Anyone have a good idea for a PVC pipe greenhouse?

[AnnonAddict]

Hi all,

In a recent thread I posted that I was having problems with my Rion Greenhouse... well, as the winter continues on, I am finding that it is becoming much to cold for my plants at night due to many gaps and openings within the inconvenient structure of my greenhouse. After reading online about PVC pipe greenhouses I would like to give it a try. I was thinking of making a design somewhat like this but smaller...
http://www.tubbycreekfarm.com/category/blog-tags/greenhouse (scroll down to the very bottom)

I am not sure what to use to insulate the greenhouse (if I decide to build it) but if anyone has ideas please let me know!

[gnappi]

I've never built a green house but it's easy to see why that one in your link blew down like a house of cards, there was no front to rear support and the ends of the PVC didn't look well secured to the 2x6... there were no bolts through the wood or the PVC. Also it looks like it had Re-bar driven into the ground to hold the footers in. 

You may want to look at garden web at: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/strucs/

[Bush2Beach]

Winter is right around the corner. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and rain up to 1/2 inch an hour are coming your way Thursday/ Friday. Rion or PVC with plastic are going to need a sheltered location to survive that.

[fruitlovers]

I've built PVC greenhouse here. They are easy to set up. Yes the main problem with them is they won't stand up to strong winds. But if you're in a location where that is not a problem then should be fine. You need to run strands of pipe perpendicular to the ground to brace all the PVC arches, otherwise they are very weak. I also suggest you use schedule 40 or thicker PVC. The others are too flimsy. Any UV resistant greenhouse plastic that is very thick mil should work well for you as your climate is not that cold. You can use plumber's pipe clamps to secure the plastic to the pipes. You need to set up a venting system otherwise it can also get too hot in there when sun is shining.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

http://simage1.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/4/47460_ts.jpg

buy you a 20 x 10 canopy, I like the ones from Shelterlogic...

wrap that thing with plastic, and roll up the plastic at the bottom, and secure the whole thing with a bunch of nursery cloth staples....the heavy duty staples are what u need, they're like 8 inch long.

u also gonna need a shade cloth, fan, and a small propane heater.

this is the cheapest, easiest way I've found to jerry rig a greenhouse.

good luck!!

here is a few pics of mine from last year

[fruitlovers]

I think Adam is right. The canopies use electrical conduit pipe or even wider metal pipes that are much stronger and less flexible than PVC. So that will hold up a lot better in the wind. Also you can buy all the canopy pipe connectors as part of the kit, so it is super easy to assemble. Again with the canopy you want to make sure to use perpendicular runners to brace all vertical the pipes. You can just get some extra metal pipe and use pipe clamps to fortify the structure from the inside. You need to make sure to very carefully attach the canopy to the ground, otherwise the whole structure will go flying in a strong wind. This can be done by pouring some cement into corner holes dug in the ground, metal bolts sticking up, and attaching the structure to the cement anchored bolts.

[gnappi]

The top piece they had looked like it was duct taped. T and cross fittings would have been a LOT better. A VERY light wind would take that one down.

I'm not an engineer but there's easy ways to add lateral and vertical support to a PVC structure. In the pic below I used "T's" and Cross fittings as well as 45 degree fittings to provide support. The white pads could be concrete poured and the red circle I'd bolt the PVC to the footers.

[Mark in Texas]

Winter is right around the corner. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and rain up to 1/2 inch an hour are coming your way Thursday/ Friday. Rion or PVC with plastic are going to need a sheltered location to survive that.

Yep, reason why I went with corrugated polycarbonate.  It's virtually indestructible and adds a lot of lateral support.   Using the 45's as cross members is a must. You should dissect each long corner with braces that form a triangle.  Triangles is what gives you structual support.  Long thread rods works well too with each end threaded into a brace that is attached to the member.

[Bush2Beach]

Winter is right around the corner. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and rain up to 1/2 inch an hour are coming your way Thursday/ Friday. Rion or PVC with plastic are going to need a sheltered location to survive that.

Yep, reason why I went with corrugated polycarbonate.  It's virtually indestructible and adds a lot of lateral support.   Using the 45's as cross members is a must. You should dissect each long corner with braces that form a triangle.  Triangles is what gives you structual support.  Long thread rods works well too with each end threaded into a brace that is attached to the member.

Yup, double wall Poly is the way to go if it's in your price range. Loooong term solution.
http://envirotechgreenhouse.com

[Bob407]

http://simage1.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/4/47460_ts.jpg

buy you a 20 x 10 canopy, I like the ones from Shelterlogic...

wrap that thing with plastic, and roll up the plastic at the bottom, and secure the whole thing with a bunch of nursery cloth staples....the heavy duty staples are what u need, they're like 8 inch long.

u also gonna need a shade cloth, fan, and a small propane heater.

this is the cheapest, easiest way I've found to jerry rig a greenhouse.


You forgot to mention your design requires eight 10 gallon Grimals and a fat dog (any breed) to hold the edges down when the staples fail! 





good luck!!

here is a few pics of mine from last year

[Mark in Texas]

Yup, double wall Poly is the way to go if it's in your price range. Loooong term solution.
http://envirotechgreenhouse.com

Until the first hail storm.

[Bush2Beach]

Never had to worry about hail before. Drove through a hell of a hailstorm outside San Antonio once and yes I can see that being a concern in Texas, Golf Balls!

[KarenRei]

You can pick up a pipe bender on ebay for a reasonable price and then make your own arches out of something a heck of a lot sturdier than PVC. Steel if you want to go cheap, aluminum if you want rustproof (although follow your bender's instructions, mine requires that when bending aluminum that the tube be filled with sand).

If you wanted to use PVC... you know, I've never heard of anyone doing this before, but I bet it would work... you could probably use your PVC as a mould for concrete. It won't be going anywhere then! Even just tight packing it with wet sand would add to its strength. Just make sure it's in the shape of a catenary curve or the added weight make take it down in the process . PVC is a really weak building material.  :Þ

[ricshaw]

I wonder if you could put steel rebar inside of the PVC pipe to make it sturdier?

[Bush2Beach]

Rebar is an important ingredient for any of the PVC greenhouse plans I have seen. 1" PVC with at least 16" of rebar pounded into the ground and 16" above to stabilize the PVC that slips over it.
The increase in PVC price and the ease of using a steel canopy frame kit makes it easier and cheaper to use the steel frame I think. You can take down and reassemble the steel frame rather easily. If you need to customize your hoop house shape to any dimension that fits your space PVC could be better.
 The 10' x 20' steel carport frames can be found or purchased less than $200 and either way your covering with and replacing 6 mil clear plastic or shade cloth.

[fruitlovers]

I wonder if you could put steel rebar inside of the PVC pipe to make it sturdier?

You'd have to use smaller diameter rebar so that it would fit inside, and more importantly that you could still bend it. I think that good bracing would be more important than using rebar on the inside of the PVC.

[AnnonAddict]

The greenhouse is sheltered by a large hill, so small weak winds, if not any winds at all are the only that reach the greenhouse. Even in general, my whole yard doesn't get strong winds.

[LEOOEL]

So far I haven't needed to build one. But, if I did, the thought that immediately comes to mind is getting inexpensive, wide, PVC pipe. Then, through trial and error, build a structure where the PVC has been reinforced with iron rods and cement. In this way, the resulting structure will last. This is just one piece of the project that, of course, has to work with the rest of the project in order to result in a greenhouse; it's reminiscent of building some kid's Lego structure.

[TriangleJohn]

Back when I used a pvc pipe structure I added a lot of stability to it by fusing sections of pipe to make an extra long pipe or two and then running them diagonally from the bottom corners up along the walls and up under the center ridge and then down the other wall to the far bottom corner. You can either drill through the layers of pipe and bolt them together or just tie them tight with some nylon rope. You have to be careful that however you fasten them doesn't cut into your plastic sheeting.

[AnnonAddict]

The top piece they had looked like it was duct taped. T and cross fittings would have been a LOT better. A VERY light wind would take that one down.

I'm not an engineer but there's easy ways to add lateral and vertical support to a PVC structure. In the pic below I used "T's" and Cross fittings as well as 45 degree fittings to provide support. The white pads could be concrete poured and the red circle I'd bolt the PVC to the footers.

I am thinking of going with a structure like the one above, but with some of the reinforcements stated above by gnappi. As for the covering the greenhouse, I am thinking that double sided polycarbonate will work better in the long run. I already have a bunch of double sided polycarbonate so thats a plus.

[GreenFin]

I've got a couple of pvc greenhouses that have withstood 70+ mph winds on a half dozen occasions (once was even over 80 mph).  I'm in Kansas and custom built them to grow tropical fruit and fish.

14' x 55' x 7.5' semi-pit greenhouse (spent ~$1,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/semi-pit-tunnel-greenhouse.html

12' x 24' x 6.5' aquaponics greenhouse (spent ~$2,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/aquaponics-tunnel.html

The aquaponics greenhouse is smaller but cost more to build because of the gravel, Sweetwater blower, pond liner, and extra wood for the main fish tank.

[Doglips]

I wonder if you could put steel rebar inside of the PVC pipe to make it sturdier?

Not seeing the logic of putting rebar inside of pvc, if your going to use rebar, skip the pvc and use rebar.  Paint it up with cold galvanizing for some rust-proofing.
I can certainly understand pounding rebar in the ground and putting pvc over it for above ground to help tie the structure (still not the best method). 

[AnnonAddict]

I've got a couple of pvc greenhouses that have withstood 70+ mph winds on a half dozen occasions (once was even over 80 mph).  I'm in Kansas and custom built them to grow tropical fruit and fish.

14' x 55' x 7.5' semi-pit greenhouse (spent ~$1,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/semi-pit-tunnel-greenhouse.html

12' x 24' x 6.5' aquaponics greenhouse (spent ~$2,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/aquaponics-tunnel.html

The aquaponics greenhouse is smaller but cost more to build because of the gravel, Sweetwater blower, pond liner, and extra wood for the main fish tank.

Thanks for sharing GreenFin! What kind of plastic did you use to cover your GH, and did you only use PVC for the structure?

THanks!

[ricshaw]

Not seeing the logic of putting rebar inside of pvc, if your going to use rebar, skip the pvc and use rebar.  Paint it up with cold galvanizing for some rust-proofing.

I was thinking that the PVC pipe is smoother and would cover the rust.

[GreenFin]

I've got a couple of pvc greenhouses that have withstood 70+ mph winds on a half dozen occasions (once was even over 80 mph).  I'm in Kansas and custom built them to grow tropical fruit and fish.

14' x 55' x 7.5' semi-pit greenhouse (spent ~$1,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/semi-pit-tunnel-greenhouse.html

12' x 24' x 6.5' aquaponics greenhouse (spent ~$2,500): http://www.greenfingardens.com/p/aquaponics-tunnel.html

The aquaponics greenhouse is smaller but cost more to build because of the gravel, Sweetwater blower, pond liner, and extra wood for the main fish tank.

Thanks for sharing GreenFin! What kind of plastic did you use to cover your GH, and did you only use PVC for the structure?

THanks!

Covering is 2 layers of this (space between them inflated with air): https://www.growerssupply.com/farm/supplies/prod1;gs_greenhouse_films;pg109093.html

I only used pvc for the frame.  I recommend 1.5" sch40 pvc for the ribs and 1" sch40 pvc for the purlins.

Endwalls are wood.  I use a post hole digger and sink 10' long 4"x4" posts (actually 2 2x4's screwed together) about 4' deep into the ground, join the endwalls to those posts as anchors, and then join the pvc frame to the endwalls. 

For the footers, I cut up pieces of 3/4" EMT metal conduit and pounded them into the ground.  I spaced them 3' apart and angled them inward so that the pvc could slip onto them easier.  I'd recommend using 5' sections of the EMT conduit and pounding them about halfway into the ground; the 2.5' that the EMT conduit goes up into the ribs adds further stability than if they only went, say, 6" up into the ribs.