Today, a greenhouse or hotbed can be found in almost any summer cottage and personal plot, and these are no longer home-made from window frames, but quite worthy products from manufacturers made of polycarbonate.
Most often, such structures are advised to be installed on the foundation, which causes some bewilderment among summer residents. Why is this needed? Wouldn't it be easier to just build a greenhouse on bare ground without bothering with extra work? Still, in order to make a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands, you will have to spend some time and money.
Do I need to make a foundation for a greenhouse?
Polycarbonate greenhouses have a fairly significant weight, so their installation requires the mandatory manufacture of a foundation. The fact is that a structure installed directly on the ground is not only subject to corrosion, at least its metal parts, it can also be washed away by groundwater or spring floods. And this leads to a distortion of the greenhouse and its subsequentdestruction.
Another option does not help, when the frame of the greenhouse is dug into the ground. Winters in Russia are cold, which leads to deep freezing of the soil, which, under the action of heaving forces, simply squeezes the supports of the structure out of the ground. Therefore, for a durable and reliable installation of a greenhouse, it is simply necessary to make a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands, which will firmly fix the structure in a stable position.
What foundation is used for a polycarbonate greenhouse?
How to make a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands depends, firstly, on the type of soil on which you plan to install the greenhouse. Secondly, on the size, and to a greater extent - on the weight of the greenhouse.
Therefore, first of all, it is worth considering what foundations are used in principle for polycarbonate greenhouses, and then choose one of them. For all its dimensions, a greenhouse is considered not a particularly heavy and large structure, so it’s still not worth making a solid foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands like a monolithic one. Although in some cases it is also used, but more on that later. Mainly produce the following types of base:
- Point foundation.
- From ready-made concrete blocks.
- From brick.
- From timber.
- Monolithic base.
These are the most common bases that are most often made as a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands. Under polycarbonate, a stable and even support is required, since thisthe material begins to crack and become unusable, and the above bases fully provide the necessary static.
Point foundation
This type of foundation cannot even be called a full-fledged foundation, rather, it is a support for the frame of the greenhouse, but it has every right to use.
The main goal is to give stability to the frame - it does. Moreover, the material used for the manufacture of columns is selected depending on the weight of the greenhouse: the larger it is, the stronger the material should be. For small greenhouses, timber trimmings are used; for larger greenhouses, it is better to put concrete blocks.
This do-it-yourself foundation for a polycarbonate greenhouse is made only for use in the summer, as it does not retain heat. Another disadvantage is that insects, especially pests, do not encounter any obstacle on their way to cultivated plants.
But such a foundation can be made very simply and quickly: blocks or timber, from which low stumps are cut, are installed at the corners of the greenhouse and along the perimeter every meter. This type of foundation refers to a temporary foundation and can be easily dismantled when moving a greenhouse.
Wooden beam foundation
Beam base is another type of mobile foundation that can be easily dismantled, making it easy to move the structure to another site. Therefore, they make a foundation from a bar for a greenhousefrom polycarbonate with your own hands in the event that a permanent place for the structure has not yet been selected, and it is likely to be transferred. In addition, the base is very inexpensive, and installation takes no more than one day.
In addition, the tree provides the right microclimate in the greenhouse due to its ability to absorb excess moisture from the air well, and, if necessary, give it away.
One of the disadvantages of using such a base is its fragility, since even a tree treated with an antiseptic and water-repellent agent is destroyed. For the manufacture of such a base, as a rule, a beam measuring 10x10 cm is used.
How to make a frame from a wooden beam?
Before you install the foundation under the greenhouse with your own hands, under polycarbonate, you must carefully level the surface of the site. To do this, they remove the top layer of soil, level the site and break through a small ditch along the perimeter, 10 cm deep and 20 cm wide. It’s good if the greenhouse has already been purchased and you know its size, otherwise it’s time to decide on the type of greenhouse.
At the bottom of the trench, a crushed stone pillow is poured, which will drain excess water, or a layer of waterproofing is laid. They knock together a frame from a bar, be sure to check the perpendicularity of the corners and the horizontalness of the surface. The corners are reinforced with a building corner.
The fabricated frame is treated with an antiseptic and lowered into the trench, free spacecovered with soil.
A similar foundation for a greenhouse from a timber with your own hands can be made from a smaller material, for example, 50x50 mm bars or 50x150 mm boards, if the structure is not very large in size.
Concrete block base
This type of foundation is more solid and provides good waterproofing of the structure, which is very important to maintain optimal humidity in the greenhouse.
Therefore, the best option would be to make such a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands on damp plots of land, on peat or swampy soils.
First of all, it is necessary to mark the plot of land on which the greenhouse will be installed. To do this, we level the selected territory and mark the perimeter of the structure with pegs and a rope.
Setting blocks
After marking, it is necessary to dig a ditch 25 cm wide and 30-40 cm deep under the future foundation so that the marking cord runs exactly in the middle. A drainage backfill of crushed stone and sand 10 cm high is laid at the bottom of the trench, which is carefully rammed. To do this, the top layer of sand is shed with water, and the rammer passes in a natural way.
Concrete solution is started and poured halfway into the ditch. Concrete blocks are laid out around the perimeter, which must be leveled. Separate blocks are placed strictly in the corners. The remaining concrete is poured on top andsmooth with a spatula.
It is quite possible to make such a strip foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands in a few hours, and you can install a greenhouse in 2-3 days.
Concrete strip base
Another option on how to make a foundation for a greenhouse with your own hands in the form of a tape is to make it out of concrete. At the same time, to strengthen the structure during pouring, reinforcement in the form of metal bars is laid.
If the soil is dense and not prone to shedding, concrete mortar can be poured directly into the ditch. In the case of loose and loose soil in the prepared trench, it is necessary to install the formwork from the boards. It is not difficult to assemble the device, the main thing is to observe the verticality of the walls. The size of the formwork depends on the height of the planned foundation: if it is planned to be raised above the ground, then the formwork walls must be mounted to this height.
Concrete is poured into the formwork. If the prepared solution is not enough for one-stage pouring, it is poured in layers. At the same time, try to lay the concrete as evenly as possible, as this will extend the life of the foundation. The last layer must be leveled with a spatula.
Concrete-brick foundation
When properly manufactured, this type of foundation is second only to a reinforced concrete foundation in terms of strength characteristics. At the same time, brick has the same properties as wood, it absorbs moisture well, and this guarantees an optimal microclimate for plants.
On the other hand, this materialquite expensive and it is advisable to make a foundation of baked bricks only if it is possible to purchase such products inexpensively.
To do this, make a concrete tape flush with the ground, as discussed above. When pouring, anchors or pieces of metal reinforcement are placed around the entire perimeter and wait for the concrete to set. After about a week, bricks can be laid on the tape, while the reinforcement should be inside the masonry joints.
Monolithic Foundation
From concrete, you can pour another type of base, which, as a rule, is used to install large greenhouses, glass greenhouses, or if the soil on the site has increased heaving. This option is used only in exceptional cases, since making a foundation for a polycarbonate greenhouse with your own hands in the form of a monolithic base is a rather costly undertaking, both in time and money.
Preparation of the site for pouring is the same as for any other base. It is cleared of the upper fertile soil layer, after which a foundation pit is dug under the foundation 30-40 cm deep, which is covered with geotextiles or any other waterproofing. If the soil contains a lot of water, you can make a small drainage system from trenches covered with pieces of roofing material, or lay outlet pipes.
Pouring concrete
They make formwork from boards and fall asleep in a pita layer of crushed stone and sand with a total height of 10 cm with a mandatory spill for tamping. Rebar is placed in the formwork and poured with concrete. If necessary, insert reinforcing bars or anchors to attach the frame to the base.
You can install a greenhouse on such a foundation only after the concrete has completely dried, which can last 21-28 days. At the same time, all the time while the solution sets, its surface must be moistened periodically to avoid cracks and violation of the integrity of the base.
Although such a foundation requires a lot of labor and considerable financial expenses, its service life, which is about 50 years, more than compensates for everything.
In addition to these basic types of foundations, several more types of foundations are used, for example, from a metal profile or on screw piles. Some craftsmen combine the above installation methods, and especially resourceful individuals can make a foundation for a greenhouse with their own hands from improvised material, for example, from glass bottles.
Which foundation to use for a glass greenhouse?
Separately, it is worth mentioning a glass greenhouse, which is also often used in summer cottages. Due to its characteristics, this structure is much more demanding both in terms of stability and protection from damage. Therefore, the foundation for a glass greenhouse with their own hands is made mainly in the form of a concrete monolithic or tape base. Unlike the foundation for a polycarbonate greenhouse, the foundation for a glass structure must be deepened toground freezing level.
If the greenhouse is small, it is permissible to use a metal or point foundation. However, such a base will not provide sufficient thermal insulation, so the heat consumption in the greenhouse will increase. At the same time, it is not worth making a base from a wooden beam, and even more so boards, for a glass greenhouse, since the tree will not provide sufficient immobility of the structure.
From the foregoing, we can conclude: how long you make the right choice of foundation for your greenhouse depends on how long it will last.
