Flooring

[Mrs Ava]

I have gravel over bare ground as the floor in my greenhouse.  Have been thinking about maybe changing it for something that might help keep things warmer but I don't really think a permanent floor is the thing for me as I don't want to have to keep sweeping it.  What type of flooring do you have? and any suggestions for me??

[derbex]

Hi E-J,

I have beds around the edges and paving slabs down the middle -can't say I sweep it very often 

I think I prefer that to gravel which tends to get stuck in the treads on my boots.

In terms of warmth then I'd have thought that a solid stone/slab floor would absorb heat best -especially if dark in colour -can be a problem in the summer.

If you're going out there in bare tootsies you'd better put some shagpile down.

Jeremy

[sandersj89]

I have gravel over landscape fabric, this helps to stop the gravel sinking into the ground to much.

I think this also helps keep the hunidity levels up a little, especially as I water the floor on hot days.

Jerry

[Doris_Pinks]

I have 3 paving slabs and gravel around them. I do find the gravel a bit of a nuisance when you spill soil, as the weeds tend to grow!!  

[Kerry]

interesting question, EJ.
my greenhouse floor is a real labour of love. i laid it myself, using old flat bricks under the staging and old flat square tiles in the middle. then i made 2 lines of old blue bricks down each side of the tiles. we found all of these treasures when we moved in, and dug some of the rest up when excavating the well.
i damp it down in hot weather. not sure of the insulation properties or otherwise. my resident mr toad seems to like it though!

mum and dad have 2 greenhouses, both have slabbed floors, easy to sweep and clean when using jeyes. they used to have chipped bark over membrane in one but it seemed to 'disappear' and also grew things on top!

[Mrs Ava]

The great thing about the gravel is I brush my work side clean and all the bits fall into the gravel and vanish, and to be honest, between me and the kids and out heavy feet, very little has ever grown, either that or I am darn good at seed sowing and never spill any!    The gravel is easy to wet down but you have to have shoes on or your pinkies suffer!  We do have a stack of old slabs heaped up down the side of our house.....I might try laying a path a slab wide down the length of the house and keep the gravel along the borders and see how that works.....

[Mimi]

I have weed surpressant fabric covered by gravel on the sides and a recycled brick herring bone path(care of my very handy OH) Like Emma I just sweep the path, or spray it with water from the hose in the summer and its clean as a whistle.

[Palustris]

2 g/houses are concrete and the other is paving slabs. The tunnel is soil with plant membrane on top.
Only problem with concrete is how slippy thwey get if you do not keep on top of the cleaning!

[tim]

As you will have seen, we have an inch of wood shavings.
Why? Because we dug into yellow clay to give another foot headroom (I'm 6'4") & it went all goey when wet. The shavings bind into the clay & keep it all dry. Or moist if you so wish! = Tim

[Granny_Smith]

Our large, hot g/house has paving slabs which we can water and cool things down, but the smaller, cooler one has a path made from some cheap wooden patio paving squares (found on offer at a clearance warehouse). I hide the slug pellets underneath them so the children can't pick them up.

[Garden Manager]

Ive put down 'plantex' (landscape fabric) and gravel down in my greenhouse. Well the gravel is under the staging and the path is made up of decking tiles (aka fancy duck boards). I thought this would make a nice comfortable path which could be moved if nessesary. 

The other side of the hose is just plantex covering where the border will be.

[ajb]

We've got pallets with the smallest gaps we could find (scavenging!) in our lottie greenhouse. It's like a treasure trove of lost possessions whenever we lift them up for some reason!

Paving is good absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night - but hard to get for free. Gravel also acts as a heat sink, plus the non sweeping is an added bonus.

[Lady Cosmos]

I used landscape fabric and on top 30/30 tiles. Shells and gravel makes it to messy for me. Tiles are easy to clean, nice for the feet and in the summer they stay clean when cooling down the gh. with water.

[bongo]

wow am i ever glad ive found this site!!!!!!!!!im new to all this allotment growing and have just brought a green house was going to lay a concrete base but not after reading this so thank you all for saving me lots of mixing of concrete!!!!!now i can spend more time digging my plot cant wait to start growing!!!!!hello to you all my name is bongo and im from kent shall be useing this site a lot as it is full of now how!!!!!see you!!bongo

[Doris_Pinks]

Hi Bongo, glad you found us!! I am on the border of Kent, on the east sussex side!

[northener]

I'd started another thread off before seeing this one. What about using wooden decking any thoughts.

[carrot-cruncher]

I have just bought a greenhouse for my back yard.   It's a plastic frame with a plastic cover & no floor.   My back yard is concrete slabs.

Would I be ok just leaving the greenhouse on the concrete slabs or would it help if I created a 2nd "floor" in the greenhouse.   We are having new carpet where I work so can get old carpet tiles for the g/house if that would help raise the temperature.

This will be my first year of attempting to grow stuff in a g/house so all advice gratefully received.

CC

[northener]

i reckon slabs sound to be the best, i wouldn't go with the carpet idea cruncher you'd be making a haven for slugs

[TULIP-23]

EJ

I dont know if it will help....over here you can buy wooden
Garden Tiles!!!

Dig out a little  ground out....  place Polystyrene in the Cut out

Cover this with the Membrane Plastic

Set your Wooden Tiles on that.

You have Ground Installation  and a little Portable floor

Easy to pick up and Scrub clean,

Hope you can follow what I mean.....sorry no pictures