Moving fiberglass greenhouse-what foundation & heat?

17 years ago

Hello,

I have a "hobby" greenhouse of fiberglass and I love it except we must move it and re-think the heater! It is 8'X15' and really warm when the sun shines!

We have propane gas and the company only delivers on Mondays and NEVER will stop off and top off the tank when they are in the neighborhood! They will not do auto-deliver on a greenhouse (must have been sued one time).

SO as a result--three years I have lost all my plants that can not be replaced! My daughter hybridizes geraniums and I get the ones she's not happy with--LOST THEM!

FOR PA. (north of Allentown) what foundation and what form of heat would YOU recommend? We even thought of oil line from our house (underground to the greenhouse).

HELP PLEASE--and thank you.

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Comments (3)

rhodyman
17 years ago
I have a 9x12 greenhouse. It is attached to our home where a Bilko door would normally go over the outside basement steps. I just want to keep things from freezing. I have tender pond plants in tubs in it. I have double glazing, it is the fiberglass sheets that are double layer with "I-beam" construction. The ends of the fiberlass sort of look like corrugated cardboard. I used normal house windows that I got cheap and aluminum storm windows. I heat it with an electric shop heater or garage heater. They mount on the ceiling or a wall. Mine from Lowes has a light built in so you can tell when heater is on. I installed a normal home electric heat thermostat that switches the outlet where the shop heater is plugged in. In extremely cold weather I also use kerosene heater. You could use your propane heater and back it up with electric and an audible alarm that comes on when the electric heat comes on or just look out to see if the light on the heater is on.

When I built the green house I dug the foundation 2' deep. Then I laid a concrete block foundation. I used solid blocks on the bottom and then regular blocks on that. I didn't use any mortar below grade thinking that I wanted moisture to be able to flow. I placed the block against each other. I had a watering system and was trying to let the moisture that went down on the ground escape easily.

When I dug the foundation, I got enough stone that I was able to make the above ground part of the foundation out of mortar and stone. There is not a single crack in the mortar despite the fact there is no mortar below grade and I built it over 30 years ago.

The most important part of a green house is ventilation and cooling. They will cook anything. I have an air-conditioning thermostat to control a vent fan. The vent fan is for a barn and has louvers that automatically open when it is on and close when it is off. Mine draws air from the basement when the fan goes on. Yours would need some source of air like another louvered vent.
Pipersville_Carol
17 years ago
rhodyman, your greenhouse sounds excellent. Can you post pictures?
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rhodyman
17 years ago
In this picture it is back by our home.