April 20, 2023

Greenhouse Roof Progress

In my last greenhouse progress blog post, we were dealing with a setback because one of the roof windows was accidentally broken. Attempts to find a replacement were unsuccessful, but it was a double-paned window and only one of the pieces of glass shattered. I finally asked Dan if he could  use the remaining sheet of glass anyway? Here's what he did.

The remaining glass with frame and adhesives removed

With new trim

Happily, it worked quite well.

Installed. View from below.

It's the window in the middle.

Unfortunately, we had a hard rain before the sealants could cure, and much of it washed away. So, that has to be done again, plus trim between the windows needs to be added. It's a slow go at the moment because we're working on planting, but at least some progress has been made

11 comments:

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I'm enjoying this build, because I've wanted a greenhouse for a while now. Growing indoors is getting difficult, as I have added more to the starter list. It looks great.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Nice example of adapt and overcome!

(But rats on the sealant washing away.)

Nancy In Boise said...

Yep good way to be flexible! We had a small Greenhouse we made facing south and we put black painted water barrels laid on their sides full of water for thermal Mass and surrounded that with gravel about halfway. So the barrels were buried about halfway in the gravel face up, with a low 2 ft High concrete block wall. The thermal Mass really helped with the warmth! We never did have to put in power since we mostly just used it in late winter early spring to get things started. It's great to use recycle glass! That's what we did with a custom built frame and it worked great

Ed said...

I've always wanted a solarium attached to my house. Since I'll probably never get one, I'll just hopefully live vicariously through you!

Leigh said...

Kristina, I've not been able to start much indoors either. No good light, for one thing. I'm hoping the greenhouse will enable us to grow a lot more fresh food this winter.

TB, thanks! It's our rainy time of year, so getting enough sunny days to do start-to-finish progress on the roof is near impossible. Oh well!

Nancy, that's really encouraging about your water barrels! We're planning to use some for thermal mass as well; I just hope it's enough for the size of our greenhouse. I reckon we'll see!

Ed, so far, it's been a lot of work! I seem to recall that your greenhouse went up fairly quickly. Of course, you had a different plan and different materials, so I have to keep in mind that as long as we get it done by next fall, we'll be on schedule!

Nina said...

That greenhouse is really coming along. It's great that the second piece of window glass worked well. While I do envy real planting, I managed to put some lettuce, arugula, spinach and beets in some pots to see if we get any early salads. They're all cool weather crops but our early weather can be unpredictable, so don't always get good early results. Two days ago it was 25C and yesterday it snowed!

I've used large containers/barrels of water as heat sinks in our greenhouse. My girlfriend also used bricks on the ground, as well as the water and she says that works even better. Another friend just uses fresh manure under her planters, which produces a lot of heat.

Leigh said...

Nina, thank you for that about greenhouse heat! We're planning on 55-gallon drums, but I never thought about bricks. Maybe I should make a brick paved floor. Good idea about the manure too.

I hope your early salad thrives!

tpals said...

The funny thing is once it's full of plants, you'll hardly ever look up at the roof.

Leigh said...

Tpals, so true! Which is probably a good thing considering the hodge-podge of materials we're using. :)

daisy g said...

It's lookin' good! Slow-n-steady!

Leigh said...

Daisy, just as long as it's finished by next fall!