Blog from a greenhouse builder

Green Porch greenhouse mocked up - and wood store!

19/2/2011

One of those relaxed moments! Greenhouse mocked up outside the workshop and all is fitting as it should.

I’ll strip it all down then and pass it over to Sags for painting in the heated greenhouse. Great colour this one - Vert De Terre - even the green screws we use look good against it.

Recently built another storage rack for the wood stocks to air nicely before being worked on - you can see it behind me. It’s probably only of interest to me really - but I think I like this photo as much for seeing my storage rack as the greenhouse! Very happy with it.

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Got my “Cubs DIY” badge!

19/2/2011

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I thought my customers should know! Not only am I a member of The Guild of Mastercraftsmen but....on Friday I was awarded my own DIY badge from our local Cubs pack.

I’d been asked to lead a DIY session with my son’s Cub group on Friday - but the pressure to prepare was huge. I had to get everything ready so they could build (or put together using tools) 22 wooden machine guns.

Machine Guns?! I know it’s not very PC but we knew the boys would love it!

Here are some of the machine guns they built - they immediately coloured them up with felt tip pens - didn’t look quite as scary then...!

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Long walk in Devon

15/2/2011

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The suppliers could only get materials at the front gate of this beautiful property so.....well all I could do was make a lot of long trips with the wheelbarrow! Tiring first day but managed to catch up and by the 3rd day the wallplates were set, the interior flagged and gravel laid over the weedblock sheeting.

I’ll be back here in 3 to 4 weeks to erect the greenhouse - this one is a smaller size with a porch and painted in a beautiful grey/green colour (Vert De Terre from the Farrow & Ball colour chart).

I stepped the foundations to get over the slope in the ground. This meant I had to add another course of brick around the front half of the greenhouse to get everything level - although you can’t really see this in the final photograph given the poor light at that time of night!

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Henley on Thames - Greenhouse on a plinth

4/2/2011

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This one is interesting in being sited on an existing garage roof (a structural engineer’s report confirmed this concrete beam roof can take the extra weight). The greenhouse seems to suit the surroundings of this historic village - and I was delighted to get lots of positive comments from passers-by, the landlord of the pub and the owner told me of neighbours who had got in touch to say how much they liked it. The owner wanted crested ridge and all the glazing is only about 1ft wide. Perhaps this is even more of an Edwardian style - I love it though. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get photos of the finished greenhouse - it was dark by the time I got the guttering and shelving up - but I’m hoping the customer will be sending some over to me soon. I built the base for this one about 3 weeks ago and returned on Tuesday to build the greenhouse - leaving late on Wednesday night. A whirlwind visit - shame really as that pub over the road was great!</