Foundation under the greenhouse with their own hands for polycarbonate

Today, a greenhouse or a greenhouse can be found in almost any dacha and homestead land, and this is no longer self-made from window frames, but quite worthy products from manufacturers made of polycarbonate.

Most often, such facilities are advised to install on the foundation, which causes some perplexity in the summer residents. Why is this necessary? Is not it easier to just collect a greenhouse on bare ground without bothering yourself with additional work? Still, in order to make a foundation under the greenhouse with your own hands, you will have to spend some time and money.

Is it necessary to make a foundation for a greenhouse?

Polycarbonate greenhouses have a fairly appreciable weight, so for their installation requires a mandatory foundation. The fact is that the structure installed directly on the ground is not only prone to corrosion, at least its metal parts, it can still be washed up by groundwater or spring high water. And this leads to a skewing of the greenhouse and its subsequent destruction.

Another option is not saved, when the frame of the greenhouse is dug into the ground. Winters in Russia are cold, which leads to a deep freezing of the soil, which, under the influence of shearing 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 under the greenhouse with your own hands, which will firmly fix the structure in a stable position.

What foundation is used for the polycarbonate greenhouse?

How to make the foundation under the greenhouse with your own hands depends, first, on the type of soil on which the greenhouse is planned to be installed. Secondly, on the size, and more on the weight of the greenhouse.

Therefore, first of all it is worthwhile to consider what fundamentals are basically used for greenhouses made of polycarbonate, and then choose one of them. For all its dimensions, the greenhouse is not considered to be a particularly heavy and large structure, so it is not worthwhile to make a solid foundation under the greenhouse with its own type of monolithic one. Although in some cases, use it, but more on this later. Basically, the following types of base are made:

• Point foundation.
• From ready-made concrete blocks.
• Of brick.
• From the timber.
• A monolithic base.

These are the most common reasons that are most often performed as the foundation under the greenhouse with their own hands. Polycarbonate necessarily requires a stable and even support, as in the case of distortions, this material begins to become covered with cracks and deteriorates, and the above listed bases provide the necessary static.

Point foundation

This type of foundation can not even be called a full-fledged basis, rather, it is a support for the frame of a greenhouse, but it has every right to use it.

The main goal - to give stability to the frame - it fulfills. And the material used to make the columns, is selected depending on the weight of the greenhouse: the more it is, the stronger the material should be. For small greenhouses, trimming of the bar is used, it is better to put concrete blocks for more spacious greenhouses.

Such a foundation for a polycarbonate greenhouse with its own hands is made only for use in the summer, since it does not conserve heat. Another disadvantage is that insects, especially pests, do not encounter any obstacle on their way to cultivated plants.

But to perform such a foundation can be very simple and fast: the blocks or the bar from which low hemp are cut, set in the corners of the greenhouse and along the perimeter through each meter. This type of foundation refers to the temporary base and can easily be dismantled during the transfer of the greenhouse.

Foundation of wooden beams

The base of the timber is another type of mobile basement, which is easy to disassemble, so that the structure can easily be rearranged to another site. Therefore, the foundation is made of a bar under a greenhouse made of polycarbonate with your own hands in the event that a permanent place under the structure has not yet been selected, and it will most likely be postponed. In addition, the basis 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, and if necessary, to give it away.

One of the drawbacks of using such a foundation is its fragility, since even a tree treated with an antiseptic and water repellent agent is destroyed. To make such a foundation, as a rule, a 10x10 cm beam is used.

How to make a frame from a wooden beam?

Before installing the foundation under the greenhouse with your own hands, polycarbonate should carefully level the surface of the site. To do this, remove the top layer of soil, level the area and break a small ditch 10 cm deep and 20 cm wide around the perimeter. Well, if the greenhouse is already acquired, and you know its dimensions, otherwise it's time to decide on the type of greenhouse.

At the bottom of the trench, a pillow of rubble is piled up, which will drain excess water, or cover the layer of waterproofing. Scrape the frame out of the bar, always checking the perpendicularity of the corners and the horizontal surface. The corners are strengthened with the help of a building corner.

The made skeleton is treated with an antiseptic and lowered into a trench, free space is covered with soil.

A similar foundation for a greenhouse made of timber can be made from a smaller material, for example, 50x50 mm blocks or 50x150 mm boards, if the structure is not of particularly large dimensions.

Base of concrete blocks

This type of foundation is more thorough and provides good waterproofing of the structure, which is very important for maintaining optimal moisture in the greenhouse.

Therefore, the best option would be to make such a foundation under the greenhouse with their own hands on damp plots of land, on peat or marshy soils.

First of all, it is necessary to mark out the land on which the greenhouse installation will be carried out. To do this, level the selected territory and mark with the help of pegs and rope the perimeter of the structure.

Installing Blocks

After marking, you need to dig a ditch 25 cm wide and 30-40 cm deep below the future foundation so that the marking cord passes exactly in the middle. At the bottom of the trench lay a drainage fill of rubble and sand 10 cm high, which is carefully rammed. For this, the top layer of sand is spilled with water, and the rammer passes in a natural way.

Plant a concrete mortar and pour it halfway into the ditch. On the perimeter lay the concrete blocks, which are necessarily leveled. Separate blocks are placed strictly in the corners. Over pour the remaining concrete and smooth with a spatula.

Make such a tape foundation under the greenhouse with your own hands is quite possible in a few hours, and you can install a greenhouse in 2-3 days.

Concrete Bottom Base

Another option of how to make the foundation under the greenhouse with your hands in the form of a tape - make it from concrete. In this case, reinforcement in the form of metal rods is laid to reinforce the structure when pouring.

If the soil is dense and not prone to shedding, the concrete solution can be poured directly into the ditch. In the case of loose and loose soil in the prepared trench, it is necessary to install a timbering 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 lifted above the ground, then the formwork walls must also be mounted to this height.

Pouring concrete into the formwork. If the prepared solution is not enough for one-stage filling, it is poured in layers. At the same time, try to lay 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

With proper manufacturing, this type of foundation for strength characteristics is second only to the reinforced concrete base. In this case, the brick has the same properties as the tree, it absorbs moisture well, and this guarantees an optimal microclimate for plants.

On the other hand, this material is rather expensive and it is expedient to make a foundation of baked brick only if it is possible to purchase such products inexpensively.

For this purpose, the concrete strip is made level with the ground surface, as discussed above. When pouring put around the entire perimeter of the anchors or pieces of metal reinforcement and wait for the setting of concrete. After about a week, the brick can be laid on the tape, while the reinforcement must be inside the joints of the masonry.

Monolithic foundation

From concrete it is possible to pour one more kind of the basis which, as a rule, use for installation of large greenhouses, greenhouses from glass or if a ground on a site has the raised abyss. Apply this option only in exceptional cases, since making a foundation under the greenhouse of polycarbonate with their own hands in the form of a monolithic foundation - a fairly costly measure both in time and in money.

The preparation of the site for pouring is the same as for any other base. It is cleaned from the upper fertile soil layer, after which a foundation pit is dug out for a depth of 30-40 cm, which is covered with geotextile 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 off pipes.

Pouring concrete

Do the formwork of the boards and fall asleep in the pit a layer of gravel and sand with a total height of 10 cm with the obligatory straining for ramming. In the formwork a reinforcing binder is laid and poured with concrete. If necessary, insert reinforcing bars or anchors to fix the frame to the base.

It is possible to install a greenhouse on such a foundation only after the concrete has dried completely, which can last 21-28 days. At the same time, while the solution sets, its surface should be periodically moistened to avoid the appearance of cracks and disruption of the integrity of the substrate.

Although such a foundation requires a lot of labor and considerable financial expenses, its service life, which is about 50 years, will compensate for everything.

In addition to these basic types of foundation, several other types of bases are used, for example, from a metal profile or on screw piles. Some craftsmen combine the above methods of installation, and especially inventive individuals can make the foundation under the greenhouse with their own hands from improvised material, for example, from glass bottles.

What is the foundation for a glasshouse?

Separately it is worth mentioning about the greenhouse of glass, which is also often used in suburban areas. Due to its characteristics this structure is much more demanding both for stability and for protection against damage. Therefore, the foundation under the greenhouse made of glass with their own hands is made mainly in the form of a concrete monolithic or tape base. Unlike the foundation for a greenhouse made of polycarbonate, the base for the glass structure must be buried to the freezing level of the earth.

If the greenhouse has small dimensions, it is permissible to apply a metal or point foundation. However, such a foundation will not provide sufficient thermal insulation, so the heat consumption in the greenhouse will increase. At the same time, it is not necessary to make a base of a wooden beam, let alone boards, for a glasshouse, since the tree does not provide sufficient immobility of the structure.

From all of the above, we can conclude: on how much the right choice of the foundation for your greenhouse you do, depends on how long it will last.