Advantages and disadvantages of wooden greenhouses. Manufacturing features and detailed technology for assembling wood structures. A wooden greenhouse is a useful building for the backyard for the early cultivation of flowers, berries, fruits and vegetables. Due to the ecological purity of wood and the ease of its processing, the construction of such buildings has become a mass phenomenon. You will learn how to make a wooden greenhouse by reading this material.
Features of the manufacture of wooden greenhouses
Wooden buildings, including greenhouses, can serve for more than ten years. This is possible subject to the rules of their construction and the use of wood for this purpose, resistant to decay and treated with antiseptics.
The greenhouse frame made of wood is lightweight, but at the same time quite stable. Due to this, the outer coating of such a structure can be made not only of transparent film, but also of polycarbonate.
When assembling a wooden greenhouse, they give any shape, freely varying its dimensions in height and width. The space inside the structure is suitable for placing the necessary fixtures, automatic irrigation systems, shelving. In addition, the greenhouse made of wood harmoniously fits into the natural landscape of the site.
The most popular timber greenhouses are tent and arched structures. In the first case, they have a gable roof and vertical walls. Such a structure can be easily glazed or covered with PVC film. The use of polycarbonate as a covering material for a tent greenhouse is unprofitable for economic reasons - too much waste is obtained when adjusting its sheets during their installation.
Arched greenhouses not only look great, but also create a comfortable environment for seedlings. It is recommended to cover the frames of such buildings with polycarbonate, which gives the interior space of a wooden arched structure the appearance of a small cozy pavilion. For proper air circulation in such a greenhouse, additional windows or vents must be provided.
Due to the pliability of wood during processing, make parts and assemble a simple structure from it for any homeowner inexperienced in construction. And most importantly, a do-it-yourself wooden greenhouse is economically much more profitable than its metal counterparts. It is very easy to attach any material to a wooden frame, and if any element of the structure breaks or decays over time, it will not be difficult to replace it. In addition, such a greenhouse, if necessary, can be dismantled and moved to another place.
Advantages and disadvantages of wooden greenhouses
Before starting the construction of a wooden greenhouse, it is recommended to determine all the pros and cons of such a structure.
Its advantages are as follows:
- Wooden beams for making a frame are easy to buy on the market, in a building materials store or at a sawmill. It is affordable, it is not high. Moreover, a high-quality product is not required in this case. It is quite enough to find timber that is free from obvious defects and well dried.
- Natural wood is environmentally friendly, which positively affects the quality of the final product grown in a wooden greenhouse and the health of the people serving it.
- The margin of safety of such a structure allows it to be operated within the next five years without resorting to major repairs, provided that measures are taken to protect the wooden structure from decay.
However, compared to metal, wood is more susceptible to weathering and less durable. This is the main disadvantage of all wooden greenhouses. In addition, structures built from lumber are classified as low fire safety class and therefore require increased attention.
Greenhouse installation technology made of wood
The assembly process of such a structure does not take much time. The main thing here is the presence of desire and small carpentry skills. We offer you step-by-step steps for making a wooden greenhouse in the description below. So, let's begin.
Choosing wood for building a greenhouse
Greenhouse frames can be made from oak, spruce, pine or larch beams. The wood of these species has a different structure, which determines the properties of a particular material.
Let's consider them in more detail:
- Oak timber is distinguished by its extraordinary strength and resistance to decay. For this reason, it is one of the most expensive lumber. A greenhouse made of oak wood will turn out to be beautiful and reliable. In the absence of financial constraints, such a structure can be safely recommended for manufacture.
- The pine frame of a greenhouse made of wooden blocks is lighter than oak, but more susceptible to adverse effects from soil and weather conditions. However, when processing such lumber with an antiseptic followed by painting, a greenhouse made from it can serve its owners for five years or more.
- Spruce timber is distinguished by a more affordable price, but an insufficient content of resins, which prevents the development of putrefactive processes in its wood. Therefore, the impregnation of this material before use with antiseptics is a mandatory procedure. In terms of strength, the greenhouse frame made of spruce is no worse than its pine counterpart.
- The frame made of larch is highly durable and resistant to moisture. With prolonged contact with water, the wood of this tree does not swell, but gains even greater strength. This property makes larch especially different from other coniferous trees. A greenhouse beam made from it does not need to be treated with antiseptics, with the exception of its lower part in contact with the ground. In many respects, the wood of this tree owes its remarkable properties to the resins that impregnate its structure.
Most often, coniferous wood is used for greenhouses, since lumber made from oak or beech is difficult to process and is quite expensive for a greenhouse.
The finished timber for the frame is a timber of 50x50 or 40x40 mm. If it is not available, you can use round sawlogs or boards. An excellent result can be obtained using glued pine timber. It is better than other sawn timber withstands high humidity and seasonal temperature drops, deforms and cracks less. The smooth surface of laminated veneer lumber does not need additional processing, so it is very convenient to assemble a greenhouse frame from it.
A wooden greenhouse can even be built from substandard material, which includes old window frames, slabs or unedged boards. However, the elegance of such a structure and its service life leave much to be desired. But at the same time, it becomes possible to save money and time for the manufacture of individual frame elements - vents and doors.
Greenhouse site preparation
For such a construction, you need to choose a flat and open area without shadows from trees, a fence or outbuildings. If necessary, the building site should be leveled. If heating is planned in the greenhouse, it is recommended to worry in advance about laying a heating system under it - metal or plastic pipes.
An equally important process is determining the size of the greenhouse and its shape. The area of the building depends on three main factors: the size of the suburban area; the type of plants planned for growing; the material possibilities of the family, which require certain expenses for the acquisition of everything necessary for construction.
It is important to understand that when building an oversized greenhouse, there is often no practical benefit at all. This is due to the fact that one common room may not be suitable for growing crops with different agrotechnical requirements. For example, cucumbers, which require a dry microclimate, are unlikely to get along in a common greenhouse with tomatoes that require moist soil and air.
Different thermal regimes and illumination also play an essential role in plant life. Therefore, the size of a garden greenhouse of 3x6 m is considered optimal in most cases. Such a building will not take up much space on a suburban area, and the crop grown in it will be enough even for a family of 5-6 people.
Installing a support under the greenhouse
Before starting construction, it is recommended to make a drawing of a wooden greenhouse with an indication of its dimensions. This will help to correctly determine the amount of materials required to support the structure, its frame and cover.
The timber frame must not be placed on the ground. This will lead to destruction from dampness and decay of the lower elements of the structure in contact with the soil. Therefore, for a wooden greenhouse, despite its low weight, the foundation is still necessary, even the simplest one.
Consider two options for arranging such supports:
- Column foundation … It is based on pieces of piles, lintels of window openings, pipes 150-400 mm in diameter, filled with a cement mixture. If there is a squared strapping at the base of the structure, the foundation posts should be placed along the perimeter of the future greenhouse in increments of 1-1, 2 m. If no strapping is expected, they must be installed under each frame post. The depth of such a foundation is on average 400-600 mm. A stronger and more massive foundation is not required due to the low weight of the greenhouse.
- Strip foundation … For a lightweight construction, it can be made from a wooden bar. Around the perimeter of the future greenhouse, you need to dig a trench 250-300 mm wide and below the depth of soil freezing. Then 2/3 of the recess must be filled with sand and 1/3 with crushed stone of an average fraction of 15-30 mm. Backfilling of sand and gravel should be accompanied by their layer-by-layer compaction using a rammer. Then roofing material should be laid on the crushed stone, and on top of this waterproofing - a wooden bar 300x300 mm, which must first be impregnated with an antiseptic and a water-repellent compound. At the corners of the foundation, the timber is connected to a groove or spike. The free edges of the roofing material must be brought onto the side surfaces of the timber and fixed to them with a stapler. The strip foundation is ready.
Assembling the frame for a wooden greenhouse
Consider the installation of a wooden frame using the example of a trapezoidal structure. To make the frame, four blanks are required. The process must begin with cutting bars, which will need eight pieces of 1 m long and twelve of 1, 2 m.
Then it is required to make blank racks from them. To do this, the abutting edges must be sawn down at an inclination of 45 degrees and 2 bars must be connected with screws. Then the two racks should be connected with a meter bar. The resulting frame must be secured to the base of the greenhouse.
Four such structures must be installed with a step of about 1.5 m and connected with bars. Two bars should be fixed on the inside of the part across the width and on top of the transverse blanks. At the end you need to make a doorway.
After fixing the wooden racks with a height of 1.5 m along the perimeter of the entire structure, it is necessary to nail the bars that play the role of the upper strapping of the frame.
For the manufacture of a triangular roof on a pair of bars of 1, 2 m, it is recommended to first make cuts, and then fix them to the harness at 45 degrees. The work on the frame should be completed by installing rafters in increments of 1-1.5 m and a ridge bar.
Laying the greenhouse cover
The finished frame can be decorated with glass, transparent film, polycarbonate. Each of these materials has its own advantages.
The most economical is polyethylene film, but its life as a coating is limited to one season. It does not withstand winter frosts and the weight of snow. Therefore, this greenhouse cover is changed annually. In a greenhouse covered with foil, it is quite hot during the day, and this material quickly cools at night.
The PVC film is put on the frame with a single piece. Its bottom edge should be fastened first. Then, after tensioning, the cover should be fixed in the middle, and then on top. To prevent the film from tearing from the wind load, it is necessary to fix the material on the frame using wooden slats.
Glass is ideal for a greenhouse. It perfectly transmits light rays, retains heat well and has a long service life. The ground in glazed greenhouses thaws quickly, so you can start planting seedlings early in them. However, the use of glass as a coating also has disadvantages. This material is fragile, it beats easily, and it is expensive.
For glazing greenhouses, window glass with a thickness of 4 mm is suitable. Its installation should be done from the bottom up, making an overlap of 1.5 cm. Before installing the glass, a layer of putty must be applied to its seats in wooden frames. The final fixing of the glass in the greenhouse frame must be done using nails without heads. Each glass, after fixing with nails, must be processed again with putty around the perimeter.
Polycarbonate belongs to modern materials for greenhouses. It keeps heat well, transmits light freely, has protection against ultraviolet radiation, and at the same time costs less glass. Polycarbonate sheets can be easily cut with a knife, but they are very difficult to break. The material is frost-resistant and lightweight. But it must be borne in mind that it is unacceptable to clean the polycarbonate coating of the greenhouse from snow using improvised means. With careful use and proper maintenance, it can last for more than 15 years.
Before installation, the protective film must be removed from the inside of the new coating, and the sheet itself must be laid on the frame. Its fastening should be done using special self-tapping screws and placing them in increments of 50-60 cm. It is advisable to carry out installation work in calm weather, since gusts of wind can interfere with the laying of light polycarbonate.
How to make a wooden greenhouse - watch the video:
In order for the greenhouse to be useful for a long time, the choice can be stopped on a structure with a wooden frame and a polycarbonate coating. All gardeners who know a lot about how to build a wooden greenhouse claim that this design option is optimal in terms of price and quality.
