Greenhouse building advice required

[stanford_bees]

Have decided to get the greenhouse back into operation and have removed half of the glass to repair/replace the damaged panes of glass and give it a good clean. I decided to do this 'half at a time' to give me a chance to remember which pane came from where. However, now that I have cleaned, repaired, & replaced half of the greenhouse, I am starting to refit the glass and IT DOESN'T FIT. Now it may be that the house has shifted slightly, or perhaps that was why the glass was broken in places....

My question to you is.... Should I
a) just refit the glass regardless, tweeking where I can, and leaving (large) gaps where I can't take

or should I bite the bullet and
b) take all the glass out, clean the whole green house, try and square it up (how??) and refit the glass from scratch


Also, if I take option b, is there a plan of attack for refitting - I assume it should be roof first.....

Many thanks. Frustrated Stanford_bees

[Capsid]

Please explain how the glass does not fit? Are the ribs of the house not parallel? If so then it's not square and I'd advise trying to get it square other wise the panes of glass will be under strain and may crack.

Square it up using a spirit level and measure the width between ribs. Usually it will have dropped on one corner or it's on an uneven base.

I fitted my house sides first, I don't think it matters what order though.

[stanford_bees]

Complete panes I removed yesterday now don't go back in - so I suspect the aluminium frame has moved or contracted in the meantime. Half of the panes have been removed over the last week, or so.

I'm reticent to remove all the panes as, no doubt, getting the frame square will not be a simple job, as the frame has not been touched in over 10 years and all the nuts and bolts will be firmly in place! I also suspect that it will not be feasible to adjust in stages for each set of glass to be fitted but maybe I'm being too pessimistic?!

[farreste]

Hi Stanford, I feel your pain as a similar thing happened to my grandfather when I was a younger I think it's probably due to the glass having provided some form of support to the overall structure prior to you removing the glass. The way I see it, this is probably due to two factors;

1) Settlement of the base sometime between initial construction of the GH and when you removed the panes of glass most recently.

2) Movement of the frame (by wind, accidental movement etc...), possibly resulting in the 'original' broken panes of glass.

Either way, I echo what Capsid has suggested and remove all of the glass, square-up the base and re-glaze the GH again. If you do decide to go down this route, I'd suggest looking at the corners of the base for (differential) settlement as it this is what happened to my grandfather's GH 'back in the day'.

[stanford_bees]

Thanks both Capsid & Farreste - looks like I'll just have to bite the bullet and take out all the glass... oh the joys of gardening!