You Can Build Your Own Add-On Greenhouse

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The simplest way to connect the upper ends of the lean-to greenhouse's rafters to your house is by resting and spiking them to the top of a 2 X 6 or, 2 X 8 ledger which, in turn, is securely spiked directly to the main structure's wall studs. (The best way to make absolutely certain that the ledger is spiked directly to those studs is by carefully removing one or two lengths of the house's siding and then fastening the ledger on in their place.)

Remember, too, that the rafters should be braced at each end and in the center (2 X 6 or 2 X 8 blocks work quite nicely) so they won't twist. Each rafter should be notched to fit the ledger strip on one end and the horizontal beam on the other. (Mark one rafter, cut it to fit, and then use the first as a pattern to mark the others.) Coat each joint—and every other wood-to-wood joint in the greenhouse—with sealing preservative before nailing the juncture together.

CONSTRUCTION: GLAZING, SIDING, AND ROOFING

The glass or plastic with which you cover the walls and part of the roof of your conservatory can be purchased new or used ... or the material may even be entirely salvaged from wrecked houses, stores, barns, factories, and other old buildings. It really doesn't panes, old windows already set in frames, rigid panels of fiberglass, or commercial skylights and/or domes. Almost anything that will transmit light will work. Do, however, try to pick and choose panes of glass or plastic that will look attractive once they're in place ... and do make certain that whatever you use is installed in a safe and permanent manner.

Glass already mounted in wooden frames, for example, can be set into tracks on the side of the greenhouse ... or attached to the building with nails driven right through the frames. Fiberglass, also, can be nailed directly into place (with sealing compound applied where the panels overlap each other) ... but you'll have to rabbet (groove) out special channels for bare panes of glass and set them into place with some kind of glazing compound. You'll probably also have to do some special framing for any commercial "bubbles" or skylights that you install in the conservatory's roof.

If you buy your glass, you'll soon learn that greenhouse glass is graded SSB (single strength B grade), DSB (double strength B grade), SSA (single strength A grade), and DSA (double strength A grade). In general, single strength glass is 1/16" and double strength is 1/8" thick ... and, of course, A is to be preferred over B. This neat little grading system is further complicated by tempered glass (which is five times as strong as standard glass and which comes in 3/16", 7/32", and 1/4" thicknesses) ... and wire glass which, just as the name implies, is glass with a grid of wire embedded in it. Both tempered and wire glass are much safer to use than ordinary glass. Indeed, in some states you're allowed to use only one or the other of these grades for the first 16 inches above the surface of the earth if the glass in your greenhouse runs all the way to the ground.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print