombie]

Plastic cover remnants on the way out, strapping/slat removal, bolt screening and replacement, slat inspection, metal tubing edge trimmed and defanged with potentially offending top bolt relocation underway, thinking to likewise inspect what's on the opposite end - I'm liking your careful prep work so far.

 

Speed bumps: inclement winds. Well, Spring is just around the bend and as you've said before, it's best not to risk ruining the new top by rushing anything.

 

Exactly. If I take the time to do it right maybe I will not have to do it for a while. Not that I mind putting on a new top/side, it's just a little bit stressful because I have to balance my normal work responsibilities while still making progress.

 

He he he, this will never end. Just like house maintenance, always something that either goes wrong or will do so SOON. Kudos, Zombie!

 

Very, very true. And it's even more true when you are dealing with a building that is old. Maintenance is nearly an ongoing work in progress. As soon as you make headway on one project, another will rear it's ugly head.

 

So I did do a little more work on the greenhouse, not a lot though as it snowed and it was windy/cold most days. (So much for an early spring, eh)? On Tuesday it was chilly and windy but the sun was out so I figured I could probably find something to do. Since I fixed the top West side of the greenhouse I got a ladder out and checked the East side. Luckily there were no set screw issues there. The ridge pole was a little bit long, so I decided to hack that part off. In this pic I'm nearly through

 

 

I had to saw from the bottom up as the hoop was blocking a straight cut. Need I mention that hacksawing upwards is difficult? It is. The section I hacked off was approximately 1-1.5 cm thick. Was it necessary? Probably not, as I didn't see any rubbing or tearing of the plastic, but I'd much rather have it 100% fixed instead of finding out 3 years from now that something shifted and now there's a hole there. Of course, after I hacked the piece of pipe off I used the rotary file attachment on the drill to smooth out the rough edges. From the pic it looks like I'm really high up, but I'm 6 ft + standing on top of a 8 ft ladder so really it's only up about 5 meters. You can probably make out the plastic remnants laying on the ground inside. After it snowed yesterday I put those pieces on top of the tables in the middle and today I hauled them out to the dumpster for disposal (I'd love to recycle all that plastic, but it's so dirty and brittle that it's just easier to toss it).

 

Took a group photo of the lineup.

 

 

Starting at the top and going clockwise: drill w/file attachment, pile of used screws which are good, ring of metal tubing from the East side, ring from the West and pile of so-so screws. There are some screws in the so-so pile which have rusty/chowdered heads so those will obviously be thrown out. I'm guessing I'll be able to salvage half that pile for reuse. On the far right of the pic is a piece of slat for use as a sample. Talked the boss into getting new slats for half the greenhouse. I certainly can salvage enough used slats to make up half (going to use those for the lower section), and the other (upper) half will be new. So that's good news. The slats will again be green treated so they can stand up to high-moisture conditions. Hopefully we will get another decent day so I can work on replacing/fixing up the fiberfill sheets on all the joints.

 

I'm honestly starting to get a little worried about the coronavirus outbreak. So I took some time off from the outside to work on the inside today. Disinfected all the tables in the back and the delivery area and put away a glassware order. This weekend I'm going to disinfect the workstations and clean/bleach the floors just to make sure nothing is festering over the weekend. If something should happen where we have to close down due to the outbreak then I at least can still work on the greenhouse by myself alone. Gotta make sure the boss buys the new slats so if the shit should hit the fan at least I can still forge ahead.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Sawing upwards definitely IS hard, we're designed for climbing, less so for lifting. Good choice to do it though.

 

I'm worried about the virus, too, especially for my elderly mother.

 

But ooooooh, a shit hit the fan smiley! Niiiiiice! I'm still thinking of starting a new repository after being screwed by Photobucket.

[Thorondor]

Whatever plagues you, never doubt, Zombie will take care of it throughout!

 

> facility repairs progress: │▓▓▓▓▓▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│

 

> interrupt: stand by for bio-decontamination _

 

> [............................................................................................................................................

 

 

 

Pick your poison.

[Zombie]

But ooooooh, a shit hit the fan smiley! Niiiiiice! I'm still thinking of starting a new repository after being screwed by Photobucket.

 

If you (or anyone else) has a smiley/emote that you want added, drop me a pm and I'll add it to the list.

 

Unfortunately not much has happened with the greenhouse since last week. It's been cloudy, windy and cool and I have too much on my plate to spend on it. Really, the next thing I'll probably work on is either getting the west door to close properly again or to start adding extra fiberfill to any joints. I did find out that the sisal binder twine I used the last time to secure the fiberfill has started to become brittle due to age so I guess it's a good thing I'll be working on that anyway. Boss picked up a couple extra replacement slats today, he'll be getting the rest tomorrow evening. I just want to make sure that if the government shuts us down due to the coronavirus that I'll be able to work on the greenhouse by myself (not going to ask anyone else to help to prevent the spread).

 

The boss also picked up a few boxes of LED 90W replacement floodlamps for our canister lights in the showroom (these lamps only use 15W). We used to have incandescent floods in the canisters using the full 90W up till a few years ago. Then a group called focus on energy (or something like that) came in and did a free energy audit and recommended replacing the incandescent bulbs with CFL (compact fluorescent light) floods. The quote for them to replace the bulbs was way out of the park so I told the boss we can do that ourselves. So every time an incandescent burnt out I replaced it with a CFL till nearly all the canisters were fluorescent (we kept a few canisters with incandescent bulbs in as a safety feature because they are instant on at 100% power out of the blocks where the CFLs take a few minutes to warm up and reach full luminosity).

 

Then a couple years ago I began noticing LED floods starting to be stocked on shelves at a fairly decent price (especially if you can get them while they are on sale). Much like the incandescent phase out, I started to phase out the CFLs with LEDs. There were about 10 bulbs left in the store that were CFLs and all but two of them had burnt out. So today I replaced the dead ones with the second generation LED floods. The two workable bulbs I took outside and used them to replace some burnt out CFLs. There were still two dead bulbs outside so I took some first generation LED floods from the store to replace them, then swapped in the second generation floods in the showroom. Now we are 100% LED for floods in the store. In the small garage I swapped over to LED floods two years ago and in the far back garage I switched to LEDs last year. So except for one or two bulbs we are nearly all LED now.

 

Still trying to find cheap LED replacements for our long 48" tube fluorescent lights but so far no luck. Eventually they should become more common I'd imagine. In the meantime we have quite a few tubes burnt out in the store and office area and those need to get replaced soon. Back to fluorescent for them but I fully intend to start swapping to LEDs when we find a source.

 

So that's what I was up to today (besides the other projects).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Before it's all gone, trust Zombie to keep the lights on!

 

These transitions from incandescent, fluorescent to LED generations actually remind me of how, not truly all that long ago, people like my parents and grandparents simply had to rely on candle light and later kerosene/petrol lamps to light their homes.

 

Since there was no electricity, things as essential as food storage and preservation had a wide range of implications of their own on daily life, natural light still mostly dictating activity cycles, etc.

 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is I find myself thinking how very fortunate we are things have evolved as much as they have in a relatively few decades, because I can only imagine how much worse off we would all be now also in terms of medical care / life support.

 

So, let there be light, natural or otherwise and all should work out for the best - on the job and elsewhere!

[Zombie]

On Tuesday the bosses son was on site because school was off (spring break+mandatory shutdown due to the coronavirus). We work together good, so we started off removing the fiberfill over the joints of the greenhouse, rewrapping and adding more fiberfill and tying it off with new pieces of sisal binder twine. Almost got the whole side finished but we had to do some work when we reached the East side where one of the doors is. Just above where the picnic table is there is a pole attached to the hoops that we use for hanging baskets in spring/summer. Well, the end was a bit too long so we ended up hacking off a couple inches (5 cm) then rewrapped it with fiberfill.

 

Another issue was the frame around the door. When the greenhouse last collapsed in 2000 (due to 3 big snowfalls in 3 days) the hoops were all bent up and the greenhouse itself went out of plumb/level. At the time we hastily put the thing back together the best we could and that was fine for many years. It's gotten to the point where the wooden frame around the door that runs up to the end hoop was sticking out. No rips from this, but it was getting close to where something could make it worse. Obviously something needed to be done. I ended up taking off the piece of wood running up to the hoop and replacing it (the old wood was soft due to dry rot). The "new" wood was just a piece I cut off from a used piece if dimensional lumber (untreated mind you). So here you can see what the side looks like.

 

 

I tried cutting the piece of wood to fit tightly underneath the hoop (lovingly called a "compression fit") but I was a little bit off in my measurement. Ended up cutting a different angle on part of the wood to make it work, but it should function. After this I had to drill some holes to bolt the wood to a connecting strap of metal. Closeup of this:

 

 

It's a lot better now. But issues like this aren't a one-off thing on an old greenhouse, no sir. I didn't have to look far because the other part of the frame was dangerously close to poking through the plastic.

 

 

I wasn't going to take off any more plastic to investigate so I did a little exploratory surgery.

 

 

Yeah, pretty bad indeed. So same deal as the other part of the frame: took the old piece of wood off, cut a new piece to fit, drilled some holes then bolted the thing back together. The "new" piece of wood was not new or green treated just something I had sitting around in the garage for quick fixes. I did get the angle almost perfect and it was within 1/2 mm so that should really help with future snow loads in the winter.

 

 

So all this frame repairing happened yesterday. Today I worked on reinstalling the two pieces of wood above the door and the piece of wood running from the door to the first 4x4 post. I'll have to take some pics of this tomorrow because the mist/rain was too heavy when I finished.

 

Tomorrow I'll probably be working on the West side door frame. If you thought the East side was bad, just wait till I show you pics of this side.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Now that you've got an assistant manager on hand, Zombie, you've got to be on your A game - so what's this I hear about makeshift wood cutting with an angle?

 

Fortunately you really nailed the fit on the other end by the looks of it.

 

Well, there's no denying you're a good role model for the kid, as you definitely put in the work every time and even when things go a bit off you make sure nothing goes to waste.

 

Let's see what other curve balls that West side of the structure throws your way.

[Space Voyager]

Bosses son, huh? Dangerous territory.

 

Frankly I didn't find the wooden supports to be THAT bad. Judging from the pics only, naturally, can't see the big picture. I've seen far worse... Needless to say, now it looks much better and good for a number of years if properly covered.

 

How the business going? If the news have any truth to it, everything stopped all over Europe (some mild exaggeration).

[Zombie]

Bosses son, huh? Dangerous territory.

 

Not really. He's a good kid and a great worker (at least when he's into it which is most times). I've been showing him the ropes since he was old enough to hold a broom so he knows how to do things on his own. And what he doesn't know, I show him when we work together.

 

I only had him as a helper last Mon-Tue. Every day past that it was just me (that's when the coronavirus thing started to spiral out of control over here).

 

Frankly I didn't find the wooden supports to be THAT bad. Judging from the pics only, naturally, can't see the big picture. I've seen far worse... Needless to say, now it looks much better and good for a number of years if properly covered.

 

The board on the left had dry rot and was soft in spots so I decided to replace it outright. It was also a little short. Didn't take pics of this as I sorta got into it before it hit me. The board on the right wasn't that bad. Here again though, it was too short due to the angle of the hoop underneath it. The board was only touching the hoop on the right side and there was nothing but air to the left. By replacing I was able to fit the board completely under the hoop to act as a true support. Now when there is a snow load it'll compress the hoop so it touches the whole board which in turn will transfer the weight to the ground.

 

How the business going? If the news have any truth to it, everything stopped all over Europe (some mild exaggeration).

 

Not going to lie, it's been slow. Our bread and butter used to be funeral flowers but with funerals being postponed or cancelled that's a big chunk of our business down the tubes. Thankfully we still have an ok walk-in business and customers will also call in or order online so there's still that to rely on. Our fresh flower suppliers are still open and will continue to do so during the crisis as they are categorized as grocery and that's a big plus. If we get a total lockdown order though all bets are off and we'll be forced to close.

 

My city has been a ghost town for over a week now. Hardly any automobile or truck traffic except at the grocery stores... still don't understand the irrational exuberance people have with toilet paper though (if you've never heard that phrase, google it). I'd say there's probably 1/10 the normal traffic. I see a lot of people outside walking either with their spouse or their dogs - probably because there's nothing else to do when you are out of work. So people are scared (and rightfully so) and they are staying put.

 

I'm not going to get into the specific politics of this situation but needless to say it's a real shit show. I sure wouldn't want to get the coronavirus with all the lack of tests, supplies, ventilators, and qualified hospital staff to treat.

 

Anyhow I did take some more pics of the greenhouse the other day so I'll be posting them later today or tomorrow. And I'm assuming I'll be working on it again today so there's always the chance I'll take some more.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So here's some more pics of the East side of the greenhouse (mostly) finished.

 

 

This is the outside. I had to take off both boards above the doors to readjust things as my work on the vertical boards changed stuff. Directly above the door is a strip of grey on the wood, this is a piece of galvanized metal which is used as a plate to prevent the door from closing too far. It had small screws holding it in place (flat bladed screwdriver needed) so I switched them to phillips head drywall screws (didn't have any coated or plated so I used plain black oxide coated). The grey color is because I sprayed a coat of primer over the galvanized metal and drywall screws to hopefully prevent any rust from forming. Didn't want to go out to the hardware store to pick up coated screws so I stuck these in temporarily.

 

 

Here's the attachment points of the vertical board to the right of the door. Both bolts now have the proper washer, lock washer plus a new nut at the end. The lower bolt was new, I'm reusing the top bolt after wire brushing it. Should be ok inside as they really will not see any moisture unless the greenhouse is very humid and cold.

 

 

This is the east side looking from the inside. I had to take down the board with hooks and cut a liitle bit of wood off one end because it was too long. I made it shorter and tried to pull the side of the greenhouse in a little bit by compressing the board when putting in the screws. It sorta worked. To do a proper job I would have needed to park the van in the driveway near the greenhouse then wedge a long board under the rear tire of the van and wedge the other end against the board above the door to push things over more. In the end though, I'm happy with how things turned out on this side as the doors latch so smooth now.

 

Switching gears to the west side of the greenhouse.

 

 

This is the board to the left of the doors. The bracket is backwards, the lower bolt does not have a washer or a lockwasher so that needs to be addressed. The fiberfill was pretty much worn away from half the connection point too so I'll be adding more to the ends just to make sure there's enough there to prevent the constant flapping of the plaxtic from wearing it away. The right board wasn't much better, no washers or lockwashers on any of the bolts.

 

This last pic shows the west of the greenhouse from the outside.

 

 

From this pic it doesn't look too bad. From the surface sure, just wait till I show a pic from the side though. The whole side is completely jacked up. (Remember when I said the greenhouse completely collapsed in 2000 from 3 big snowfalls)? The end hoop is completely bent way, way out of shape and the sides angle in to the doors. Terrible stuff. To do a decent job I'd need to get a new hoop which might not be possible right now. So I'll probably have "fabrimacobble" (as YouTuber AvE says) something together to make it work. All I know is that it's gonna take time and it's not going to be pretty.

 

The governor of Wisconsin (the state I live in) issued a statewide stay at home order today and any non-essential businesses are to close. So far he hasn't spelled out when this goes into effect though so I may only have a couple more days (at most) to work on the greenhouse. Not sure if florists are considered essential either, will have to play this by ear basically. But the cops will be enforcing the rule so best not force the issue. Will have to find out from the bossman what is going to happen. If we are to stay home for 2 weeks, the cooler is going to be a moldy mess of rotting flowers without any upkeep. Hope there are allowances to the rule so businesses can clean up during this time. We shall see.

 

-Zombie

[Thorondor]

East side made to abide by the looks of it Zombie.

 

West side needs a turn of the tide though. Even from just your final pic it's already apparent how the tubing is bent out of shape. The metal seems to be sturdy enough so those tubes must have been under serious snow for a decent stretch of time.

 

You'd need some rather heavy machinery to return the arcs to their original curvature. Don't know what sort of rabbit you're going to pull out of your top hat to sort this but, from what you're saying, you'll probably have the time to think things through, given the unfortunate external factors likely to impinge upon your activities.

 

Remember, health always comes first. Stay safe!

[Space Voyager]

You'd need some rather heavy machinery to return the arcs to their original curvature. Don't know what sort of rabbit you're going to pull out of your top hat to sort this but, from what you're saying, you'll probably have the time to think things through, given the unfortunate external factors likely to impinge upon your activities.

 

Zombie never ceases to amaze, so... I wouldn't count it out just yet.

 

Remember, health always comes first. Stay safe!

 

QFT!