How to make a hotbed yourself

Contents of the

There are many types of greenhouses, yes to the same , based on the general principle of their treachery, many craftsmen come up with their own versions of greenhouses or individual elements of this agrotechnical structure. Greenhouses can be conditionally divided according to different criteria, such as form of construction, material of manufacture, stationarity or construction time.

• Greenhouse Frames The greenhouse framework can be constructed from boards, and the useful volume - is protected by the cover in the form of glazed frames that can be opened. This kind of greenhouse will suit for growing seedlings or greens, for the early its getting to the table.

• Another temporary type of greenhouse, which is installed only for the spring-summer period, is made of a wooden frame, fiberglass reinforcement and polyethylene film .

Such a hotbed can last many years, if for the winter period, disassemble it for parts and clean it up in a closed room. To change the film to a new one - will not present any special labor and large expenses.

Video: the simplest hotbed on fiberglass frame

• Some craftsmen arrange a greenhouse in a large old barrel - its is also usually used only in the spring, but it is possible to its and not remove it for the winter from the site, but to use it as an open bed or flowerbed.

• A more complex is the kind of greenhouse that the lends itself to forced heating, and it can start the immediately after the snow falls. Such a construction is made of boards, reinforced plastic reinforcements and a dense polyethylene film or polycarbonate. The advantage of this greenhouse is that for tracking and caring for plants it is possible to enter into the building.

• The large greenhouse that is equipped with with all with the necessary equipment of the necessary microclimate, which allows to use it all year round. For him it is necessary to make a shallow foundation, a brick foundation and good warming.

This version of the greenhouse can be attached to the wall of a residential building - then it will be easier to conduct all communications. It will be more convenient to take care of plants at any time of the year - entrance to such a greenhouse can be done directly from home.

• To save on heating greenhouses in the winter, often arrange a so-called hotbed-thermos. For him, a pit is digested with a depth of 1700 - 2000 mm, which is then covered with a transparent roof. In this version of the greenhouse, the correct installation of the ventilation system is very important.

Although the work on the arrangement of such - is enough laborious , but but this design will help to save on paying for energy resources.

Roof shape

When choosing the shape of the greenhouse, you need to be able to understand the question of which of the roof structures will be most effective for growing plants.

• Gable roofs

Greenhouses with double-edged roof are quite popular, as they are spacious, and they are comfortable not only for plants, but also for gardeners. With proper design, installation and selection of material, the room will be illuminated all day by sunlight.

Such greenhouses are often used as a winter garden, planting them not only and even not so much vegetables, but exotic plants. However, to implement such an option will be possible in the event that all the necessary conditions are created - there are reliable heating, irrigation and lighting systems.

• Arched roof

This variant of the t t of an arched-shape ejection is easier to install than a greenhouse with an gable roof. In addition, this form, covered with polycarbonate or polyethylene with film, perfectly disperses the sunrays according to displacement, which allows plants to get maximum natural light.

It is very important that thanks to the arc-shaped form, snow does not accumulate on the roof, and means - eliminates the risk of deformation and damage from high load in winter.

• Single-deck roof

The single-deck roof is well suited for greenhouses that adjoin one wall to a more massive construction of the - to a house or a high stone fence, the is necessarily on the south side.

It is possible to save on the construction of this greenhouse, as one of the of its sides will serve as a ready wall, to which it will adjoin. In addition, in the hotbed it will be easier to conduct all communications.

When designing a greenhouse with single-deck roof, you need to choose the slope of the ramp so that snow does not linger on the roof surface, because an excessively high load can damage the coating.

transparent cellular polycarbonate Different materials will be needed for different designs of greenhouses, but there is always one thing in common: the material for covering the walls and the roof must be transparent, allowing daylight to shine.

This table provides information on the physical, technological and operational qualities of the of the three most commonly used materials, such as polycarbonate, polyethylene film and conventional silicate glass.

Technical and operational parameters	Cellular polycarbonate	Glass	Film
Mounting complexity and weight	Lightweight, self-supporting material. It makes it possible to reduce the number of parts of the frame and even completely abandon the foundation.	Glass is a heavy material, therefore, if it is chosen for the coating, the construction must have a strong frame and a solid foundation.	Very lightweight material that needs a secure reinforcement on the frame.
Longevity	A proven life span of about 20-25 years, the manufacturer gives a guarantee for 10 years of service. Polycarbonate, due to its rigidity, is itself an element of the power structure. Once fixed, it does not give deformations and distortions.	The material is durable if it is protected from mechanical stress and heavy loads( snow and hail).	The lifetime of the film is very small, at best - two to three years, as it is destroyed by ultraviolet rays.
Soundproofing	The material, thanks to its honeycomb structure, dampens the sound of the wind.	If the installation is poor, the wind can penetrate into the greenhouse, and the glass can make a sound or bounce.	Almost does not create noise insulation, but in strong winds, it rustles in the wind.
Appearance	Aesthetic and modern appearance of the material will make the greenhouse even to a certain extent a decorative element of the countryside.	Glasses have a fairly neat appearance, if installed by all rules.	The material looks neat only in the first year after it is fixed, then the film becomes turbid and collapses, especially if it is left on the frame for the winter period.
Safety	Polycarbonate is safe, does not break when dropped. It is 200 times stronger and at the same time - 15 times lighter than brittle and quite heavy glass.	Glass fragments are very dangerous when they get into the soil, as they can be seriously injured by them. Therefore, for safety reasons, the installation of the glass must be carried out with strict observance of all precautionary rules.	From the point of view of injuries, it's perfectly safe.
Care	Dust is almost imperceptible on the surface of the material, and if it is heavily soiled, it is sufficient to wash it with water from a hose.	Raindrops may linger on the surface of the glass, and then, when dried, they leave traces of turbidity. To wash away these divorces from the surface, you will have to make a lot of effort.	It is not recommended to wash the film, as it will leave dull stains on it, which will prevent the penetration of light.
Created microclimate	Polycarbonate perfectly insulates the room. Formed as a result of the condensation of ascending evaporations, droplets flow down the walls of the greenhouse, and do not fall on plants or on the head of a gardener. The material very well transmits and diffuses sunlight. The heat emitted by the plants and the soil does not go away through the greenhouse coatings, so a necessary greenhouse effect is formed.	Glass does not give the same high thermal insulation as polycarbonate, so the greenhouse effect is significantly reduced. The material passes light well, but does not dissipate it, and poor-quality glass often begins to work as a lens, which is undesirable for plant leaves.	New dense film, creates good thermal insulation, but after one season, it becomes thinner and more cloudy, so it loses its property of completely retaining heat and letting in the light.

Taking into account all these parameters, it is possible to choose the material suitable for a particular greenhouse, which will correspond to the design of a particular greenhouse to the greatest degree.

Preparing for the construction of the greenhouse

Location on the site

In order for the planting in the greenhouse to obtain the light necessary for their development as long as possible during the day, it is necessary to correctly locate and orient the structure on the site. On how long the beds will be illuminated by natural light, the yield of plants also largely depends. Therefore, most often hotbeds are installed on a completely open space or a transparent surface to the south.

Having chosen the desired version of the greenhouse, having found a suitable place for it on the site, correctly calculating its strengths and capabilities, one can proceed to drawing up a sketch and a small drawing.

The

greenhouse project Next, in order not to err in the size and assembly, a draft of the selected greenhouse is compiled with reference to the place where it will be installed.

built greenhouse. It is not necessary to draw all the elements in the line, adhering to the strict rules of the drawing art. If the owner plans to build everything on his own and does the project for , I myself and my assistants, then it will be enough to draw a greenhouse from the hand in such a projection that one could see all the sides of the building and put on them the sizes of all the main elements.

Layout of the territory

After drawing up the project, you can start marking the territory. This is especially important in the case if it builds a thermos hothouse or a winter greenhouse on the foundation, as in both versions it is assumed that a considerable amount of volume of excavation works.

The markings are made using ropes and pegs, which are driven along the perimeter of the future pit.

Trench and foundation

• If the option t is chosen for a thermos hob, which can work year round, then, before digging out the excavation, it is necessary to carefully remove the top fertile soil layer from the marked area. This soil is deposited in a separate heap, as it will then be necessary to bookmark the greenhouse beds.

When deepening the foundation pit, if clay layers have fallen, the of its is also stacked separately from the mixed soil under the fertile soil. Clay can be useful for making adobe bricks, which can be used to heat a greenhouse.

The depth of the excavation should be at least 1700 mm, but usually it is deepened by 2000 mm. It is the at such a depth of the that natural geothermal heat rising from the ground is conserved, since here the primer never freezes.(Of course, provided that the greenhouse does not settle in the northern regions of the country, where the permafrost is relatively shallow from the surface).

The recommended pit width is 2000 to 5000 mm, and the length is optional. Do not make the greenhouse wider, as it will quickly become damp, and its heating and lighting will require much more electrical or other energy.

In addition to the pit itself, a smooth descent is excavated, where the entrance door to the greenhouse will be installed later.

• If a place is marked for the all-season variant t , then does mark and dig a trench under a strip foundation with a width and depth of 300 mm.

This depth is quite enough, since the structure of - is not heavy and not gives on the foundation of heavy load. In height, above the ground, the foundation can be raised by 200 ÷ 500 mm , although is sometimes poured only 100 mm, and the rest of the wall is subsequently raised from the brick.

Further, sand is poured into the trench and compacted, with a layer of 50 ÷ 70 mm, then gravel, with the same layer. After that, along the trench, with a small depression in the of the , a formwork is installed, which is subsequently filled with concrete mortar. It is necessary to trace the so that the concrete is filled tightly, without leaving any air cavities - in order to avoid this, the " bayonet " can be pierced by piercing the with a freshly cast mortar with a bayonet shovel.

. In some cases, support posts made of metal pipes are embedded in the foundation nt Wed azu, on which the remaining elements of the greenhouse will be fixed.

• The third version of the basis for the greenhouse is a wooden frame made of timber, which is impregnated with antiseptic compounds and installed on a sand cushion.

Mounting of the

greenhouses. Having disassembled the base under the greenhouse, you can proceed with the installation of the chosen option.

1. A greenhouse on a wooden frame

A greenhouse for which no concrete foundation is required, and a solid wooden frame is the foundation, it is easier to mount.

• Made from a bar with a cross section of approximately 200 × 150 mm, the base box is laid on a flat prepared area, sanded. The base must fit snugly to the surface of the earth with its entire area. Therefore, if a gap is found between the frame and the surface of the soil when the frame is laid, it will need to be sealed with stone pads. Align the frame necessarily in the level, otherwise the hothouse will stand unevenly and unstable.
• After the box has been leveled, lengths of reinforcement 700 mm in length are driven into its corners. This measure is necessary to fix the base in place.

• The next step along the long side of the box ground is driven by pieces of reinforcement, which must go to the ground for 700 ÷ 800 mm, and above the surface should remain 600 ÷ 700 mm.

The fittings are driven at a distance of 500 ÷ 700 mm from each other and exactly opposite to the same rods driven from the other side of the box, as they will become the basis for securing the pipes.

• Further, on prefabricated reinforcement is put on pre-prepared metal-plastic pipes of the required length. It turns out a kind of arcade, which will become the basis for a transparent coating.

• To ensure that the pipes are firmly in place, they are recommended to be fixed with metal hinges that are screwed onto the box by screws.

• If the is obtained, then the of its needs to be fixed on the end faces, since they must stand rigidly .This framework will not only give rigidity to the , but also form the door .

For this, vertically install bars, section 50 × 50 mm, and then in several places they are fastened with horizontal cross bars.

Sometimes, knowing that it is impossible to do without transverse fasteners, the pipes for arches are fastened with cross adapters, into which horizontally cut pipe pieces are installed.

tube frame Another option for giving the structure rigidity is to fasten the entire arcade in the top of the roof with one common pipe.

Fastening is carried out by wire, plastic collars - "ties" or construction tape.

• Next, the frame obtained from the pipes is covered with a very dense polyethylene film . Its is laying the overlapping the by 200 ÷ 250 mm. At the bottom of the , the film is fixed to a wooden box using a construction stapler and staples.

First film stretches on the arcade, and then fastened to the end sides. In the door , the film is bent into the of the greenhouse.

• The door to the greenhouse should be light , but at the same time have the rigid design. Its is assembled from a block of 50 × 30 mm, and to eliminate the its diagonal deformation is secured by one or two racks. Then the resulting "door leaf" is covered with polyethylene with film.

The door is hung on the corresponding, prepared for it opening with the help of loops. Just like the door, there are also fortified holes, which are located closer to the ceiling on the door side of the greenhouse opposite from the door .This should create a flowing natural air circulation.

Video: an easy-to-use version of the compact seasonal greenhouse

2. Hotbed thermos

Foundation for walls

• Once the foundation pit is ready, a strip foundation must be created along its perimeter. For this, a trench is digging, and then all actions similar to those described above, where the question of the foundation under the winter greenhouse was considered, are carried out.

• . When the foundation is completely ready, you can proceed to the masonry of the walls, remembering to install one or two ventilation pipes. They are mounted in the lower part of the front side of the structure, opposite the entrance door, at a height of 500 mm from the floor.
• The pipes, after installation of the roof, are raised to a height above the ground, approximately per 1000 mm.

The masonry of the walls

Masonry can be made of adobe bricks, foam concrete blocks or from a fixed formwork of expanded polystyrene blocks, the cavities of which are filled with ordinary cement mortar.

• If the latter option is selected, insulated walls can be immediately obtained, but in this case the resulting structure will need to be separated from the ground by a polyethylene with film.

After the construction of stone walls, the gap between the ground and the masonry must be filled with clay, which should be well tampered. The diagram of the greenhouse thermos well shows the on the figure.

• Walls rise from the foundation above the ground to 500 ÷ 600 mm. If the walls did not use a permanent formwork, they must be insulated with the depth of freezing of the soil( taking into account the climatic features of the region where the greenhouse is built).
• The insulation can be laid from the outside of the wall, that is, between it and the ground. Therefore, the gap between them will have to expand and separate the insulation from the ground waterproof film .

If is used for insulation, expanded polystyrene is chosen and it will rise above the surface of the ground from the outside of the structure, then it must necessarily be covered with waterproofing, and then - with an outer decorative coating. It is best if it is material that is not rotting when it gets wet. For example, is suitable for plastic lining.

• Closure of insulation can be carried out in a different way - it is covered with claydite outside, and the top is covered with roofing material. For this, the is suitable corrugated board, which is fixed below the polycarbonate or glazing. In the this case of the plastic film for the roof covering of the does not fit the .

frame installation The next stage of the is the frame installation under the wall and ceiling covering with polycarbonate, since it is much easier and safer to mount the -.

The frame is made of wooden blocks or rigid metal profile.

• First , on the walls raised from the excavation, are laid and fixed with anchored fasteners bars having a section size of approximately 100 × 150 mm. Rafters and ridge bars should have the same size in cross section as the bars installed on the walls.
• Rare crate fastened to the rafters , approximately two to three bars per ramp. In the this case is required to provide the rigidity of the design.
• Further, on the crate is fastened with polycarbonate sheets. They are screwed with special screws with a large cap( press washer) and rubber gasket.

• After finishing the installation of the roofing, polycarbonate covers the front sides of the greenhouse, and then the ready-made door is installed. It is desirable that she also had the glazed part.
• In addition, almost under the roof itself is mounted the upper part of the ventilation - a hole is installed and a pipe is installed.

Thermal insulation of the structure

• It must be said that it is very important to leave the roof slope open for sunlight, which leaves to the south side, since the sun there last the longest during the day.
• The second roof slope from inside the hotbed is covered with a foil insulation that will reflect the light that hits it through the transparent part of the roof. For this purpose, the is well suited for polyethylene foam 5 mm thick with a foil surface.

Attach it to the rafters of the roof with the help of self-tapping screws with a wide bonnet. At the junction, the heater is bent to the wall.

• Further, in the same way all the walls of the greenhouse are insulated. A warmer on vertical stone surfaces is fixed to "liquid nails", or lath from thin rails is installed on the wall and foamed polyethylene is fixed on them by screws.

The task that the foil coating should perform is the , not only in the reflection of light inside the room, but also in the preservation of of carbon dioxide, moisture and heat that are vital for photosynthetic processes occurring in plants.

Heating support

To keep heat inside the hotbed for a long time, it is necessary to install doors on the ventilation holes.

Heating room can in many ways - electric system " warm floor", convectors, long burning furnace, and if the hotbed is located near the house, then it can be water heating and from a gas boiler.

• If the system " warm floor" is installed, then before its placement of the bottom of the greenhouse should be prepared so that the energy does not go into the ground in vain. The system is usually mounted only under the beds, although sometimes the sometimes places its under the tracks between them.

Preparation is as follows:

- the ground is laid with a thermal insulation coating. It is better if it is foiled;

- further, a layer of sand 50 mm thick is poured;

- reinforcement mesh with 30 × 30 mm cells is applied on top of sand;

- on it is fixed with heating cable;

- it is covered with a sand cushion of 50 mm;

- the reinforcement mesh is placed on top of it again;

- is filled with 300 ÷ 400 mm of soil.

All these layers are laid in the formed beds, boards of which serve as boards or bricks.

The beds are usually arranged along the walls, but if the greenhouse is very wide, the is still one, optional, can be installed in the middle. It is advisable to make beds at a slight angle so that the surface of the soil is slightly turned to the transparent southern slope of the roof.

• Recently, in the greenhouses, more and more often for its heating is installed with convectors.

They have a number of significant advantages that are ideal for hotbeds and greenhouses:

- they dry much less air than any other heaters, since they are designed in such a way that they create artificially circulating warm air ;

- easy installation - convectors are mounted on brackets installed in the wall, plug into the socket, and the temperature is set at the temperature controller;

- big plus - automatic switching on and off of the heater according to the chosen temperature regime - and this is a considerable saving of electricity;

- the convector is compact and has an aesthetic modern look.

Before buying a convector for heating a large room, you need to review the characteristics of the device and its power - only after that it will be known how much heaters will need for a specific area.

• Another option for heating can be cast-iron boiler long-burning with a water circuit.

scheme To install such a system, the will have to work :

- It is necessary to install the boiler .Its installation is carried out in the greenhouse itself or in the next room.

- The chimney pipe should be installed, which must be raised to a height of about 5000 mm.

- For the passage of the pipe through the for , it is necessary to isolate the combustible materials of the hotbed very well from the high temperature when the boiler is heated.

- It is necessary to calculate the correct slope of the pipes of the circuit, conduct the supply and return pipes for the coolant, correctly place the radiators.

- Fill the system with water, set the temperature sensor in the greenhouse.

Installation of this system can be called, perhaps, the most difficult of all other options, including - in comparison with the converter heating system.

Heating the greenhouse, you need to know that for normal development and growth of plants, it is necessary to maintain the air temperature within 25 ÷ 30, and the soil temperature - about 20 ÷ 25 degrees. In addition, in the premises of the hotbed should be created the optimum level of humidity.

3. Greenhouse on the foundation of

A greenhouse installed on a strip foundation can function smoothly all year round, if all the conditions necessary for this are created in the it .

In this case, the assembly of the structure should be carried out with the utmost care, since the structure should be, in fact, hermetically sealed, except, of course, the installed ventilation system.

For the skeleton of such a hotbed it is best to choose wood, since it conducts less cold than the metal profile, which is guaranteed to create "cold bridges".

wood will always be the best option for the heat preservation.

- For stone or adobe, plastered walls, erected for 500 ÷ 700 mm above the ground surface, the waterproofing material is laid. As a rule, it is an ordinary roofing felt.

- It is fastened with anchors thick wooden bars. Their width depends on the width of the walls, and the height can vary from 50 to150 mm.

- Clearances between the wall and the bars( or metal profile) must be fixed with a mounting foam.

- Next, the work takes place depending on what material for the greenhouse is chosen - it can be installation of finished metal-plastic frames or the erection of a wooden or metal frame.

- Then, in frames from metal-plastic, double or even triple-glazed windows are installed, frame from of wood, with glass already installed in them, or also glass units, to the wooden frame, and to the metal frame most oftenfixed polycarbonate.

The foundation, the floor and the lower part of the wall of the greenhouse must be very well insulated. Therefore in this case can take the system " warm floor", the device of which is described above, but in addition to it it is recommended to install still and convector heating. It will be good to maintain the desired temperature in the room.

are often installed on a wooden frame. If the greenhouse is located in regions with very snowy winters, when clearing the yard of drifts snow should be added to the lower part of the walls of the greenhouse. Snow is a very good insulation and will help to save on heating the building in the winter.

For walls it is possible to choose thick glass in 5 ÷ 7 mm or cellular polycarbonate in 10 ÷ 15 mm in thickness. Cell material has between two main planes an air layer, which will work as a heater.

Lighting of the greenhouse

Any greenhouse used in the cold season needs to be additionally illuminated to create a "spring" state in the room, since both the length of the daylight and the intensity of winter solar radiation for this will obviously not be enough.

automation. To save energy, lighting fixtures use LED luminaires. They can have different shapes, but they are recommended at the highest point of the greenhouse ceiling. Of course, , if desired, , you can equip the room and the lights, which are most often fixed at the joint of the roof and walls or high on the walls themselves.

It is possible to adjust the lighting by the clock, put the control unit with a timer and program the on it when the light in the greenhouse should be turned on and off. Such a system will help save energy and create the most comfortable conditions for plants.

If the greenhouse is used only in the spring-summer period, then to build its is quite simple , as it does not require the creation of any special conditions for warming and lighting. The winter variant t greenhouses - is quite complicated in calculations of both in erection and in everyday maintenance, and usually such complexes are arranged by those owners of plots who professionally deal with floriculture, vegetable growing or the cultivation of exotic plants. In this case, without a warm , rooms with a special microclimate can not be avoided, but all costs for its maintenance should be paid off when selling grown plants or fruits.

And finally - still one video with tips for choosing greenhouses and greenhouses.

Video: how to choose the right greenhouse or greenhouse?