A good decision if you want to build your new greenhouse yourself and make it as practical as possible. You are laying the foundation for your family's extremely healthy diet and will have a lot of fun raising the fruit and vegetable plants on your own.

A foil greenhouse is the cheapest

Gardening under glass, ideal for real organic food

The trend of growing fruit, vegetables and herbs for one's own supply is constantly growing. That makes regardless of the industrially produced food, saves money and the trip to the health food store and you enjoy the feeling of doing something good for your family and yourself. If you want to harvest particularly early and plentifully, grow your crops under glass or foil and sooner or later you will come up with the idea that you could build a greenhouse yourself. The plants thrive better than under the often very unfavorable climatic conditions in our latitudes and it is a pleasure to be able to almost watch them grow under glass.

The right location for your own greenhouse

The best place is exactly where there is as much direct sunlight as possible, all year round. The self-built greenhouse should be possible not near large trees, houses or other objects that cast shadows be set up. In addition, it is good if there is a water and electrical connection nearby and the new structure is sheltered from the wind but not directly below a slope, since rainwater should be kept away as much as possible.

Build a greenhouse yourself - which material is the best?

Whether wood, aluminum or plastic is used for the supporting elements, i.e. the frame, is primarily a question of the financial budget and whether you can build the entire greenhouse yourself or use a pre-assembled kit purchased and only screwed together on site. The latter variant is particularly suitable for laypeople, since assembly is usually quite simple using the instructions provided. Nevertheless, you will not be able to avoid making a stable foundation, no matter what form you want to build your greenhouse yourself. Let's first take a quick look at the three most common model variants.

Wood - the classic

Since the moisture load from outside (rainwater) and inside (humidity) can be quite significant during certain weather periods, it is recommended high quality wood, such as larch or cedar. Building your own greenhouse with spruce or pine wood is a little cheaper. In general, it is recommended to thoroughly impregnate all wooden portals before assembly, which can significantly increase their service life.

For lightweight builders - greenhouse with aluminum frame

This variant is not only light in terms of material, but also when it comes to assembly. However, aluminum does not have good insulating properties and quickly lets in both heat and cold. The material itself, on the other hand, is not damaged by extreme temperatures or moisture. Aluminum greenhouses (€77.12) are extremely robust for many years and require almost no care.

Plastic greenhouses - the robust ones

They look classy with their plastic frame made of polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride and this material also insulates excellently. The greenhouse panes are mostly made of colored plastic, what a easy assembly enabled during self-assembly. Another benefit is the longevity, since even after several years there are hardly any signs of wear. If you build your greenhouse yourself and use plastic for this, the purchase price may be a little higher, but you don't have to put in much effort for maintenance.

The surface material - the most important part of the greenhouse

Of course, because optimal insulation is required, especially for year-round use, against both high and low outside temperatures, and all moving components must also be tightly sealed. Light and UV rays should be able to penetrate well into the interior of the house, which enables dense and lush growth of the plants. Special coatings help that formed condensed water drains away evenly and selective drop formation is prevented. However, since you want to build your new greenhouse yourself, the material must also be as easy to work with as possible, although the classic, blank glass, could cause problems.

Use glass on the plant house?

If you build everything yourself, you will quickly reach your limits when cutting glass as an inexperienced layman. In addition, if you don't exactly use old demolition windows that were obtained cheaply when building a new greenhouse, glass is quite expensive commercially. An example of the costs that we researched for you from an online retailer:

ESG safety glass clear with polished edge:

  • 1,000 x 1,500 x 4 (mm width/height/thickness: 72.00 euros per piece
  • 1,000 x 2,000 x 4 (mm width/height/thickness: 94.00 euros per piece
  • 1,500 x 2,000 x 4 (mm width/height/thickness: 135.00 euros per piece

Optionally, the material can be ordered pre-drilled for later attachment. The prices for it:

  • Two holes: 9.50 euros
  • Four holes: 19.00 euros
  • Six holes: 28.50 euros

With a binding order, a quantity discount would certainly also be negotiable, which would have to be deducted from the above prices. Transport costs, which are rarely less than 50.00 euros, must also be added to the total price.

Plastic sheets - translucent and impact-resistant

In practice, twin-wall sheets made of polycarbonate have prevailed. you reach good values for the transmittance of UV rays, can be cut very easily, but have the unpleasant characteristic that after ten years they begin to turn yellow. Acrylic glass, on the other hand, remains colour-stable for 30 years, but can splinter more easily when cut. The last option left is the PVC panels, which are also robust but also inexpensive if you build your greenhouse yourself. Small disadvantage: The light transmission is not quite as high as with the other two materials.

Foil as the cheapest alternative

Greenhouse films are made of polyethylene and are manufactured in several layers. This gives them a certain tear resistance, but they are less stable than glass or plastic plates. However, special thermal foils with air cushioning can last for several years. Many allotment gardeners who build their own greenhouse appreciate them easy and fast processing of foils, use them especially for smaller houses and there usually not all year round, but only to raise their seedlings and young plants at the beginning of the garden year.

Metal foundation frame vs. concrete base

Many prefabricated kits contain a more or less stable metal frame that can be hammered directly into the ground using four anchors. This may be sufficient for small houses that are only used for a few weeks in spring. If you build a greenhouse yourself, which is to be used all year round and has a size of more than 10 m2, you are with one solid concrete foundation on the safer side. In addition to a not insignificant increase in stability, later energy consumption is reduced considerably with a high-quality foundation. Also note that most insurance companies only regulate claims if it is a fixed outbuilding that stands on a solid foundation and is firmly anchored to it.

The building permit thing

A perennial theme that has probably occupied generations of hobby gardeners who want to build their greenhouse themselves. For the kits offered in the trade, which are not used commercially, is due to most state building regulations no building permit required, as long as they have neither a lounge nor a fireplace. This is different with the ridge heights, which display from a certain value - but not might be subject to approval. In addition, it is possible that the municipal building use ordinance prescribes boundary distances inside and outside of properties, e.g. that of the neighbor, so that an informal visit to the municipality before the construction of the greenhouse can make sense.

Raised bed inside or would you prefer a ground-level extension?

In order to answer this question, one must first be clear about which plants will later be settled in the finished greenhouse. Naturally, you should regularly clean these floors that are used intensively, sometimes on one side fill up with compost, nutrients and ideally with rotted cattle or horse manure, which can be quite physically demanding when growing at ground level. A few advantages of raised beds:

  • Since the main flight of seeds takes place above the ground, weeds grow less intensively in raised beds;
  • Hardly any snail infestation; with an additional installation of a snail barrier, the animals stay away completely;
  • More efficient utilization of the decomposition heat, which improves the growth rate;

Planting at ground level needs a foundation!

While raised beds naturally do not place such high demands on a proper and solid foundation, it is mandatory for ground-level cultivation if only in the interest of frost protection. Under certain circumstances, if you build your entire greenhouse yourself, you may even need one more Heating to be installed. Therefore, the foundation should have a minimum depth of 80 cm and be built as a solid strip foundation. In addition to an overall higher stability, this also means that the entire construction is less exposed to soil moisture and will therefore have a longer service life.

How much does all that cost?

It is not even possible to say in general how high the financial investment will be. There are, starting from the size, to the eventual decor too many factors that can potentially reduce but also increase your costs. Eight square meter lightweight foil constructions as a set are already being offered in the relevant mail order business for a little more than 200.00 euros. You can just as easily find one of the same size, but with a stable wooden construction and a rustic design for over 3,000.00 euros. Purely from experience, however, it can be said that building a greenhouse yourself can certainly be cheaper, but in any case it can be more individual and interesting in terms of construction and architecture.

Include greenhouse accessories in the costs

One Basic set of certain accessories should be included in the planning right from the start, especially if you are building the entire greenhouse yourself and are responsible for procuring the necessary materials yourself. The shopping list could then look something like this:

equipment Use for average cost
Gas or petroleum heating warmth in winter 100 to 150 euros
fan Air exchange, against mold 60 to 100 euros
irrigation system Pouring, climate regulation 50 to 80 euros
lighting device Growth support on dark days 50 to 150 euros
shading fabric Protection against overheating 40 to 80 euros
shelves and tables putting down plants 50 to 150 euros
thermometers, hygrometers Indoor climate monitoring 30 to 60 euros

tips

Building and setting up a greenhouse yourself means taking many eventualities into account. Even at the planning stage, it is important to consistently ensure that everything is done to ensure a later to prevent mold growth within this microclimate. High-quality material is better suited for this than any cheap set from the remainder market next door.

Category:

Garden design