Let's Paint!

[Zombie]

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.

 

Yeah, the tubes have a diameter of 2 inches (about 5cm) and pretty sturdy so bending it back into shape would be impossible. Even if you had the equipment to do that, I'm not sure how you would go about it since the tube isn't exactly bent to a specific radius anymore.

 

I didn't have much luck looking for a replacement tube (it's an old greenhouse). I did see an innovative solution - a company is selling a tube bender where you use new EMT electrical conduit (easily sourceable) to bend your own hoops. It's only offered for specific sized greenhouses though so I think I'm out of luck there.

 

Because the hoop is so out of whack, I think my best bet at this point is to use a 4(inch)x4(inch)x12 foot tall post as the beginning part of the frame on each side. Cut it to length (maybe a bit longer than necessary) cut a V notch into the top, jam that under the tube and sledge the bottom into position. Then I can put a strap around the tube and possibly lag bolt that into the post to keep the top part from shifting around. Once that's in place I can start framing the doors and sides. I have no plan or clue how I'm going to do this, guess I'll just wing it. In the end, I don't think it's critical to have a clear plan at this point as I'll probably end up changing it anyway due to how messed up the tube is.

 

Note: hindsight is always 20/20, this next part I did before thinking it through. It probably would have been much easier to work on one part of the side at a time but I took the whole shebang down to start out fresh. You live, you learn.

 

 

I started by taking down the cross brace from the post to the board above the door, took that down too and the top part of the frame above the door.You can really see how badly the frame around the door is out of plumb - my back of the matchbook calculation is just over 1 inch out for every 2 feet up, since the frame is 11 feet high that's over 6 inches out of plumb which is hard to believe.

 

I took a couple pics from the outside to hopefully show the severe bend in the hoop:

 

 

I didn't have a bunch of time to work on this though as we are closing early everyday due to the virus thing so I ended up taking down the upper frame and the right door and calling it quits for the day.

 

 

Kind of a mishmash of fasteners used on the frame - phillips screws, flat blade screws, galvanized nails, carriage bolts, lag bolts you name it, so I had nearly every tool in my arsenal outside. Hopefully by starting over fresh I can minimize the variety of fasteners to just phillips screws and lag bolts.

 

This concluded Monday's work, tomorrow I'll recap Tuesday's work. I'm going to be off by a day for a little bit because I need to wait for the 4x4 posts to arrive and this way I'll have something meaningful to show.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

I think that this pic shows the bend in the hoop probably the best:

 

 

As you can see, the whole West side of the greenhouse is completely gone. Yup, I took the whole shebang down. Had some trouble with the lowest board on each side though. I thought there were only two bolts holding the board to the frame. So after the bolts were out I start pounding on the board with a hammer hoping to dislodge it but it wasn't having any of that - still tight. So I investigated a little bit and found out that there was a bolt under the lowest shelf in the greenhouse which was still attached. Took the shelf off to get better access but the bolt was behind the tubing that holds up the upper shelf. Therefore, to get at that bolt I would have had to loosen up and maybe remove the upper shelf and probably the framing on the lower shelf. Well, that's not gonna happen - way too much work. Partially stuck, I decided to just yank at the board until it finally came loose. I actually broke the bolt off inside the board. The board was kinda crummy anyway with a little rot so I figured I'd replace that while I was at it. There is also a "skirt" board that runs around the greenhouse next to the ground and the two pieces on the west side were moldy and starting to rot so you guessed it, I'll replace that too. After all that mess I had the whole side down.

 

 

Looks kinda strange without anything there now. At least with everything gone it gives the wood on the inside a chance to dry out a little. Underneath the lowest shelf inside the greenhouse were a ton of leaves and pine needles so I vacuumed them out. And while I was at it, might as well try to vacuum underneath the whole length (at least whatever I could reach without removing the rest of the lower shelves). And hey, might as well vacuum any crap on the ground too (can't have any stones or pebbles present when I put up the top.

 

 

Kind of a good pic as it also shows the lowest board (the thicker one) and the skirt board (the thinner one).

 

So yesterday I realized I probably shouldn't have taken down the whole side and instead should have took down half of it first so that I wouldn't have to worry about where to put the doors. Luckily though, there were indents in the blacktop from where the frame was so to get an idea where the new posts should go I temporarily put the doors back on the ground and put some concrete blocks on either side to prevent it from tipping/blowing over.

 

 

Now I know where the doors go, it should be a lot easier to install the posts (hopefully we got those today).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

All bent out of shape redefined, Zombie!

 

And just when the doors were starting to get a little sense of freedom after being stuck there so long you bring them right back to heel.

 

Well, from your explanation you've sort of got a plan for tackling the new west end; if it survives contact with reality is another matter and I have a feeling you'll have to go through some further hoops still to get it all flush top to bottom.

 

Hope the weather holds too as the sky is staying gray on your daily snaps.

[Zombie]

Well, from your explanation you've sort of got a plan for tackling the new west end; if it survives contact with reality is another matter and I have a feeling you'll have to go through some further hoops still to get it all flush top to bottom.

 

No doubt, there's always going to bumps and roadblocks to overcome. Hopefully there aren't too many though, I wanna get the repair phase completed and move on to putting on the new top.

 

Hope the weather holds too as the sky is staying gray on your daily snaps.

 

We are stuck in a rut weather-wise it seems. Every day is mostly overcast and no warmer than 5C so it isn't exactly warm. Friday was decent in the afternoon as the sun came out for a little bit, but it went away again and then rained the rest of the day and most of Saturday too. The nice thing though is that it hasn't dipped to freezing for at least a week now.

 

So I'll try and recap the last few days of work. I needed some new lag bolts to replace rusty ones on the greenhouse but I just didn't feel like visiting the hardware store (even if it's still open). Looked through all my drawers of hardware and the greenhouse stuff, but came up empty handed - can't believe we didn't get extra bolts to replace, oh well. I did find a drawer of the bolt type I needed but they were in various degrees of rust/oxidation. What the heck, might as well see if I can wire brush some to see how clean they come.

 

 

On the right side of the white piece of cardboard is the used bolts (which is about as good as they were, most were far worse) and to the left (and above) are the cleaned ones. Not bad, they actually came out pretty shiny (have no idea if they previously had a galvanized coating on them or not, but it's gone now with the wire brushing). Didn't really take too long to clean them either - used the wire cup brush on the drill to speed things up. I also cleaned up a few bolts (old top, cleaned bottom) and they came out pretty good as well (a new bolt from the hardware store is probably gonna cost in the neighborhood of 50-75 cents USD). As a comparison between a cleaned bolt and a new bolt, I placed a new bolt in the cleaned pile. Can you spot it? It's the one with a nut and washer.

 

I decided to take a short break from working on the outside of the greenhouse and focused on cleaning the inside of it. We had big stack of cardboard flower boxes in there to give back to our suppliers but I doubted that we could do that due to them not delivering and the COVID 19 thing - we have a cardboard recycling dumpster so as a last resort I crushed all them up and put in the dumpster. That made quite a bit of room. I moved all of our planting season tables out too as the time for that is just around the corner. Moved some other things into the small garage for the time being and to finish it all off I vacuumed the whole thing out (vacuuming the cracks is the fastest way to remove pine needles from Christmas - sweeping takes forever).

 

 

Looks darn nice now. Plus it makes it easier to work as I have easy access to everything.

 

Just so happened that the bosses son came to the shop on Friday so I put him to work. We started by bleaching off some of the used slats to reuse. After lunch I decided that it would probably be a perfect excuse to have him help with taking down the remaining plastic top. Good learning experience for him - showed how to use an electric drill (w/jacobs chuck) as a driver for screws and he helped with cutting up the plastic, moving the slats away after they were off and pulling off the Gorilla duct tape I used to secure the top to the structure (can't believe how well the Gorilla tape held during the winter with multiple snowfalls and occasional rain). He couldn't help me all day as he had to eat lunch and go somewhere. I finished the rest of the removal process and started work on the North side of the greenhouse.

 

 

Took off the boards from the structure and leaned them against the small garage - the old ones are going to be replaced as they are full of screw holes and probably don't have much wood preservative left in them anymore. New green treated lumber is rather cheap so it just makes sense to replace stuff when it gets old. The boards sit on hangars attached to the hoops and are affixed with those bolts I cleaned off. Some of the hangars were starting to rust pretty bad and need to be fixed. I did that today between the rain drops - wire brushed off the majority of the loose rust then sprayed them with some rust reformer paint, one coat of primer and a final coat of silver paint to kinda match the tubes. Got that done just in time as it started to rain again in the afternoon. I didn't want to continue working in the rain so I just bleached some used buckets from the cooler to finish the day. I'll be working on affixing the new lumber to the North side on Monday and hopefully get a solid start on the South side.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

HA, I said Zombie will fix it all!

 

You know, reading all this... makes me kinda want your job. Take it with a grain of salf, but seriously, I'd rather be doing something useful instead of sitting in an office. With work being practically non-existent right now due to corona and all, with bad prospects for an indefinite future as half a state's budget is being funneled into preventing a complete economic collapse.

[Zombie]

You know, reading all this... makes me kinda want your job. Take it with a grain of salt, but seriously, I'd rather be doing something useful instead of sitting in an office. With work being practically non-existent right now due to corona and all, with bad prospects for an indefinite future as half a state's budget is being funneled into preventing a complete economic collapse.

 

I don't think I could handle an office job - being cooped up inside all day isn't my cup of tea. As I was leaving work on Saturday I thanked God that I still have a job and that it hasn't been shut down (either voluntary or involuntary). At least I have a source of income yet and I get to do something that is actually fun (for the most part).

 

So with the North side of the greenhouse mostly finished, it was time to jump over to the South side for a quickie reboot. Here is the hardware for the boards along the top:

 

 

First pic is the hangar wire brushed to remove the majority of the rust. And the second pic is after one coat of rust reformer (if needed), one coat of primer and one coat of aluminum paint. I would have put on two coats of the aluminum paint but the spray nozzle was messed up so I was forced into spraying on one heavy coat instead. I don't think it matters much, at least the metal is protected from the elements again.

 

For some reason the new boards sat lower on the greenhouse which meant the vertical boards wouldn't fit underneath any more. Something changed and I guessed that maybe the hangars slipped down the hoop pole. Checked the set bolts on the inside and sure enough, a couple were not tight. I ended up loosening each bolt, checked to see if it was level, then re-tightened making sure the vertical boards would fit. When I attached the vertical boards and vertical metal tube supports I also made sure they were plumb and square to the top board (as best as I could at least).

 

 

The last two boards look like a snake as the second to last tube is bent from when the greenhouse collapsed in 2000, but everything is level which is what is important. I kept the closest board in the pic as I replaced that in 2013 and it was in decent shape (a little bit of mold on it, which bleach took care of). This kinda completes the South side. There's a little bit of work to do on the East side yet so I'm planning on doing that tomorrow and perhaps start on the west side.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Neatness does count, Zombie, and after your "spring cleaning" it looks a world apart from when it was all under snow.

 

Did I hear you mention paint? Yup, twice now, so you're "on thread" again.

 

The hanger seems well covered to me, despite the minor spraying nozzle hiccup and I suppose you'll live with the undulating boards, all else being mostly straight.

 

Is it drums and chanting I hear? The natives need to be dancing - in this case so there is no rain downpour in the near future.

[Zombie]

Today the sun actually came out in the afternoon which was a welcomed surprise and with it came some slightly warmer temps (maybe 7-8C). The East side of the greenhouse was obviously on the agenda (after taking care of other shop projects). Took a little longer than I anticipated but it still left me time to do other things after the side was done.

 

 

Now in order to see what I did, I'm going to re-up a pic I took on March 18:

 

 

I replaced the horizontal board that attaches to the frame of the door. Had to cut that to fit, bolted it to the hangar on the far left and screwed to the door frame. I also removed a metal support tube (now there is only one on each side of the door. There was a vertical wood board on each side of the door which (in the distant past) had two blower motors attached to it (the sides of the greenhouse used to be separate from the top - the sides were a series of plastic tubes which when inflated with air from a blower motor would rise). Since we haven't used that type of side in eons, I cut the boards down to fit between the top and bottom horizontal boards and moved them closer to the frame to act as an extra support. Both sides of the door got this treatment. It's really quite amazing how much that stiffened up this side of the greenhouse (the North and South sides are also nice and stiff).

 

Suppose I should mention some things in the first pic. On the left is a plastic pail which I use as a generic toolbox of sorts. Anything I take off the greenhouse - be it screws, bolts, hardware etc is deposited into the bucket so that it doesn't get lost or misplaced. Every other day or so I clean the bucket out, sort out the screws, bolts and whatever else I find and toss out anything that is rusty or bent. Tools also go in there - to the right of the bucket is a small plastic container where I keep my deepwell sockets for the ratchet, and in back of the pail is a pouch of combination box wrenches (spanners as you brits call it). On the right side of the doors is a teal blue metal box with my drill bits, the fluorescent green thing is a plastic level and behind that is the drill. I replaced a horizontal board in that area today so that's why the stuff is on that side.

 

With the East side complete it's finally time to start work on the West side. I just realized today that I don't have to worry about recreating the side from memory or pictures, I can just use the East side doors as a template which should save a heap of time. My first job is to start on the frame of the doors, specifically on the boards that run up to the hoop. Because I'm switching to 4x4 posts the connection point between the tube and the wood is going to be different than before. I decided to use the normal method of cutting a V notch in the top of the post but modified to a U shape at the bottom instead. First try didn't work very well, second try was better but too wide so third times the charm I guess? Will continue working on that tomorrow - my hope is to get the posts installed. Once they are in place then things should start to fall into place quickly. Probably will encounter some problems but it shouldn't be too bad. Gotta be optimistic.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Looks sturdy enough alright, Zombie.

 

The greater proximity of the boards is going to matter as it reinforces support and should further prevent bending from structural stress over time once the new top is in place.

 

I do notice a couple of things, though - on your first pic there's a rather significant gap underneath the left half of the door, and there's also the plastic panelling, which is fraying on the bottom half of the same side.

 

Greenhouses are mainly supposed to provide environmental insulation after all.

[Zombie]

I do notice a couple of things, though - on your first pic there's a rather significant gap underneath the left half of the door, and there's also the plastic panelling, which is fraying on the bottom half of the same side.

 

Greenhouses are mainly supposed to provide environmental insulation after all.

 

The gap isn't too significant, but I will see what I can come up with for a fix - maybe I can screw a piece of wood on to the door. As for the fraying plastic paneling on the outside, I have a piece of plastic stapled on the inside to prevent the cold from getting in.

 

If it ever dips to freezing or even a couple degrees above we will bring all the flowers into the small garage, large garage, back room and sometimes even the store. Usually what is in the greenhouse can take a little bit of cold. I usually bring in a small electric overnight to provide some warmth if it gets to freezing.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So I worked on those 4x4 posts today. Took a little bit of time to lay out the measurements and do the cutting (used a circular saw and camp saw to finish the cuts through the post). I used a small drill bit to make a pilot hole then bored out a 1" hole with a spade bit to approximate a round bottom, then used the circular saw to chop out most of the wood and finished it off with the camp saw. (Looking back, I probably should have purchased a hole saw attachment for the drill as that would have made it go so much faster but I just didn't want to go to the hardware store). Once one post was done, I was able to knock out the other post fast.

 

 

I used that cutoff piece from the ridge pole as a template to get the size correct - glad I kept it. Thought I had a whole roll of that galvanized metal strapping but only found two short pieces. No worries though, they are just long enough! To give me a little extra length, I cut some pieces out of the post and then rasped them.

 

 

The toughest part was figuring out what length I needed the posts to be. I borrowed my dad's plumb bob to get a ballpark estimate, then added about 1/2" (1.25cm) for a snug fit. Turns out I could have used more, so for the second post I added a full inch extra (2.54cm) and that seemed to do the trick.

 

 

I made the posts completely plumb and level on both sides then screwed the piece of galvanized strapping down tight. Had to cut a little bit of wood off on the outside of the posts to match the curve of the hoop, and I also rasped the outside so there were no sharp corners. Turned out good: both posts and the North part of the hoop are now in a straight line. I was curious to see how the doors would fit in the new opening so I took some measurements and I think I'm a little wide by about an inch. That's fine, I can make that up somehow.

 

On the left side of the pic leaning against the wall of the small garage is some of the old wood strapping used on the greenhouse - which I bleached off today. Looks brand new! Tomorrow I'll try to get the doors installed and depending on time I'll try to flesh out the rest of the side. I'm hoping I can get that done by Monday or so. The only things left are to put more fiberfill on the joints of the North side of the greenhouse, take a count of the wooden straps to see which sizes are short and sweep or wet wash the ground on the exterior of the North side. My plan is to get all the little projects finished before the end of the week, then hope and pray I get a decent day to install the new top.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

So, this probably loosely fits into that "fabrimacobble" business you spoke of earlier, Zombie?

 

The problem with carving out specific features in wood usually rests more towards the risk of excesses in the cutting, which can outright ruin a perfectly good beam for a given purpose forcing one to spend another and start over, doubling the expense in time and money.

 

Be it as it may, your carpentry skills definitely held up and the wood ended up fitting snugly enough as intended, given what's shown. Obstacle surpassed!

[Zombie]

So, this probably loosely fits into that "fabrimacobble" business you spoke of earlier, Zombie?

 

Sorta, kinda.

 

The problem with carving out specific features in wood usually rests more towards the risk of excesses in the cutting, which can outright ruin a perfectly good beam for a given purpose forcing one to spend another and start over, doubling the expense in time and money.

 

Yeah, I got lucky in that respect. I needed a post just over 11 feet long and dimensional lumber is only sold in even lengths so I had to get a 12 footer. First time I made a mistake by cutting the opening too wide so I had to chop that bit off and start over. Lost just over 2 inches on that but I had plenty of extra wood to try a few more times.

 

Since I had the West doors of the greenhouse off I figured I might as well fix up the hinges since they were pretty rusty. As usual, wire brushed them to get rid of the loose stuff, one coat of rust reformer paint, a coat of primer and 2+ coats of black paint. Wire brushed the pins and bottom cap too (they look a little bit rusty in the photo, but I sanded and brushed them again before reassembly).

 

 

Someone asked me why I just didn't buy new hinges, well, I didn't want to go to the hardware store unless it was absolutely necessary. I'm not risking anything, at least right now. I did find out that you can still buy them yet, but the new hinges come with the usual electroplated brass or other finishes. And we can all see just how that electroplated finish holds up in a greenhouse environment - it still rusts. Paint should do a better job preventing rust.

 

And hey, those doors were still off and I noticed that the fiberglass panels had a thin coating of black mold on it. Used a 50% solution of bleach plus a dash of commercial bucket soap which stripped all the nastiness off. Still had some left so I did the other set of doors too.

 

 

Time to attach those newly painted hinges to the door. First things first, I cut some of those old pieces of wood from the sides of the greenhouse to use as the frame. Sure, I could have used the new wood, but these pieces were not too bad and the color sorta matched the color of the wood on the doors.

 

 

Bosses son was there for a little bit and helped me with sanding the doors to make the wood smooth and also helped with repairing a couple corners which were loose. Put new screws into solid wood and reattached a (now painted) bracket with a couple heavier screws to stiffen things up.

 

 

That's about as far as I got because it started to rain. And of course, the last few days were more of the same: ok for a little while in the morning, then rain in the afternoon on and off. So you could never really start a project because the rain would interrupt any progress. In between the raindrops I did a dry (ahem) fit of the door to the 4x4 posts just to see if there were any modifications necessary. The posts are a little bit wider than the frame of the door but I think I can adjust the posts so they are closer to the middle. I only need about an inch on each side. The only issue is that the posts are designed to fit in this particular location - closer to the middle means the posts would need to be a little longer to make a snug fit to the hoop. If anything, I know there are plates you can buy to stick underneath so that the posts do not contact the ground and that might give me the extra height to make it snug.

 

Today I was doing a little more with the doors. Did another dry fit with them laying on the tables in the greenhouse to see how close the top part of the frame would fit. I must've cut the length of the sides a little bit long so there was extra material at the top and bottom. I need that space at the bottom because the ground isn't exactly level, but for the top I can have that pretty tight. Out came the saw and I chopped off the excess. One thing led to another and I decided to take off the latches from the door and frame and painted those. And I replaced nearly all the screws in the corners as most were rusting. Also took off the peg that goes into the ground and all the associated hardware and wire brushed and painted them. Should be able to reinstall those tomorrow. Hoping to get to installing the doors this weekend, but it's also Easter and for the first time since the Coronavirus outbreak we have decent business so might not be able spend oodles of time on greenhouse stuff. We shall see.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Kinda weird, but I hope you won't have the time to work on the greenhouse (and be swamped with primary work). Do stay safe and healthy though.

 

As for the work done... I would never, absolutely never go about saving the hinges. I'm far too lazy for that. New ones will rust? Maybe so, but it'll take years before becoming a problem...

[Thorondor]

Momentary success also often hinges *cough* on making the best of what you've got whenever the need arises. High marks for having done just that, Zombie!

 

The recovered hardware seems to be perfectly serviceable for the intended function after the makeover, so you're in the black through and through on this one.

 

As it happens, that last pic did bring back something to mind from one of your previous posts - I look forward to seeing how much you'll manage to consistently employ phillips screws throughout the build.

[Zombie]

Kinda weird, but I hope you won't have the time to work on the greenhouse (and be swamped with primary work). Do stay safe and healthy though.

 

Meh, I do the greenhouse stuff when I don't have anything else to do or there is a significant break in the action. So there's quite a bit of leeway when I work on it too, we have till May to get it mostly complete and I think I'm still on schedule. No work on it the last couple days though, on Thursday it snowed and it was very windy (snow melted right away), and today I was far too busy delivering and cleaning up to get a chance to work on it. I was eyeing it during the day, but it wasn't in the cards.

 

I've been wearing a mask when I deliver just to prevent the spread of the virus. I don't wear a mask at the store as I'm usually working in the back far away from the other employees and customers. And I'm pretty good about not touching my face, mouth, eyes or nose without washing my hands. Not to mention I bleach buckets almost every day so I hazard to guess I have the cleanest hands in the city anyway. The only drawback to that is I always smell like I'm hauling an olympic sized swimming pool around with me wherever I go.

 

As for the work done... I would never, absolutely never go about saving the hinges. I'm far too lazy for that. New ones will rust? Maybe so, but it'll take years before becoming a problem...

 

As I said, the major reason I opted to paint the hinges was because I didn't want to go to the hardware store, like unless it was absolutely necessary. Yeah, it's right down the block, but I'm trying to minimize my exposure to the virus as much as possible. New hinges would probably rust within a year or two, especially with the high humidity conditions inside the greenhouse. I'd be very surprised if the painted hinges show anything in 5-10. The main issue is to remember to oil/lubricate the hinges from now on as that will prevent the worst of it.

 

As it happens, that last pic did bring back something to mind from one of your previous posts - I look forward to seeing how much you'll manage to consistently employ phillips screws throughout the build.

 

Most (if not all) connection points have been converted to phillips head screws. I doubt there are many flat bladed screws in the greenhouse. There are still "legacy" points where I'm using bolts/machine bolts if only because I have the hardware and they seem to offer more stability to the structure. And I'm not worried about the occasional bolt here and there, at least they are hex heads and are easy to remove with a multitude of wrenches, pliers or sockets. I'm trying to limit the variety of hardware so it'll be easier on me (or the next guy) who has to do maintenance on it in the future. I'm also trying (and sometimes failing) to use only #2 phillips screws. Sometimes you have to use a bigger screw because the previous screw stripped out or isn't holding anymore.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So "what's up with the greenhouse?" you may be asking. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been behaving much. There were about three days where we actually had measurable snowfall (melted fast though). For the last week it never really got above 5C or so and the sun was scarce. Need I mention that the wind was unbelievable too? Last Saturday I thought I'd have time to work on the greenhouse in the afternoon, but it got busy and I was called away to deliver. The only thing I was able to do was to install the newly painted hardware on the West doors. It was something at least.

 

This week was kinda crappy most days as well. I did bleach off some of the vertical boards along the sides and also tried bleaching the skirt board along the North side (the side that faces the small garage). That didn't do too much so I think I need to up the concentration and maybe add some deck cleaner. Bleached off a few more of the old wood strips that held on the plastic so I wouldn't have to cut anything to size.

 

Today I made a count of how many wood strips of each size I need and I think I'm pretty close to having enough. In between projects (and the snow!) I put the screws in about half the wood strips so far - that way when I start securing the new plastic down it'll be cake because I will not be fooling around with screws in one hand, a drill in the other and trying to balance the wood strip against the side while also putting tension on the plastic to make sure it's taut (sometimes I wish I had 4 hands). It looks like it might be nice tomorrow so my plan is to work on installing the doors. Fingers crossed of course!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Today I tried to get a start installing the doors on the west side of the greenhouse. The wind was again super-duper strong (and it's been like that for the last 4-5 days without a break). I pre-drilled holes in the frame of the right door (looking at it from the outside) and drove some long screws into them so they were just barely coming out the back side. When the door was sorta where I wanted it, I attached two of the screws into the post. Easier said than done as the post jumped off the spot on the pavement when I put pressure on the drill. Oops. No big deal though, I moved it back into position. But something still needed to be done to keep the post semi-secure during installation otherwise I'd be constantly adjusting things.

 

My initial thought was to use some rubber inside the section at the top of the posts which I cut out. Couldn't find any strips at the store though, and maybe rubber wasn't the best idea as it might start to break down and get brittle over time. Hmmm. Then I remembered I had some pieces of membrane roofing which we still have to patch the roof in the back garage in case it ever leaks. Cut a small strip of that out with a utility knife and folded it up to fit between the post and the hoop. Just for giggles, I also cut another small strip out and stuck that between the hoop and the strapping.

 

 

That seems to have secured the posts a little more to the hoop, and it's a bit tighter on the ground as well. Hopefully the wind will die down in the next week as I'm aiming to get the doors situated and the rest of the fiberfill added to any joints.Then it'll be a waiting game till there's a less windy day.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Even if the stakes are high, Zombie won't leave you hanging in the wind!

 

Thank you. I'll be here all week! *ducks incoming vegetables*

[Space Voyager]

Even if the stakes are high, Zombie won't leave you hanging in the wind!

 

He he he, meant very literally!

[Zombie]

So I got a little bit of time to work on installing the doors on Tuesday:

 

 

Windy again, so I had to put the concrete blocks against the doors so they wouldn't be flopping in the breeze. Not much to say about the process except I pre-drilled the holes for the screws in the sides of the frame and borrowed a pipe clamp to keep the 2x4 frame tight against the 4x4 post as I was driving the screws in. I also temporarily screwed a furring strip between the doors to act as a spacer until everything is dialed in.

 

Yesterday I started work on the top of the frame. I attached the newly painted silver metal stop to a slightly used 2x4. Totally forgot that the holes in the metal were not centered, they are actually closer to one end to make the stop hang down to contact the doors. Had to remove a couple screws and turn the strip around and reattach. Then it was perfect. Thought I could sneak the metal stop behind the 2x4 side frame boards but it was a bit too tight. Got called away for other things and it started to rain so that concluded my progress.

 

Today I cut a groove in the 2x4 frame to accept the metal stop. Did a dry fit and seemed to be good so I attached it. I was going to start fooling around with attaching the board above the frame and the board that goes between that and the next post in the center of the greenhouse but decided to work on getting the North part of the side secured instead - just to make sure the dimensions don't change on me.

 

 

Got the upper 2x4 board attached with no problems as I didn't have to cut it to fit - the length was still perfect! The bottom 2x6 board is new so I had to cut that to fit. Attached that to the far left with a bolt and with 2 screws by the door. The way this is set up, this board doesn't actually touch the ground, it is above the ground by a few inches and then a 1x6 skirt board is attached to that to make a tight fit to the ground. At the end of the frame by the door there is a space underneath the 2x6 so I think I'm going to cut a piece of 2x4 to fill that gap (it used to be open like it is now). Obviously didn't attach the skirt board yet, I just put it on the ground to show what it's going to look like.

 

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain again but not all day so maybe I'll be able to work on finishing off the North part and then move over to the South. Wind shouldn't be so strong either. Coming together now!

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

This past Friday was pretty nice outside and not much going on inside so might as well work on the greenhouse. The area to the north of the doors was basically finished already, so all I needed to do was copy that setup on the south side. Took a lot of measuring and cutting with the circular saw and then pre-drilling the holes for the screws and countersinking the heads to make sure they do not rip the plastic. I reused some of the old lumber too - I don't think it detracts from the look, and besides, it's just going to be covered over with plastic anyway, right? At least the structural elements have new wood. Here's a couple pics from the outside and inside:

 

 

The only snag I ran into was the top frame board for the doors and the board above that. Because everything is still so far out of level (well, mostly plumb) I had to be a little creative in putting things back together. Didn't quite get it all done but for a half day of work I got a lot accomplished. You might notice from the pics that the red table tops look dirty again. Cleaned those up yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, I couldn't work on the greenhouse much as it rained all morning long and the sun didn't poke it's head out till 5pm. No big deal, I needed to get the screws in some of the furring strips yet so I worked on that. Also took a count of how many of each size were necessary (I might need a couple more of the 7 foot length for above the doors). Here's a pic of them sorted out and standing proud in the back garage:

 

 

Left to right: 2 groups of 8 foot lengths (24 total), a group of 7 foot lengths (10 total), 2 strips a couple inches shy of 7 feet and 18 4 foot lengths for the sides. If you are wondering what those 2 big stacks of cardboard boxes to the right of everything is for, well, we need boxes for putting arrangements in for people to transport them home and also use them during the planting season when people buy packs or pots of annuals and perennials. These particular boxes used to be fresh flower boxes (this size is technically called an eighth box - two of those are equivalent to a quarter box and four quarters make a full box). I save this size until I have a bunch of them, then cut them in half and refold them into the appropriate size and restaple the ends. Suppose some time I can take some pics of how I do that so you can impress someone.

 

Today it was foggy and moist all morning long but no rain so I was able to work on the greenhouse again for a little bit at least. As for what was on the agenda, the doors needed to be looked at. Even though I had them somewhat squared up, they didn't open up decently (due to the uneven ground and messed up hoop). Ended up taking off the left door (when looking at it from the inside) and raising that up a few inches to account for clearance. But now the left door was higher than the right, how can I make them equal? Cut a piece of lumber to put above the door to act as a spacer. After that, I installed the frame above the door. The next issue was that I took the latch off the right door during deconstruction, but now the dimensions were different due to moving the left door up. Had to re fabricate the latch and now it's much sturdier than before. I also attached another board on top of the one above the top frame of the door.

 

 

Yes, I know there is a big gap underneath the left door. Can't do anything about that due to the uneven ground preventing the door from opening up cleanly. I might add a "fabrimacobbled" sweep to the bottom though - have to think on that overnight. The only things left to do now is to reattach the board from the post inside the center of the greenhouse to the two boards above the top of the door frame. Got a plan for that so it should go up quickly. Of course I still need to put fiberfill batting around around some of the joints of the roof to prevent the plastic from wearing through (shouldn't take too long either). I might take a couple sheets of used lexan polycarbonate from the smaller garage door and use those for the bottom part of the fiberglass panels of the doors too beef that up temporarily. Other than that, it's good to go.

 

ETA for completion? I'm shooting for installing the new plastic on Saturday instead of Sunday now. I'll be cutting flowers on Sunday for Mother's Day so that day is probably out. Saturday looks like it's going to be fairly nice and not too windy which would be darn near perfect conditions. Even if I can only get the top secured one day, I can probably do the sides the next day assuming the wind doesn't get to strong. Fingers crossed of course.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You find it bent, in comes Zombie and right it went!

 

As compensating goes you've taken quite a few steps to get things moslty flush. It's always "fun" though to discover, as one does, that what we've made to rectify one thing makes several other things go out of whack, keeping us tasked with righting more than what was wrong to start with...

 

Still, a mighty wrangler of cardboard boxes will inevitably make short work of such trivialities.

 

Joking aside you look like you've got things lined up both inside the back garage and, increasingly, outside, so let's see if you get to top it all off in the weekend!

[Zombie]

It rained all day Wednesday and most of the day on Thursday as well. It only really let up after 3pm. No work on the greenhouse obviously, but I had other things going on like cutting flowers for upcoming Mother's Day. We are getting in 50% of our normal order due to the coronavirus but that's quite a lot once you start processing them. Here's a view of the backroom in the aftermath:

 

 

First pic was mostly all lilies (oriental and asiatic in the usual colors - pink, white, yellow and orange). There are some gerbera daisies in pails to the right of the lilies. Second pic is pom pons (daisies - front and center), carnations (to the left), mini carnations (to the right and in back of everything). Directly below the workbench is some solidago (goldenrod) and behind that is purple and white asters (called monte casino asters). There was other stuff I cut which is not in the pic because I already moved them into the front cooler.

 

Today it was fairly nice. Sunny in the morning and afternoon then got cloudy and cool at the end of the day. This gave me a chance to polish off the West side of the greenhouse. I started with attaching the board with the hooks on it to the boards above the door and the post in the center of the greenhouse. It's not perfectly level (nearly so though) but I wasn't going to tear it all apart again to fix that. After that I reattached the latches above the doors (we use these as a security blanket of sorts - it helps keep the doors closed especially in the wind and prevents someone from getting inside... the right door that faces the driveway in the back is always unlocked though). And I decided to add a couple boards on either side of the west doors to make it identical to the east side. I think those will stiffen the sides up a bit and also provide another attachment point on the shorter west side.

 

 

I also messed around with the center posts in the greenhouse. For some reason the metal strapping holding the tube down to the post was very loose. Not sure if this happened over time due to wind stress and snow or if it was just neglect by the guys who tried to fix it in 2000. Either way, since there was no top to make things difficult I loosened up the strapping on one end, pounded it flat against the post with a hammer, then tightened up the strap by pounding a scribe into one of the holes and driving a screw in underneath it. Once I had one screw in, I added another one above the first.

 

 

Not perfectly tight by any means, but at least the ridge pole isn't wandering around loose anymore. That couldn't have been good. I finished off with adjusting the fiberfill (or adding more) on the roof joints to make sure there wasn't any poky bits which could rub against the new plastic). A little bit of cleanup later and the repairs to the greenhouse are done.

 

 

Wish I had another month to work on it, but I'm plumb out of time. I'm pretty confident that I addressed most of the structural issues and problem areas though and that should help to make the plastic last longer. Anything left to do would be on the inside which I can do later. Tomorrow is the big day (weather permitting) - installation of the new top! Gotta remember to bring the camera along to take some pics during the process. Pretty straightforward except for the short sides (East and West) which is a little tricky).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

To your 50% Zombie will go 100% and deliver!

 

I can only imagine how much bigger the splash of colour from all the flowers would be in a regular year. There's certainly enough variety as it is.

 

All that prep work you've put into the greenhouse seems solid. That being the case the time for the big payoff is very nearly upon you. Make sure you've got it all right, skip nothing and make it count!