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flooded greenhouse

dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
Hello all. Hope everyone's weekend has been nice.
I'm currently mid construction of a dug-out green house. She's 4' below grade and 7' above. My ends are not complete (awaiting parts) and over the past 36 hours we got a little over an inch of rain and lots of tough wind. This morning after the rain stopped I went to check the house and found almost a foot of water on the floor. I'm planning on pumping it out this afternoon and believe the water came in on my south facing side where there is a small 1" gap between the frame and the dirt. Could all of this water have come in from that gap? Or could it have seeped in through the below grade walls as well? The interior walls are made of 2x12's (salt treated) and the supports are buried 4' below the floor of the house. If the water seeped in from the long sides....is there a way (other than blocking in the entire thing & waterproofing) to prevent this from happening again? We're about to begin hurricane season and we're usually pretty wet then. Thanks!



these pictures are a few days before wrapping it in plastic and then that was a few days before our latest storm.
Thanks again!
 
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maryjaneismyfre

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
Find a distillery near you and get a load of scrag delivered ? They usually have too much to dispose of and will happily deliver for cost of fuel. I used to farm big commercial cucumber and chillies hydro in greenhouses..We used to use it for our flooring in drain to waste greenhouses.. Just lay it down and hit with a rented jack-hammer like flattening thing to make all level. It worked like a dream.
We eventually just got many 10 ton truckloads delivered cuz there was a brandy distillery close and it really cost nothing, We made out roads out of it and did all drainage channels around the farm with it. That might work for you trench runoff away and fill with scrag. Gravel will also work..
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
Update:
Sustained winds of 30mph yesterday with gusts of 50mph over the past 24 hours caused the plastic to completely come off....so I ordered the 8' U channel strips from Farmtek this morning and I'm changing my north end to be pitched rather than vertical. I'm hoping to avert the wind after yesterdays storms. I'm also going to build a small berm w/ some dense low shrubs along the top to help protect it a bit more. This afternoon there was only about an inch of water left inside.

@mary-thanks for the very helpful tip....I'll start searching today.
@todd-thanks man, I ordered some parts which should be here this week so I can complete it.
 
maryjaneismyfre

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
I built a 7x 3.5 x 2.5 m greenhouse last year in my backyard, the first model didn't last the wind on its first night so I went at it again, 40mm thick wall pvc instead of 25mm pvc. It has lasted fine since then and its F-off windy here, I get 30mph winds almost everyday where I stay. No jokes, its that windy here.. Its gale everyday in summer basically and storming in winter with gales.. I actually built the greenhouse cuz all my tomatos, dope, tobacco etc get destroyed in the wind here. Use proper greenhouse plastic if you aren't, cheaper 4 layer is fine.. Don't use 'uv' greenhouse film as UV means blocking UV so insects don't see the crops in the same light and we don't want to block UV. Also trench your plastic in if its getting ripped out, if the strips don't work. Dig a trench along each side, a ft deep and wide, putting soil to the outside in line where it came out, start the trenches 6 inches outside of your side poles that sides so that sides of plastic aren't completely vertical. Lay the plastic over the frame and lay it into the trenches and coming up out the other side. Now shovel the soil back onto the plastic, loosely filling the trench. Once done, take 4 pairs of hands if you can and tension the plastic pulling away from each other the tag ends and watch it suck onto the frame. As you pull away from each other, you give it its rigity and structural strength by stretching the plastic and the mass of the soil keeps it in place.. When all is in place, clamp the plastic round the two ends along the pvc piping or secure how you like, trim the tag ends of plastic along the sides sticking out of the soil on outside of trenches and bury and compact the soil above or better yet plant an aromatic herb garden along each side to give you cover, keep bugs away and keep yer dinner tasty.
We used to have a good couple 1600 sq/m multispan greenhouses back in the day and that is how the pro's that built them for us did it on the sides/plastic for the wind..
Also when trenching around the greenhouse for drainage and runoff control, take a look when it rains as to where your water flows. See where you can make it flow to and plan accordingly. Trench to divert the flow around and away from the greenhouse, compact the bottom of trenches and the lay the coal scrag ( from boiler rooms, distilleries, blacksmiths.. etc) or gravel up till ground level.. build up the downstream side of the trenches so water flows where you want it to. Trial and error. On the same said veggie farm years ago I renovated a old cottage for me to stay in, and realized when the first rains came that the whole hillside ran straight down the road and drained into my front door.. Trenched that shit like a mofo in no time, while my cottage was under 6 inches of water.. I had no more problems that except the river rising 8 m and flooding half the property, but I was dry :)
 
GP73LPC

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
nice greenhouse...

my hoop house has stood up to about 40-45 mph winds so far...
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
@maryjane-the trenching is a great idea.....I will do that tomorrow. Thanks!
I picked up some sandbags today and like how well they will work to secure the sides down. I will also dig them down a little as you suggested.
@gp-thanks for the kind words. I hope mine can handle like yours has.
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
update

update

Here's what got done yesterday and today. Filled all the sandbags and wrapped the plastic around the bottom sandbag. It all seems pretty tight and secure. I'm hoping this will help with the potential flooding with an upcoming storm which will probably dump a fair amount of water.
I'm looking into if there are some distilleries nearby where I can obtain that material. As of now, no such luck. I do have an order of pea gravel coming in this weekend and I'll probably put about 4" on the ground inside the house.



After the floor is done and the more support struts/bench frame have been added I will get some plants inside. Tomatoes, Peppers, Aurora Indica's, lettuce and carrots.

thanks seedless for the kind words!
 
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dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
Thanks!!!

I've got a question about venting this thing.....I'm looking at either the solar powered vent opener with a 30"x30" vent at the top north wall, not roof but vertical north end, or would powered louvers work better? Both systems open between 60F-77F depending on how they're set up. Is it more personal preference or does one just work better than the other?
 
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krazay

krazay

Member
have you looked at historic weather statistics for average/record lows and decided if you need any heating for the greenhouse?
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
Well, I do read the almanac and work around the schedules in there for my area...and I'll have to agree w/ kmk...we're two weeks from our last frost date and it's low 80's today.

I'm leaning towards putting in three louvers, one larger on the north end and two on the south end, split by the doorway.

Got all the rocks in the bottom (3-4") layer and started building the long bench. Without ventilation it was 120F in there at lunch time and I couldn't work any longer. Hopefully I can get back in there tomorrow morning and finish the bench before it gets too hot. Also, am waiting for the louver, screen and a zipper to come in to get her ready for planting.
Here's how it looks at the close of today:
 
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maryjaneismyfre

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
Looking very nice bro..
For venting, what about one of those solar powered greenhouse fans? Hotter it is the more it blows? Maybe in conjunction with what you have? I could do with more ventilation in my little one and when we grew veggies commercially it was always the cheaper simpler manually opened greenhouses that outperformed the fancy ones. They just had the ends of the top hoops, on both ends, manually opened and closed each day. I just leave my doors open all the time now just to keep humidity down..

Looked for some old photo's, the one in a big multi-span that we got the temps up to 68degreesC one day before the 3phase power was up for the fans to work. Another of the seedling greenhouse showing the boiler scrag we used as flooring like your gravel, and 30000 chilli plants haha.
 

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Space Toker

Space Toker

Active member
Veteran
my greenhouse is totally destroyed from the freak October snowstorm, but this thread has got me considering getting a new one (poles are badly bent so probably not salvagable). I am torn between having one with a dirt bottom (more weeds but weeds easier to control, can grow things like watermelon that won't otherwise produce in my climate, or since that is probably too inpractical just the ususal tomatoes/cukes/etc). I live in a non-med state with lots of air traffic so prob won't be growing anything but veggies/culinary herbs and so on. If I do go for the gravel floor, that scrag sounds good, it sure beats buying gravel! Great thread!
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
@space-that really stinks man...I hate to hear that. I opted for rocks for the floor because I think it will be easier to maintain and it will add a little to the thermal mass. I hope to be able to pull warm air from the top down to the bottom of the house where it can release during the cooler evening temps later on down the road.
I got a little more done inside today and ordered automatic shutters for one end. I will be manually opening the opposite end during the days. I will post pics Saturday of the table and beds.
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
update

update

Hello folks.
I got the table finished and lots planted over the past couple of days.
Broccoli, red onions, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peas and beans. Mostly all will be moved outside in a few weeks. Here's a few pictures of the table and troughs. The vent and doorway should be completed Monday or Tuesday and the shade cloth should be on next week. I've got a few Mandala kalichakra's waiting for the clear out before they go in the greenhouse. Hopefully, I can get them in by the last week of April. Hope everyone is doing great.

 
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