|
Over the past few weekends I built a porch for my house - as a side project from building greenhouses in the week - but this project shares many similar aspects. I can add a porch to my house as "permitted development". I don't need to involve the council as long as it's less than 3sq metres in size and below 3m in height. I'm building mine just below that.
On the next weekend I built the walls from concrete blocks, added the drip edge and corner beading (I screwed them into the blocks) and rendered both sides - one "scratch" coat in 3:1 sand cement mix and a final brushed-up coat in 4:1.
0 Comments
I brought a compactor this week and laid Type 1 quarry waste to provide a very solid base for the pathway. I'm really pleased with the finished look of this path and will want to do a lot more of this version in the future. I'll return in a few weeks to add the accoya greenhouse to this base.   Back on the road again this week after all the recent van trouble and delighted to be back with Chris and Phao who were such great company. Their dog Toby wasn't that sure and kept a vigilant eye on me throughout. This greenhouse is a "Sarah" - 2.2m wide by 2.8m long. Being around 2.8m high the interior is tall and roomy with plenty of height for growing plants and space for 2-tier shelving right along the rear. Where space is limited this provides a lot of growing and potting up space without taking up much room.
 Robin Thought you might like to see the greenhouse you built surrounded by a decent garden at last! It's in full use with tomatoes and cucumbers and the automatic air vents are an amazing invention, as it's a real suntrap (even in winter it had warmth), yet I don't have to remember to open/ close them each day. It's been a long project, but everything has finally come together- so thank you very much for your part in it! Kind regards Paula 
Unfortunately the van broke down while I was here so we ran out of time to lay the cobblestone flooring Greg wanted. This can be finished off when I return with the completed greenhouse in a few weeks.
 This greenhouse is built entirely from accoya. I applied an oil based preservative to the wood - it doesn't really need it given that accoya is guaranteed to last for 50 years without any protection (25 years under water). However, accoya seems to drink up the oil making it less brittle to work with and it fetches out a honey rich grain. I think it looks spectacular. It's situated on a circular route around mount Snowden and people kept stopping to say how much they liked it.   This greenhouse has lots of ventilation - 6 auto-opening windows in the roof and 7 windows around the sides which can be opened manually and retained with casement stays. I added some shelving and a potting station with tray on the gable wall. Rather than have shelving running over all the side opening windows I built 4 large potting tables which can be moved around the inside as you want. My customer Mike has used them as a row along one wall or as a central island as shown in the picture below.
 I'm so excited to show you the completed Caernarfon greenhouse in natural accoya. Unfortunately, it's a few days off being completed yet - but here's a taster, before I finish cleaning the brickwork up, fitting the shelving, and glazing the surrounds. 
Dear Robin Thank you so much for creating such a beautiful greenhouse. Although we are novice gardeners, we can’t wait to start using it. Thanks so much Robin, and if you’re ever down this way again, you are more than welcome to pop by. Kind Regards Anne  This greenhouse is made entirely from accoya - guaranteed for 50 years against rot or insect attack. It is dimensionally stable so the doors and windows won't swell/warp/stick/shrink whatever the weather throws at it.
 There are 4 automatic-opening windows in the roof, 2 manual openers on the gable ends.
This one is called "Jon" - named after the first customer who asked me to build him a "Steve"-type but could he have it a bit wider (3m) and longer (4m). |
Click on each
|
RSS Feed
