Allotments 4 All
Produce => Under Glass => Topic started by: angle shades on February 11, 2008, 11:43:46
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A friend of mine passed away recently, and her family have given me her greenhouse,
my question is if its not to stupid ,is how do I take the greenhouse down?
Where do I start? top, bottom? I have no idea ::) thank you shades x
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We have done this a couple of times. Step number 1 - take plenty of photographs, especially of the joints and corners, and the way the door hangs or slides.
Step number 2, remove the glass. If you possibly can, get hold of a couple of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/55mm-Mini-Suction-Cup-Dent-puller-Power-Grip-Glass_W0QQitemZ290204130470
The glass will be held in (probably) with little W shaped wire clips. You may also find that the sides of the glass are held in with rubber-backed strips which are screwed to the frame. You obviously need to remove the clips and loosen or remeove any securing crews.
Start with the roof. It's best to work as a two man team, with two stepladders. One inside the greenhouse, one outside. Wear leather gloves at ALL times (I still have the scar). Use a suction grip plus one leather-gloved hand to hold the glass and carefully remove each sheet and stack it on edge against a wall.
Then remove the door and the glass from the walls, which will leave you with a bare frame.
Step 3. The roof pole will be the first thing to remove from the frame. It will be secured with screws and some little patent bolts like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10-Greenhouse-Cropped-Head-OR-Square-Head-bolts-nuts_W0QQitemZ330209113338
It's worth buying a few of these anyway - you're bound to break or lose some. They become brittle with age.
Then it's just a matter of undoing the frame top down. You'll find that a number of the spars are identical, so bundle these together. It's worth using a marker pen to assign a letter or number to the different bits and keeping a note of what's what.
Reassembly is, as they say in the Haynes manuals, the reverse of dismantling. Just far more fiddly. Obviously make sure that you have a nice flat base for it.
I've assumed that it's a metal framed greenhouse, by the way. Wooden framed ones are a different pot of begonias altogether.
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Do you have to dismantle it completely? I got a second hand one which had been only dismantled into the four sides which made it really quite easy to put back together. You do need large sized transport though - I was very lucky as the man selling was prepared to deliver it to my allotment in his van.
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Oh and transporting, we were told to transport the glass on it's edge not flat.
We did it on the back seats of the car, edges sitting on a piece of foam, and with towels in between, we didn't break one piece and we travelled about 16 miles, fairly fast . We stuffed pillows between the piles of glass and the front seats so they couldn't fall forward if we braked.
We have moved three now.
It is not so bad once you start, it is thinking about it that is the problem.
XX Jeannine
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:) thank you all for replying, very much appreciated :-*
thank you for the step by step guide M12,
and TS and J transport will be an issue, as I haven't any :-X/ shades x
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Oh yes - on edge.
I once took 30 finished picture frames to the Ashmolean , flat - they all broke. Much embarrassment!!
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We took the glass out and walked one around the allotments... but getting it over the 6' fence was interesting!
;D
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I used a felt tip marker to label up bits of the frame - Left front part 1 etc. This worked O.K. with the first greenhouse which I moved from a building site. The second one came in odd bits which I put together and then marked up before moving.
I broke more glass by leaving it near the 'house and then walking over it!