a few words on my DIY effort

[radioactive]

Hi jolly poly-tunnelers.
Just thought I would share with you what I have been upto on the polytunnel front
My back garden is an odd shape facing West-- East with a wall on the eastern boundry, which slants diagonally across the garden with a footpath and road and a railway line beyond it my garden is also on a slight slope in the past I had made some raised beds to toil with, but this year I decided I would put a home made polytunnel on one of the beds so after a fair amount of strengthening with breeze blocks the 4 obliquely laid sides of the bed I put in a wooden frame over the top of them also lathed out with rawlplugs the faces of the blocks I then had some 19mm internal Dia plastic white water pipe which was given to me from a specialist job build that was being scrapped these are 3 metre long so I joined them using copper tubes and tape to get the diametres correct then push them together to form 6 metre lengths these are what I have used for the hoops and are anchored to the blocks I will post some pictures in the near future I have put several braces into the build as you would expect with hoops of such thin profiles I am happy with how its gone I have framed the ends out and am just about to build the actual doors next week sometime I have had the cover delivered its size is 8 x 7.3 metres I hope and pray I have calculated the size of cover correctly I think its correct but time will soon tell me as I imagine a week or two's time and I will try fitting the cover which is one of 750 gauge the new 5 layers type
anyway I have no question in particular to ask the forum other than if you think you could give any positive tip or possible future problem I don't work well with problems I tend only to go with solutions , so as you can tell I am a glass half full kind of guy
would love to read your comments tips and general remarks
Martyn

ps sorry for the bad grammer!

[King Carrot]

Sounds good, It might be good to see a picture of the build so far before you covered it, that way you'd get any suggestions or advice before it was too late!

[binley100]

blimey if that's a few words ....
yes piccies would be good..

[zazen999]

ps sorry for the bad grammer!

Grammar! Not grammer.

[Glutton4...]

Grammar! Not grammer.

That made me laff!

But I have had about a pint of home-made Damson Voddy now....


I loooooove smelling pistakes!

[radioactive]

hehehe

Grammar! Not grammer.

Yeh sew surry aboot the bud spulling Lol

[Snadger]

Can be quite naughty, these Grand parents!

[radioactive]

I have taken a couple of pictures just got to learn how to make it so you can see them
lets see if this works

[radioactive]

i may have it this time

[Aberdeenplotter]

to add a photo, click on manage attachments in the box below the reply to thread box, then click browse, when you find the pic you want to display, double click on it, then click on upload and once it has uploaded, close the manage attachments box, if you preview your post, you should be able to check that it has in fact uploaded. Ignore the pic I uploaded, I just selected it as I was stepping through the process.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Whoops you managed whilst I was preparing that un. I'll leave it in place as a learning aid to anyone else who isn't sure how to post a pic.

[radioactive]

thanks for that info I seem to have muddled my way through it I took these three pics about an hour ago in between the pouring rain we have here today not the best of pics I rushed em before it started to pelt down again
at least its got the subject matter in it lol! Plus lots of junk I should moved hehehe

[Aberdeenplotter]

Lol, you mentioned DIY but it looks pretty professional to me. My main concern would be that the plastic pipe may not be robust enough to cope with a heavy snowfall although I do appreciate that you do have timber framing at the gables. Before putting the cover on, I would try to provide for a bit more vertical support from your horizontal framing in the centre regions to the ground. Something that could be detached after winter would do it for me. As you said you didn't like problems, I provided a solution

[radioactive]

Lol, you mentioned DIY but it looks pretty professional to me. My main concern would be that the plastic pipe may not be robust enough to cope with a heavy snowfall although I do appreciate that you do have timber framing at the gables. Before putting the cover on, I would try to provide for a bit more vertical support from your horizontal framing in the centre regions to the ground. Something that could be detached after winter would do it for me. As you said you didn't like problems, I provided a solution

Actually those were pretty much my thoughts exactly, also I thought that using internal vertical bracing could be a benefit of a little extra tensioning to the cover as externally where the cover is fixed is shall we say a little limited
So yes I am in total agreement with you on that solution. Thanks so much for your thoughts
as they say great minds think alike although my misses often reminds me that fools seldom differ LOL!
P.S Forgot to mention I am a Carpenter by trade so I think that explains something too

[Aberdeenplotter]

P.S Forgot to mention I am a Carpenter by trade so I think that explains something too

Tsk, if I was a shrink, I'd be for saying you had lack of confidence issues.

For tensioning, how about putting rails along the bottom fixed around your uprights with ubolts or carriage bolts through the timber and then a plate. That way you can fix the cover to the rail and fix at one side, at the other side, start with your rail a few inches above ground level, fix the polythene then push down with your foot to tensiion whilst tightening the ubolts/carriage bolts to the uprights.

If that concept interests you, let me know and I'll tell you how First Tunnels make their rails so that there is no slippage or tearing of the polythene. It will be no problem for a chippie with the right tools.