Well, now that the fingerling room is done it is time to begin work on the green house. Actually the building was removed by June 1st so we've been thinking ahead. The existing building was 50' x 100' and was used to store coin operated machines (driving, shooting, pinball, kiddie rides, etc.) Once removed we were left with a pristine 5000 sq ft slab of concrete.
Here are the support beams for the two greenhouses. Each greenhouse is 24' x 98'. They will be connected in the middle and will be completely open to each other inside. Each beam is galvanized steel and is secured to the concrete slab with four (4) threaded bolts that are embedded into the concrete as shown in the picture on the right. The support beams are placed 10' apart with the exception of the end beams which are 8' from the others.
I never imagined that there were so many parts that went into building a greenhouse. From the pictures you can see that most of it arrived on the semi. The pallets in the top middle picture are the side walls of the greenhouse. They are a poly carbonate substance that allows light and heat in. They are 12' x 4'. The top right picture is of some of the boxes of parts. The bottom row of pictures include the cooler wall then pile after pile of galvanized steel. These are pipes that will make up the roof, walls, and support system of the green house.
Within a couple of days the building began to take shape. The trusses are starting to go up and the framing supports are in place.
After that more supports are put in place. then the center gutter track is laid. This is where the two green houses will share a common wall.
With the roof on the inflation started. The roof is comprised from two different sheets of poly. There is an air pump that fills the space in between the two layers to create an insulation layer. With the roof on the side panels go up quickly.
As you can see the side and back walls are up. The far right picture is the cooling wall. It works by monitoring the temperature in the room. When it gets too warm the wall behind the ribbed cardboard opens up allowing outside air in. Then the fans on the front wall start and pull the fresh air through the building. If that doesn't cool the room down enough then a water pump kicks in and water flows down the cardboard. The cool water is then sucked in by the fans and cools the room down.
The above pictures are of the front wall fans. The picture on the left is one of three large fans, the picture in the middle is one of two smaller fans and the picture on the right is of the fans installed into the front wall of the greenhouse.
Here are the some of the final pictures involved in the physical construction of the greenhouse. On the left are two (2) 1000 gallon lp tanks. The furnaces, hot water heaters, and generator run on lp. Two tanks were installed in case of an emergency, hopefully we will never drain both tanks before they can be refilled. The pictures in the middle and on the right are the front and back of the greenhouse respectively. In the picture on the right you can see the wall that opens to allow fresh air in. Construction of an enclosure around this wall will begin in the spring. It will need to be big enough to allow proper air flow, but have small enough screening so small bugs and insects do not get pulled into the greenhouse.