Allotments 4 All

well guys it took a while but its done,finish,finito.finale,complete.

after a few swear words and the lack of good weather its up and already has plants in it (2 alacante tomato plants) ;D ;D



put the door on this time ;D




not a bad recovery if a say so myself so bring it on you wind!!

i will do another post of the stages

Well done.It looks fantastic. :)

That looks great, what did the rebuild involve?

heres the pics from destruction to rebirth!! ;D

heres when we had a 90mph gust of wind recorded by our weather station on the allotment site.
So from this



as you can see a right mess but i started again with some modifications.

The new frame


as you can see ive done a centre spine to give it more stability.

20mm pvc pipe from an electrical wholesaler was used for the sheet support



I then used the centre spine to screw the 4 way boxes to it


pipe saddle clamps (metal) were used to secure the pipe at the base these were coverd in some bubble wrap to prevent the sheet being ripped when i put it over the frame.
I did use pvc saddle clamps on the last one but they just snapped.
A 1ft deep trench was dug around the frame for the sheet to be held down.
then to the last pic,which you have all seen ;D

Hi thegoodlife - it looks fantastic and I'm completley envious!

If you don't mind me asking - were the PVC pipes expensive? (great idea by they way) - I wouldn't mind doing something similar but maybe on a smaller scale if its viable - also - does the polythene have to be a special kind t protect it from the sun?

cheers,
Sheddie

Well done that man

mrf

I'm hoping to start my own in the next week of so, what did your pooly sheet cost? I have been quoted £145.

 ;D ;D ;D Great job done!! Looks nice and sturdy.... 

Green face - so jealous. Well done you for having a go at getting it back up again. I would have sulked most heartily! ;)
Let the wind try and bring this one down
Grrrrr...
Bring it on Mr Weather the polytunnel is ready for you!!!! :) ;D

  ;D well done you  l would like to know if l could do this on my plot but it would have to be on a lot smaller and as my plot is on a hill can you tell me if there are any ideas that may help it to stay where it is as we also have a lot of high winds

list of goods do do your own tunnel.
10ft long x 8ft,prices at the side of the bits are a rough guide of cost & +vat

12L of 25mm electrical pvc white conduit. 0.90p per 3mtr length
2 x 25mm tee boxes 0.60p each
4x 4way boxes 0.80p each
20x 25mm metel spacer bar saddles 095/1.00 each
1 x pvc glue (ega wld as its known) £3.50 a tub
1 roll of gaffer tape (2.99 50mtr roll from boot sales)
1 roll 25mtrx4mtr poly sheet from B&Q £18.00.
box of screws (i used 8x2 & 8x1 1/2) & nails.
1x 4pack of lager or bitter
1 x a lot of swearing
1 x understanding wife/husband

The frame was built first with the 2 posts inside set in concrete,the door frame was built & two pieces of wood used in an "A frame see pics), my suggestion is on each end put another piece of wood half way up the A frame so it looks like a "w" as ive noticed when the sheet is placed on the frame a tightend the two end pipe,s pull in use the saddle clamps as well to clamp the pipe to stop this happening, then the spine was put up & screwed  down each end  rested on top of the door frame at each end.Glue the the pvc pipe together with the boxes, the 2 tee,s are the ends. Then the choice is yours you can glue 2ft cuts of the pipe to make it more robust down the centre if you do add 2 more lengths of pipe to the list allow glue to dry around 2/3hours for this so i suppose this job can be done first, then build the frame ;D.
once you have done this screw the boxes to the spine 2 8x1/12 on each box.make the door or you could build around a door if you have one ;D

After all that have a break

For the wood if you have a local sheet steel manf/fabricator ask them for the pallets the sheet steel gets deliverd on as this is good wood 4"x2" @ 2.4 mtr long, they will be happy to get rid of it, im always getting this from my local manf & fell lucky last week got 2 pallets made from oak i have 10l of 2.4mtr solid oak ;D.

when it comes to the sheet jointing i did 3 runs of gaffer tape both sides then got some 38mmx25mm wood (the fence panel repair wood i used £1.00 a 6ft length from homebase found some old bike rubber inner tubes and wrapped the joint around the wood & rubber tube and made a clamp then screwed this to the spine of the tunnel to make the sheet more upto the wind. when making the sheet tight dont go too mad, i buried it 18" deep at the other end of the tunnel the door frame ive made an air vent with valcro and the extra polythene i had left

any questions i will be happy to help.

1 week on i now have tommys around 3ft high and in flower, i have a good old super ser gas heater in there keeps the heat at a constant 25c & get this!! its a self watering tunnel as the condensation is great for it (very humid)

hey can you post some pictures of the inside.

Is the sheeting just the dust sheet B&Q do or is it a different type.
also how did you do the sheeting. did you roll its from one to the other then tape it or sum thing else?