A method of installing a greenhouse from old window frames, the features of such structures and their advantages, preparation for work and installation instructions. A window frame greenhouse is one of the most inexpensive options for growing seedlings. Even old, but durable products are suitable for the construction of such a structure. Our today's material will tell you in detail how to build a greenhouse from window frames.
Features of greenhouses from window frames
Old windows, which today are often replaced with double-glazed windows enclosed in plastic, are usually then sent to the scrap. But they can be given a second life, using in the construction of a greenhouse. Moreover, when for a factory product made of polycarbonate, for example, and a profile of money is not enough. And here at hand is solid, plant-safe and, most importantly, free material. Window glass has sufficient strength and perfectly transmits light, which is important for plant life.
Getting old frames is not difficult, especially when only a few are needed for a small greenhouse. It's good if they survived after dismantling the old building or replacing them with double-glazed windows. In extreme cases, the required number of old frames can be asked from friends and neighbors who have carried out major home renovations, or you can negotiate with the installers of plastic windows who simply take their dismantling products to the landfill.
From the resulting material, you can assemble the main parts of the greenhouse. This process is creative. We'll have to delve into the nuances of the foundation for the conceived structure and determine the location of each window frame in it. If problems arise with the adjustment of the constituent elements of the structure, pieces of polycarbonate, foam and screws, sealant and ordinary cement can come to the rescue.
In general, there are three main options for assembling a greenhouse from old windows:
- Sheathe the bottom of the frame with wooden planks. This will ensure that the glass of the greenhouse will remain intact when watering the plants or digging the soil.
- Glaze the finished frame with material taken from old windows. Then the greenhouse will look full, and the frames can be applied at your discretion.
- Dock the window frames into a single structure. If they are of different sizes, you have to be creative. To begin with, draw up a plan for placing frames in the structure so that the structure looks harmonious.
Benefits of greenhouses from old windows
Due to the availability of material and simple assembly, even a beginner in this business can make a greenhouse from window frames with his own hands.
The advantages of such a structure "on the face":
- Wood is strong enough, with good care, frames made from it will last more than one year. High-quality processing of wooden products makes them invulnerable to the effects of precipitation and sunlight.
- Glass of windows, in addition to good ability to light transmission, qualitatively protects the inner space of the greenhouse from the outside cold air.
- The assembly of a structure from window frames attracts many because in such a greenhouse it is convenient to ventilate through any window.
In addition to all of the above, there are many more positive aspects in the construction and use of such a structure:
- Economical and practical … They are due to the fact that at low costs for the purchase of consumables, you can get a ready-made greenhouse protected from external influences as a result of your work. Most often, old frames are covered with paint and not even one layer.
- Environmental Safety … Wood as a natural material harmoniously fits into the inner space of the greenhouse.
- Durability … It depends on the type of wood used to make the frame. The most hardy species are oak and larch. A greenhouse with a timber frame can last 5 years on average. However, this period varies depending on the care of the building and the climatic zone of its location.
- Heat capacity … Window frames are excellent at retaining stored heat. Sunlight freely passing through them contributes to the heating of the greenhouse in a natural way.
- High quality lighting … Due to the high light transmission of the window glass, the greenhouse space is illuminated as well as outdoor beds. UV radiation, which is harmful to some plants, can be eliminated by gluing a tinted film to the glass from the inside of the greenhouse.
- High strength of wood … This quality is indispensable for the stability of a window frame greenhouse. It can be increased by impregnating products with modern drugs.
Advice! If there are no glass in the frames assembled for the building, honeycomb polycarbonate can be successfully used instead of them or, in the worst case, plastic wrap.
Greenhouse installation technology from window frames
The frame structure of the greenhouse includes a support, frame and cover. Consider the step-by-step manufacture of each of these elements.
Preparation for the construction of a greenhouse
This stage of work includes the choice of a site for the construction, its design, preparation of materials and the necessary tools.
Before you make a greenhouse out of window frames, you need to draw up a detailed drawing of it with a scheme for placing the frames, especially if they are of different sizes. Beforehand, each frame will need to be measured. The total width of all products determines the length of the greenhouse. To make it symmetrical, it is recommended to select frames of the same height.
The width of the structure should be chosen in accordance with the planned size of the beds and aisles, which are convenient for walking and driving a shopping cart. The greenhouse bed is usually 1 m wide.
After drawing up a detailed drawing, it will be easy to calculate the consumables needed for the construction of a greenhouse: fasteners, nodal parts, fittings, etc.
When the dimensions of the future greenhouse have already been determined, you need to choose a place for its placement. The functionality of the structure will depend on how correctly this is done. It needs a flat, well-lit area. There should be no objects near the greenhouse that can shade it: tall trees, a fence, other buildings, etc. In addition, such structures are not recommended to be located in the path of the prevailing winds. In the winter season, this will reduce the heat loss of the greenhouse. Ideally, the longitudinal axis of the greenhouse should be oriented from north to south.
The soil for a structure made from old windows should not be damp and strong, since the mass of such greenhouses is very significant, and the excess moisture for a wooden structure is destructive. A successful soil structure for a greenhouse should consist of a lower sandy layer and an upper layer of fertile chernozem.
If the soil on the site is clay, the place for building the greenhouse must be covered with gravel, on top of it, make a pillow with a thickness of at least 100 mm of sand, tamp it and refine it with fertile soil. For such a "pie", you first need to remove the top layer of soil from the entire building area to a depth of 30-40 cm.
The level of occurrence of groundwater is of great importance. For a greenhouse, it should be at least one and a half meters down. Damp soil is not suitable for the construction of such structures.
Processing old windows
If you plan to build a greenhouse from old window frames, they should be properly prepared. Previously, the material must be carefully examined for damage. To facilitate this and subsequent work from the frames, it is required to remove glass and all accessories - latches, handles, and so on. After that, the surface of the products must be cleaned from paint to wood. If rotten elements are found, they must be replaced with new ones.
The cleaned frames must be treated with an antiseptic, which will protect the structure in the future from dampness, mice and insects.
Small cracks can be easily repaired with a special wood putty. After it dries, problem areas need to be sanded with sandpaper. Then the prepared surface of the frames must be painted with enamel for outdoor use. This paint is not afraid of moisture and frost.
The height of the walls of the future greenhouse from the frames should be planned at least 1, 7-1, 8 m. The total height of the structure depends on the slope of the roof slopes. For a film cover, it must be larger than for a polycarbonate or glass cover.
Building a foundation for a greenhouse from windows
A stationary frame structure, which is not dismantled for the winter and can serve 3-5 seasons, has a solid weight and therefore requires a strong foundation. Another need for its construction is the small height of the window frames, it averages 1.5 m. There is not much of it for comfortable movement inside the greenhouse. Therefore, two or three tens of centimeters missing to the norm can be increased by the walls of the foundation. Another advantage of this solution is the elimination of direct contact of the wood from the bottom of the frame with the ground. This means that the window frames of the greenhouse will rot less.
Having decided on the desired height of the structure, it is easy to calculate the vertical size of the above-ground part of its support. The total height of the frames and walls of the foundation should allow you to move around the greenhouse without bending over.
The most reliable is a concrete strip foundation. After choosing a place and laying out a construction site along its perimeter, you need to dig a trench 50-70 cm deep, depending on the level of soil freezing. The standard trench width is 15-20 cm. A large excavation depth will make the structure frost-proof. This will provide an opportunity for early planting of plants in early spring.
The bottom of the trench should be covered with crushed stone, and a sand cushion 10 cm thick should be created on top of it. Then it should be impregnated with liquid concrete, filled with stones and the remaining mixture poured into it, filling the cavity to the level of the ground surface.
The next day, you need to install the panel formwork to raise the walls of the foundation to the required height. Usually it is 15-25 cm. In the formwork, stones or reinforcement can be placed, which will strengthen the above-ground part of the support for the greenhouse. After that, everything should be poured with concrete and left for 28 days for it to solidify completely.
You can ignore the formwork device, performing the overhead part of the support from a wooden beam with a section of 150x150 mm. To obtain an additional 30 cm of greenhouse height, eight bars must be placed in pairs on top of each other. Before installation, they should be soaked in used car oil. Between themselves, the bars must be connected with staples, and the end joints of the structure must be strengthened with metal corners. The frame must be separated from the foundation with roofing felt waterproofing.
For the foundation of a miniature greenhouse, it will be enough to dig a trench 30 cm deep, fill it first with rubble, then with sand, and then immediately mount a support frame from a bar from above. The disadvantage of this solution is that such a greenhouse can freeze in winter.
Installation of a frame for a greenhouse from window frames
It consists of racks and two straps - upper and lower. For strapping, you can use metal corners or timber and boards. The horizontal bottom strapping of steel corners should be performed when pouring the upper part of the foundation to firmly connect the metal parts to the support. In this case, the side struts of the structure must be made from the same corners, then welded or fixed with bolted connections on the lower strapping. The height of the top harness must be determined with great care. It is important that the wooden frames do not suddenly end up behind its line - higher or lower.
To make a wooden frame of a greenhouse, you will need a beam with a section of 100x100 mm, eight boards 40 mm thick, four side racks and several intermediate ones. Their number depends on the number of windows that need to be installed. For example, if the frame will consist of four frames in length and two in width, you will need three racks on each of its sides and one on the end.
The cross-sectional dimension of the timber for the racks must be at least 50x50 mm. All connections of the wooden parts of the frame must be performed with metal corners, pre-drilling the seats for the screws in the wood. It is advisable to protect steel parts from rust with anticorrosive enamel.
The assembly of the frame should be carried out in the following order:
- Attach a beam of 100x100 mm to the foundation with anchor bolts. It will serve as the basis for further installation of the frame.
- Install the side posts, checking their verticality with a building level.
- Carrying out a half-wood cut at the mates, fasten the boards that form the lower trim of the greenhouse frame with nails.
- Install intermediate struts. The distance between them must match the width of the window.
- Run the upper strapping with boards along the uprights.
- To protect against rot and insect infestation, the frame racks must be treated with an antiseptic.
It is convenient to knock down the gable roof frame below on the ground, and then install it on the walls of the structure. The central risers, which serve as a support for the roof, are recommended to be made of a more powerful bar than the one that will be used for the rest of the roofing elements. For rafters and a ridge, you can use a bar with a section of 50x50 mm. Intermediate rafters of the roof frame can be made from thick planks instead of beams. The distance between them usually corresponds to the width of the frames.
Greenhouse covering device
It is recommended to cover such a greenhouse from polycarbonate or polyethylene film. Frames are less suitable for this. The fact is that they greatly increase the weight of the structure, and it is inconvenient to fix the glass on the roof slopes. Another thing is plastic or film. They can be easily removed for the winter. And glazed frames, which are difficult to disassemble, will accumulate snow caps in winter, creating an additional load and thereby shortening the life of the greenhouse's wooden frame.
For a film coating of a structure made of window frames, the slope of the roof slopes must be large. This is useful so that the rain water on the film does not linger when it deflects and flows down well. Polycarbonate sheets are more rigid than foil. Therefore, when using them for covering, the slope of the greenhouse roof may be less than in the previous case.
Sheets of cellular polycarbonate must be fixed to the rafters and gables using bolts with wide washers. To protect the walls of the greenhouse from rainwater, it is necessary to leave the overhangs of the roof, which should protrude beyond the side enclosing structures by 150-200 mm.
It is convenient to mount the film on the frame simultaneously from different sides. Therefore, this operation is best performed together, easily controlling the amount of tension on the material. For its fastening, thin wooden slats are suitable, which, after pressing the film, must be fixed with nails on the roof frame.
In order to minimize the sagging of the film on the greenhouse to the maximum, it is recommended to lay the covering on a mesh frame made of a cord stretched between the roof rafters.
Fastening window frames to the frame
After the greenhouse roof is made, window frames can be installed in its frame. The fixation of these elements of the structure should be carried out from its outer side using screws. The gaps between the frames must be filled with polyurethane foam, and then closed with thin strips for maximum tightness. Glasses in frames must be laid on a sealing compound, and then fixed with glazing beads. In this case, the movement of air through the closed frame will be excluded.
When installing frames, it is necessary to check the condition of the vents. They should not be skewed. If necessary, they need to be corrected. To keep the vents in the closed position, hooks must be nailed. In addition, you should come up with a retainer to keep them open.
Greenhouse doors should be installed at the end of the structure. If it is narrow, then its end can be left without frames at all - they will not fit there. It will be easier if, in this case, the entire end, except for the doorway, is sheathed with foil.
The door frame must be made of timber. The door leaf can be hung on it using the hinges taken from the window frames. After that, it remains to fill the fertile layer of earth into the greenhouse, make beds and start planting plants.
How to make a greenhouse from window frames - watch the video:
As you can see, an environmentally friendly and convenient greenhouse from window frames can be built independently for mere pennies. Consider this possibility when you are planning to replace old windows in your home with new modern double-glazed windows. Good luck!
