Greenhouse advice for newbie

[SteveMcG]

Hi all

Thanks kindly for responses
Chris, I think I've worked out all the bolts and will stick to the aluminium ones - I think the steel ones can rust causing problems. The ones with loops are for stringing up wires etc. I'll get auto openers and add some windows at a later stage.
Habanerocat, I'll definitely include power - First thing I'll plug in is my radio! I cannot lay a solid slab now - might have to move EVERYTHING in two or three years :-( so got some 3' x 2' slabs (nearly killed me moving them!)
Rod, we agree on the louvre level :-)
Dave W I'll definitely go for 3' both sides with a 2' centre path . Liz M can reach hers so I'll be ok. I'll model the height for an easy reach. I might add 2nd tier just at the north end by the door to limit shade to the 'below-decks'
Ali Baba, no room for centre staging and no plants in ground, not if I'm moving again.

All I need to do now is remove a shed and its contents, shift a 2' bank of soil and a tree, level off, lay in the power cable, sand and slabs down and timber base frame constructed then I can put my gh back together!
Staging, I'll make frames from tannilised timber then probably use reclaimed pallet wood for the rest

Better get on with it then!

Al the best

Steve

[Liz M]

It sounds like you are in for a busy few weeks. The hard work should pay off and you will have something useful that you can be proud of. Please, don't forget to send a few pictures, they are interesting and helpful to anyone else tackling something like this.

[SteveMcG]

Hi Liz

Yes, I'm taking pics as I go! I spent all of Friday digging out a soil bank to flatten the area including a path. I've a 4" Holly stump to remove - hard as iron

Best wishes

Steve

[DaveW]

When I was an apprentice I had to carry half a dozen 3' x 2' concrete slabs weighing about one and a half hundred weight each = 12 stone, and at 16 I was only just over 9 stone at the time. I had to take them from the road where the lorry dropped them up four steps and then uphill about 60ft to the end of the garden.

It nearly killed me and you would not be allowed to do it these days as an apprentice, but if I remember correctly in the 1950's it was legal for an employer to expect a man to lift one and a half hundredweight and a woman one hundredweight.

Previous to that the old flour millers and farmers used to use two hundredweight sacks. Now the women have come into the building trade even cement is packed in dainty half hundredweight sacks, I was born at the wrong time!