Greenhouse repairs

[Amanda1]

I bought a second hand greenhouse in the spring and now want to prepare it for winter. At the moment I'm not planning on heating it as I'm still getting to grips with what to grow and how to do it. I replaced all the missing panes of glass but unfortunately another one has been broken. A small piece of the pane has come away and the pane is cracked. What's the best method of repairing it (apart from replacing it!)? All I have in there at the moment is some herbs and a baby Japenese maple. Will I need to insulate it, if so, how? Finally (I promise!) the new panes I bought aren't a great fit and I plan to silicone seal any possible gaps. Is this a good idea and will I need to do it if I insulate?

[poultrychat]

Hi Amanda1

I can't help with the silicone as I don't know but I insulate my greenhouse with bubble wrap, either from a garden centre or b&q do it. I don't have glass in my greenhouse but I do use a very strong clear tape designed for small cracks etc that I get again from either b&q or a garden centre. If bubble wrap isn't worth it to you this year as you don't have many plants in your greenhouse you could always just cover the plants with fleece, a couple of layers and they should survive ok.

[Amanda1]

Thanks. I already have some fleece so I will do that this year and tape some polythene over the hole. Many thanks

[Geordie]

To repair a cracked pain of glass, you can buy, (have forgotton name), rolls of strong but flexible plastic which are sticky on one side only. You just cut to shape and stick this to outside of glass covering the crack. (Like a better version of sticky back plastic if you ever watched Blue Peter!!)

I have put up 2 second hand greenhouses this year....if I can give you one tip it would be to make sure the diagonal measurment across the base is equal. If the two measurements differ your greenhouse will not be square and you will end up with ill fitting glass or glass that will not fit at all.

If you have gaps around the glass or possibly in the frame you can use a waterproof silicone. Just remember if the pain of glass breaks and you need to remove it you have made your job that much harder. Apart from that it should be fine.

If you want to heat your greenhouse but do not have enough plants to fill it you can always stick a polythene 'screen' to the frame effectivly cutting the greenhouse in half.

[Jaxom]

I have put up 2 second hand greenhouses this year....if I can give you one tip it would be to make sure the diagonal measurment across the base is equal. If the two measurements differ your greenhouse will not be square and you will end up with ill fitting glass or glass that will not fit at all.

Another tip is to put the glass in at the ends on each corner and then work towards the middle, this will help pull the greenhouse square.
Jax

[Amanda1]

Thanks, another pane went this weekend so it might be a trip to the glaziers after all!

[Geordie]

Are the panes being broken by an obvious source or do they just mysteriously sort of crack?

[Lesley Jay]

If you have a factory making double glazing within driving distance it might be worth giving them a try. They will cut glass to order and not charge as much as glaziers. You can also get toughened glass from them. It's more expensive but footballs etc. bounce off.

The other good thing you can get if you are lucky are double glazed units - just the glass not the plastic surround. If a unit is faulty or has been made the wrong size they smash them up and if you ask you might be able to get hold of these cheap. They make good frames to put over tender vegetables while they are getting going.

[Amanda1]

The breakage is from an obvious source, I am in the process of putting electricity into the greenhouse for light and heat, lets just say the electrician has been a bit clumsy. I live near Croydon so hopefully I'll find something relatively cheap, no one told me gardening could cost a fortune!

[dni_dave]

Horticultural glass

When I was younger I had a saturday job in a Glass/Double glazing company. I'm sure they used to do "Horticultural Glass" which has more flaws in it than the float glass seen (or not seen if it's clean ) in your house windows and was therefore a lot cheaper. It came in standard sizes as most greenhouses were built from standard panels.

If anyone knows that things have changed please feel free to correct me - I rarely take offence as I'm used to be wrong (married men across the country will sympathise!).

To all our lady readers - I'm only joking. Especially if the wife is reading this - "sorry dear"

[Geordie]

I buy horticultural glass at £3 for a 2'x2' pane

[dni_dave]

Wind damage

Geordie

How many panes have you lost over the summer?

I'm thinking of getting one but we are in a very exposed site. I have the 1m wind break fabric around the edge of the 20m x 14m plot which helps the veg (raspberries and sprouts are looking a little wind swept at the moment) but this won't help a greenhouse.

I have access to some 8' x 6' heavy duty fence panels that I was going to put up around the shed which would help.

It's either lots of hard work putting up the fence, travelling to a mate's house, taking down his 8' x 6' greenhouse, bringing it back and putting it up. OR, bite the bullet and buy a polytunnel to suit.

Or do the greenhouse this year and wait to see if the allotment still has it's allure after my 2nd/3rd/4th year?

[Geordie]

Dave,

2 years ago I had a 14x8 greenhouse and over the winter a storm destroyed it all....all the glass gone, frame blown apart, twisted and unusable.
This almost caused me to give up my allotment as it just seemed pointless, I hardly went for about 8 months and lost an entire growing season. The final straw came when the comittee sent me a final letter....get it sorted or get off kind of thing.

Happy to say things are now back to normal and I have two 8x6 greenhouses....one is up and running the other I still need to put glass in. The first greenhouse had 'dutch light' glass in that the sides and roof were full size sheets (about 5'x2') so were expensive to replace if broken. my new greenhouses use 2x2 panes. Both of these were second hand.

If it was me in your position i would go for the greenhouse before the polytunnel. If possible I would look at growing a natural windbreak rather than fence panels, some of the new possibilities grow very quickly. For example Victoriana (www.victoriana.ws) advertise that if planted now you could have a willow windbreak of about 12' by November 2006.The greenhouse should be more or less permanent whereas I believe the polytunnel skin will need replacing every few years. (I dont have one so cannot really help).
If you go for the greenhouse, what I did with the second one, was to take all the glass out and then hired an open back builders type van for the day. The greenhouse was then lifted onto the back of the van.....no dismantling or erecting involved....a much more stress free way to do it.