Blog from a greenhouse builder

Van trouble

27/6/2018

Here's my van being carried back from Reading last week.

The AA were great though - faced with being stranded between my B&B, customer or going home, but with only one journey to make. Do I collect my belongings from the B&B, take the van to my job knowing it's broken but getting on with the job or just abandon the work and go home - the AA towed me a few miles up the road to my customer's house and delayed the collection until later the next day so I could complete the base build.

Greg kindly took me to the B&B and collected me the next morning.

After being at the mechanics a few days, and seemingly fixed, the van then broke down as I got ready for this week's trip.

All the electrics are being replaced.

Hopefully back on the road again soon.

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Update from Manchester - transformed

25/6/2018

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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

Above is a picture of the garden when I arrived to start building a greenhouse to fit the existing walls.

Click here to see earlier blog entry for building this Manchester greenhouse.

Thank you so much for these Paula – the garden looks amazing. I’m proud to have been a part of it.
I love the water-butt / container ..and the planting, trees and sandstone patio. Beautiful. I’ll add this picture to my website if that’s ok with you.

The auto vents are fun aren’t they. I often look at the window at my own greenhouse as a clue to what the day’s like.

Thank you again. I’m sure you and David are very happy and enjoying the garden in this wonderful weather. It was quite a long process but the end result is incredible.

Kindest regards
Robin.

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Reading

22/6/2018

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A massive thank you to Greg, my customer this week.

I'm not going to tell you all he did to help in case you worry you'll have to do the same! Greg wanted to be part of building his own greenhouse and he can surely lay claim to that after being a massive help.

This greenhouse will be the popular "Steve" version painted in Lichen colour.

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.

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Caernarfon finished

15/6/2018

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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.