Building a Greenhouse: A DIY Journey

As I embarked on my greenhouse building project, I was excited to see how it would turn out and whether I could replicate the look and feel of the commercial ones. The first part of the process involved securing the twin walls to the wooden frame that coincidentally matched their width. To achieve this, I measured the lengths of the required laths, cut them with a jigsaw, and positioned them all around the greenhouse before finally securing them in place with metal brackets and screws.

The next step was to create supporting laths for the roof, which I mounted to the front and back side of the greenhouse's roof. It was essential to ensure that everything was secure and would withstand the elements. In addition, I added a smaller piece of wood at a height of 150cm to the front of the greenhouse, which would act as an upper limit for the door. This wooden slat is salvaged from an old project where I built an LED bar, providing a unique touch to my greenhouse.

As I began working on the plywood door, things took a turn when I had to remove a big piece of the front upper pillar to easily enter the greenhouse. Unfortunately, this also meant that I cut the plywood incorrectly, and thus, I had to create a Frankenstein door out of two smaller pieces. However, with some adjustments, including adding a supporting piece of wood to the lower front post, I secured two hinges to the door construction, lifted the plywood door into place, added a lock to hold it there, and mounted it to the hinges through the help of M5 screws and nuts.

For four days, I started unwrapping the twin-wall sheets that would be the main focus of the remaining two days. To mainly mount them to the wood, I used such Tackerkrallen which I will now refer to as clips. By widening them a bit, they can snugly hold the 4mm thick sheets and thus, I only had to secure them to the main wood frame with screws, get the sheets in place, and add even more of them. Occasionally, I had to create custom sheet sizes, but this was super easy to do using a simple box cutter.

The roof, however, was a bit more challenging since the sheets had no mounting laths on the top side yet. To address this, we first cut more roof batten in order to create such an amounting line before filling up the empty space with more wood and securing the sheets to the roof with the clips. For the lower side attachment, we had no other choice but to use some screws with big washers which will hopefully keep the water out.

As I continued working on the greenhouse, I cut the remaining sheets for the first roof part and secured them in place just like I described it before. To prevent water from entering through the roof, we used aluminum tape to cover the gap between all the roof sheets. Finally, after that was done, it was time to mount the smaller remaining twin-wall sheets that I had lying around to the top of the roof, which was not only very hard to reach but sometimes we also had to improvise a bit inorder to get a nice pointy roof tip.

After a lot of hassle, the roof was finally complete. To finish off the greenhouse, I created couple of special shapes of the sheets in order to cover the remaining holes of the greenhouse. Additionally, I created rather small strips of the sheets in order to cover the space between the lower posts of the greenhouse and the earth.

With that process being completed, the greenhouse was basically done, more or less at least. A proper aluminum ledge for the roof tip is missing, as well as some aluminum tape for the roof and not to forget two windows, but I will talk about all of that during the last part of my greenhouse automation videos series. In conclusion, my DIY version was in my case bit more expensive than the Buy version and of course you will have to invest more time into it.

However, since I really like the look and feel of a DIY greenhouse, I will have to say that it is a tie this time and depending on what you are looking for, DIY or Buy can be the winner for you. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. As always, thanks for watching, don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell to not miss the next episode about this greenhouse. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi there, so this video is a bit special because2 weeks ago I had no idea that I would makesuch a video.As you might know during last summer I starteda project video series in which I not onlyset up a bought greenhouse in my garden butalso automated it.I measured the temperature and humidity insideit and sent this data to a LoRa gateway inmy apartment 300m away which then publishedthe data on the internet.I also created a motorized window opener forthe system and to finish this video seriesoff, I actually started production on part3 about a month ago.The only problem was that while finishingthe new electrical and mechanical system inmy apartment, a big storm hit Germany whichturned my bought greenhouse into a kite andpretty much destroyed its aluminium framewhile landing.So that basically means I got a new LoRa systemready for installation and plants that desperatelywant to live in a greenhouse but no longera greenhouse.And that is why in this episode of DIY orBuy I will show you how I built a new andreally sturdy DIY greenhouse over the courseof 5 days that you can easily build as well.This way we can find out whether it makessense to DIY such a greenhouse or whetherwe should stick to the commercial solutioninstead like I did before.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by JLCPCB!Feel free to visit their website JLCPCB.comto not only find out what awesome PCB andAssembly services they offer but also to easilyupload your Gerber files and thus order affordableand high quality PCBs quickly.First off let me tell you that while reusingthe aluminium frame was not possible, it wascertainly possible to reuse the twin wallsheets which I did.But just to be on the safe side I orderedanother package of them which in hindsightwas mandatory since my new greenhouse is abit bigger than the old one.And that bring me to the three kinds of timberI used for this build.For the lower main foundation I used 90x90x1850mmlong posts, for the main roof foundation Iused 30x60x2000mm long squared timber andfor the rest I used pretty common 24x48x2000roof batten.Then we also used lots of different kindsof screws, metal brackets, hinges and so on,of which you should definitely make a listlike I did before starting such a project.And when it comes to tools then there is quitea bit that you will need too; but most importantlyI would recommend having a chainsaw for quicklycutting the big posts, a jig saw to cut everythingelse, an electric drill to get all the screwsinto place and a big spirit level in orderto constantly check whether everything islevel, obviously.And with the introduction out of the way,we started day one by hammering one of thesix ground sleeves I bought into the earth.These ground sleeves with their length of90cm will not only prevent the greenhousefrom becoming a kite once again but they willalso lift the wood construction up a bit.I did this because the soil in my garden isalways moist which would have rotted the woodquicker.But anyway after using another post to determinethe distance to the next sleeve, we hammeredthat one into place while making sure thatboth sleeves were level to one another.Then we marked a height of 130cm onto bothupright posts at which we cut them with thechain saw.By the way this height will allow the twinwalls to be mounted to the pillars.So next we drilled holes into the poles, beforewe permanently mounted them inside the sleeves.Afterwards we positioned another post betweenthem while making sure that everything waslevel and secured it in place with two metalbrackets and screws.For the upper remaining pole however we firstlymounted the metal brackets in position beforeadding the pole.And just like that we got a lovely woodensquare to which we secured a rope in orderto get the alignment right for the next twoground sleeves.You see by making sure that the rope leavesin parallel to the already existing post,we can create a perfect orientation line thatwe obviously used in order to position thethird and fourth ground sleeve.Any by the way while the length of the frontand back side was limited by the dimensionof one pole, we decided on a length of 380cmfor the longer sides which basically toldus where to position the middle ground sleeve.Now just like before we cut the pillars tosize, secured them to the sleeves and thenadded metal brackets and lower and upper betweenthe posts.But let me tell you that while doing so wealso used pretty basic wood stain in orderto protect the timber from UV radiation.OK, to finish the foundation of this greenhouse,we used the rope trick once again but thistime with a corner in order to determine theposition for the remaining two ground sleeves.And just like before we cut the timber andsecured them in place with tons of screwsand metal brackets in order to get the mainstructure done by the end of the first day.Now we started off the second day by addinga temporary lath between two posts to getthem correctly into position for the roofwhich was surprisingly easy to figure outhow to do.Since we know that the base side of the roofis 203.5cm long because we actually measuredit and that we got an angle of 45 degreeshere, we can use some simple math to get alength of 143.9cm for the roof sides.So we cut those required pieces from the biggersquared timber with a 45 degrees angle andsecured two of them to the front side of thegreenhouse.To keep them in place we used a 90 degreebracket for the upper corner and two 135 degreebrackets for the connection with the mainstructure.Then we pretty much repeated this processfor the back of the greenhouse and the middlesection.Next we measured the distance between thethree roof triangles, cut the necessary roofbatten to size and secured them to the roofin order to form a low, middle and high mountingline.And that basically ends day 2 which bringsme to day 3 in which I started by markingthe 70cm door onto a front pillar.Then I also marked the position of additionalsupporting roof battens all around the greenhousewhich should preferably get positioned 60cmapart from one another so that we can latereasily secure the twin walls to them whichare coincidentally 60cm wide.Next I measured the lengths of those requiredlaths, cut them with the jigsaw and positionedthem all around the greenhouse before I finallysecured them in place with more metal bracketsand screws.As soon as that was done, I created more supportinglaths for the roof which I mounted to thefront and back side of the greenhouses roof.And I should not forget to mention that Ialso added a smaller piece of wood at a heightof 150cm to the front of the greenhouse whichwill act as the upper limit for the door forwhich I used a big piece of plywood that Isalvaged from a very old project in whichI built an LED bar, so feel free to checkthat video out for nostalgia.But anyway before cutting this plywood, Ihad to remove a big piece of the front upperpillar in order to easily enter the greenhouseand that is where things went a bit wrong.Not only am I apparently terrible at usinga chain saw, but I later also cut the plywoodincorrectly and thus had to create such aFrankenstein door out of two smaller pieces.But nevertheless, after adding a supportingpiece of wood to the lower front post, I securedtwo hinges to the door construction, liftedthe plywood door into place, added a lockto hold it there and mounted it to the twohinges through the help of M5 screws and nutsand just like that I ended day 3 with a functioningdoor.For 4 day I started with unwrapping the twinwall sheets which will be the main focus ofthe remaining two days.To mainly mount them to the wood I used suchTackerkrallen which I from now on will onlycall clips.By widening them a bit they can snugly holdthe 4mm thick sheets and thus I only had tosecure them to the main wood frame with screws,get the sheets in place and add even moreof them.Of course sometimes I had to create a customsheet size but that was super easy to do witha simple box cutter.So all in all there is not much to say aboutthe process of adding the twin wall sheetsall around the greenhouse.Now the roof however was a bit more difficultsince the sheets had no mounting laths onthe top side yet which is why we firstly cutmore roof batten in order to create such amounting line.Before using that line though we filled upthe empty space between the lines with morewood and then secured the sheets to the roofwith the clips.But for the lower side attachment we had noother choice than to use some screws withbig washers which will hopefully keep thewater out.And we basically continued the roofing untilday 4 was over.On the fifth and final day I cut the remainingsheets for the first roof part and securedthem in place just like I described it before.Next to prevent water from entering throughthe roof we used aluminium tape in order tocover the gap between all the roof sheets.And finally after that was done it was timeto mount the smaller remaining twin wall sheetsI had lying around to the top of the roofwhich was not only very hard to reach butsometimes we also had to improvise a bit inorder to get a nice pointy roof tip.And just like that after a lot of hassle theroof was finally complete, so we continuedby creating a couple of special shapes ofthe sheets in order to cover the remainingholes of the greenhouse.Last but not least I created rather smallstrips of the sheets in order to cover thespace between the lower posts of the greenhouseand the earth.And with that process being completed, thegreenhouse was basically done, more or lessat least.A proper aluminium ledge for the roof tipis missing, as well as some aluminium tapefor the roof and not to forget two windowsbut I will talk about all of that during thelast part of my greenhouse automation videoseries.But so far I am quite happy with this DIYversion which is not only more spacious butyou can also more easily add your own modificationswhich I definitely encourage you to do ifyou want to build something similar.Now when it comes to the price then the DIYversion was in my case bit more expensivethan the Buy version and of course you willhave to invest more time into it.But since I really like the look and feelof a DIY greenhouse I will have to say thatit is a tie this time and depending on whatyou are looking for, DIY or Buy can be thewinner for you.But what do you think, let me know your thoughtsin the comment section below.As always thanks for watching, don't forgetto like, share, subscribe and hit the notificationbell to not miss the next episode about thisgreenhouse.Stay creative and I will see you next time.