1/2 Recycled Greenhouse Build
by
Clint
8 Materials
My brother needed a greenhouse for his ever growing collection of plants, luckily we had a load of pallet wood and since he's a builder, he managed to recover plenty of wood from a construction site rubbish pile. We had to buy the plastic and the wood for the trusses, so I prefer to call this the half recycled Greenhouse.
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I have a 3 part video series on YouTube showing the build taking place. It's less of a how to and more of a documentation of what we did. I'll provide some extra photos and details below.
The frames were made with lap and cross lap joints, glued and screwed in place. All of the wood for the frame was recycled from skips/dumpsters/rubbish piles. (taken with permission of course!)
We cladded the lower part of the frame with pallet wood and then stained it to increase it's longevity. In a way, I think painting the greenhouse a dark colour also helps it to absorb heat, but don't take my word for it!
There were only 3 sides to the frame as one end was connected to a previous shed. this not only increased its strength but decreased the amount of materials and time needed.
Next up was the trusses, these were made from wood bought from a local hardware shop. You can see the basic construction here but I go into more detail on YouTube.
We glazed the roof and sides with Polycarbonate sheets for a couple of reasons; firstly they are good at holding and keeping heat in due to the nature of their construction and secondly, glass would have been much more expensive. We also made sure to run a line of special tape down the ends of the sheets to prevent bugs and moss getting inside the sheets. The roof sheets were sealed off at each side with exterior silicon to prevent leakages.
The door was also made from (apart from the polycarbonate sheet) 100% recycled wood. This was made in a very similar way to the greenhouse frame, lap joint and cladded at the bottom with pallet wood. We did however add some angled braces to the back of the door behind the pallet wood to prevent sagging over time.
A few hinges and plants later and we had a fully functioning greenhouse! It was an interesting build but also quite challenging due to the varying sizes and thicknesses that reclaimed wood comes in. In a sense the design was made around the wood available.
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Comments
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2 of 134 comments
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Thank you!!! Wish I had you at my house for s week!!! 😃😃
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That thing will cook your plants in no time without some type of ventilation system for the greenhouse.
Frequently asked questions
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This is amazing...I was wondering if I could use this on my deck and use screen on the sides instead. For a 3 season room?
WWe were given a stack of 28 windows-glass that someone else was throwing out after a remodel, how can I use them for my greenhouse build?
Hello Clint, what a nice greenhouse! what size plexiglass sheets did you purchase? What was the total cost of this project (or approximate amount spent on plexiglass )? Thank you!