Picked up a 10'x15' Royal Victorian 34 greenhouse kit from Costco. It comes pretty loaded: sun shade, water system, automatic opening windows, shelves, and sliding doors. Metal frame and glass windows. It was quite a project to put together, but the results are fantastic.
A few notes on constructions:
- Mostly done with one person; however I did get a second person to help with pouring the concrete and hanging the glass. Ideally two people the entire time and it definitely would have gone faster.
- Instructions recommended leaving holes in the corners of the foundation to later concrete the frame into the rest of the foundation (after the frame was mostly up/level/square). That seemed nuts to me, so I did the alternate approach where I attached L brackets to the bottom of the frame and into the concrete with concrete screws. I didn't like the idea of not having a continuous foundation pour.
- The automatic windows are awesome; no electricity. They use some kind of material/fluid that expands when it heats up to cause the windows to open. Works great so far.
- The manual and online instruction video are pretty decent, however because of the design of the frame - you have to pre-slide in bolts into channels many steps before they're actually used. If you have to add in a forgotten bolt 5 steps / 2 hours later, you have to take apart practically everything you've done to that point to get them back in. So you have to be extremely careful to read ahead and understand all future instructions. Know all the optional features you have before you begin so you don't miss a bolt!
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| Brought in 6 yards of dirt to level out the build site. |
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| Trenched for 8" wide / 16" deep perimeter beam with two #4 (0.5") rebars. |
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| Pea gravel added so moisture can go into the ground. |
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| Looped PVC through the foundation to supply water inside. |
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| The metal frame starts going up! |
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| Added the roof frame and cross braces. |
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| Added the top ridge ornamental and back louvre window. |
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| Adding roof glass. |
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| Completed the side glass! |
Progress on the sliding door and nice shot of the glass.
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| Double sliding doors installed and adding in the larger shelf. |
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| Testing the water system - it doesn't mist, it freaking rains in there. |
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| Finished from the front! |
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| Finished from the side! |
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| Finished from the back! |
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| The roof windows (came with 3, 2 of which are automatic). |
