Windows. Front side.

It is true at some point, that symmetry is discarded on what we build, and this is no exception, there is also that moment when we realise that we do not have enough windows, even though days ago, we were convinced that we had enough. I had a long, basically silly, conversation with AI today, and it is concluded that "garbage in and garbage out" is what you get with most of the so called artificial intelligence services nowadays, I could say they are quite mad, but the "services" are only as mad as their programmers.

Therefore, we went old school with our layout for the "front side" of the greenhouse.

In the middle there, at the top, we will place a vent.

When laying them all out, for this side of the structure, we realised how very big the thing is, and that more windows will be required for the "shed side" and so this afternoon, through marketplace and a seller in Sooke, we have found more free single pane windows for that side. We will pick them up in the morning, mainly as we have already had a few beers on our lovely Thursday afternoon "far from the madding crowds"

Big Progress

We class yesterday as one of the milestones of the greenhouse build, in the last week, everything has been tiny details, assembly of things, staining little blocks, staining big blocks...

Yesterday and this morning, all of that came together as the roof structure was added, of course it is "just" the rafters, but so much work went into the planning and construction of what you will see in the next photo, in addition, this was an awful lot of ladder work and it literally sucked the energy out of both of us to finish this barebones joist/rafter situation.

What you cannot see from this photo (because they were not installed at that point) are the multitude of four hole 2-7/8" custom blocks that we created, sanded, stained and installed, to ensure that the roof is not just attached with brackets, believe me when I tell you, the roof is so attached now you could pick up the entire structure.

We considered what we should do next and the usual 'trip to the legion for a couple of beers" seemed to be perfectly adequate.

We slept like logs last night.

Lots of progress, but mostly little details continued...

An update, as the title says, lots of progress on little things, but it feels at times like the project has stalled and as you can see from the latest photo, it does not look that different, so I will highlight the changes.

Each one of the gaps in the corners, that will hold the patio door glass pieces (34" x 76") have been updated with strips of pressure treated 2x1 all cut and attached with nails or screws and then stained. In addition, four 65" long 4x4 have been stained and added to the base sides, smaller pieces will be cut to fill the gaps, and then another layer added to build up the side walls, we intend to use up all our materials if possible.

Today, on the side rails, the brackets have been added to locate the rafters, or joists, whatever you want to call them, the rafters will also be pre-drilled and "toenailed" into the upper side beams and apex, before we do that we will add a temporary middle support on each side to prevent those beams from sagging with the added weight.

The rafters have been updated as an assembly with the polycarbonate H-Channel bottom pieces, each held in place with five special screws to allow for flex and expansion, there are 14 rafters in all, 10 of them for the middle of the greenhouse and 4 have been modified to be end pieces.

The plan is to install the middle columns at the sides and all the brackets along the ridge beam tomorrow, which may be the day that all the rafters are installed.

We will see how much enthusiasm we have then...

Little Details

The creation of the rafters meant that we had a lot of small pieces of 2x4 sitting around in a scrap heap, so yesterday we decided to start filling in the middle space at the end of the greenhouse which will be below a specific window we purchased, we did a lot of cutting, and as we progressed we did cut some the wrong size, but we managed in the end without strangling each other. Today it was a far more relaxing day as staining was involved and at each corner of the upper structure, little details added.

Recycling end cuts of recycled wood.

Those top corners needed a "feature" to allow for the end rafters and angle brackets to extend past the outer frame of the greenhouse, along with four filler pieces to make the upper edge of the frame continuous. This involved much cutting, clamping, attaching and staining and even though it was all very relaxing, the workers have voted and we have decided that we deserve a pint.

 

Fit

The rafters are all stained and available, special roofing screws with neoprene compound washers ordered from Amazon, the "dry" fit of the polycarbonate has been done, as you can see, two rafters at the 25 inch pitch, H-channel that has been cut and one piece of the 2' x 4' polycarbonate twin wall used to verify the dimensions from the spreadsheet...

 ...and just to make sure we did not miscalculate the lengths, two end rafters were placed in position.

As mentioned, special screws that will allow for expansion have been ordered, once we have them, all of the rafters will be assembled with the H-channel, five screws per length and pre-drilled holes. There will also be a couple of "pitch guides" created that will help with the positions of the hurricane brackets, anything to make life easier, especially when up on ladders.

Joists or rafters, Ridge angle and supplies...

It is labour day, supposedly a day off for the workers, but not on this job site.

We need 14 rafters, and need to have a couple spare for the back end of the greenhouse if the tolerance stackup works against us. Therefore we cut 16 rafters, or joists, whatever you want to call them and they are 65" long 2x4 material, then an extra cut of 22 degrees at the ridge point. 

It became somewhat of a production line, finding straight (ish) wood, cutting to length, then cutting the angle at one end. Then all of them needed to be stained, which will take a couple of days because they need to be stained on both sides.

In the photo above, in the distance you will see three bundles of wood that someone on the estate was giving away, 8 foot long strapping for siding, we will use it for the inner, and perhaps, outer retention of the large 34x76 window panes on the left there which are scheduled to be installed after we have finished the roof.

Talking of that, it was looking like we may have to exceed the budget on the ridge line of the roof, plus we needed a plan, we always need a plan. I had worked out that as I still have plenty of the 2x4 wood, I could use a double width of 7" on each side of the ridge, so that factors into other calculations of polycarbonate length, positions of H-channel and some clearance, and all that material is on hand, except for sealing the ridge, which of course is essential to minimize leaks.

On marketplace yesterday, the above popped up with a price tag of $20 and after talking to the chap, we arranged to pick it up today, which made it quite a labour filled labour day. The EZ-Ridge XT has 24 of the original 30 remaining (a full box costs around $180) and 24 of them covers a 16' length so it is perfect, plus the shingles will also be used to cover over the 2x4 external ridge beams, which will also be stained and retained with those angle brackets we bought a week or so back.

We love it when a plan comes together.

That means that, besides a box of roofing nails, caulk and some short screws and washers, we should have all the materials required to finish the project. 

Famous last words.

Back in the saddle...

We had a great four days in Calgary and returned on Saturday, on the drive back from the airport we stopped off at Home Depot for an eight foot piece of epoxy coated rebar and as usual, strapped it to the roof rack but this time using four zip-ties we had found in Calgary City Center - it was odd that zip-ties would be lying around on the street, however, there was construction everywhere and one thing for sure is, I cannot walk past a free zip-tie on the floor without picking it up and subsequently watch Karen give me the look.

There was to be no photo today, mainly because after about two hours working on the greenhouse, it does not look any different, as though nothing happened. Ok, I will show a photo as it is a record of what happened, plus when we add the 4x4 on top it will never be seen again, except here :

The rebar was cut into six 16" pieces using the reciprocating saw, then on each side of the greenhouse base three holes were drilled at about equal distance, the base being approximately 5-3/4" deep and the gravel was cleared below the holes before the stakes were driven into the compacted ground using a sledgehammer, after that we pushed the gravel back and finished off with some stain.

This two hour process is merely to add some lateral stability to the structure. A greenhouse, or a shed, will move over time because of vibration, gravel shifting and of course, the weather, especially the wind. Although this greenhouse is quite sheltered we decided that placing six stakes about nine inches into the ground provides a little sleep at night factor that at least we did something to stop the structure moving.

As we say, time will tell.