Today, many peoples' standard response when they need something new is to go to the
store, or go online, and buy it and you can buy cheap junky greenhouses made out of
plastic that will fall apart in a matter of a year or a couple of years.
So today I am really excited for John at Old Redding Farm to show you how to build
a greenhouse out of doors and windows that were being thrown away.
Being able to build a greenhouse nearly for free, or for free, that is sustainable
and will last a really long time to help you grow more of your own food.
Here he is. What's up, everybody? My name is John
and I am from Old Redding Farm. I live here in South Western Connecticut with my
wife, Catherine; our 2 dogs, Pepper and Peanut; our 5 Alpacas, Mocha,
Marshmallow, Pumpkin, Linda and Macy. As well as our flock of chickens and a few
honeybees. And today I am here to show you a little bit about how we built this
beautiful greenhouse. Sits right on the edge of an old stone patio that we have.
It is a 12-foot square, mostly. I am not an expert at anything, so I did my
best to make sure this was as square and even as possible, but sometimes I can't do
that. So all of the windows that you see along the walls here are recycled.
We didn't purchase any of these brand new. We were able to source a lot of it online
through either Craigslist free or the Facebook market place. Our local buy
nothing group had them also. In fact the only windows we actually paid for were
the stained glass ones on the front and those are actually reclaimed from a church
in Texas that was being torn down for some reason. So we purchased all of the lumber
and the things used to frame everything out. This is all 2 by 4's and 4 by 4's
because we wanted to make sure that the structure was sound. Windows don't
provide any structural integrity so we had to make sure that the whole skeleton
surrounding it was strong enough to support the weight. We also used
Tuftex corrugated plastic roofing for the roof. Again, we thought about using windows,
or even recycled greenhouse glass, but because we live in an area with such high
concentration of trees, and because we need to support a snow load, we decided
to go with something that was designed specifically for greenhouse roofs.
So we built the frame around our 3 biggest windows. This one right here
which is made up of 3 is almost 8 feet long. So we have 4 by 4 posts on either
side, right here, and right here, and then there's another corner post over here.
But so that way, the weight of the roof and if we have a snow load on there
gets transferred to the 4 by 4 posts instead of actually sitting on the windows.
Like I said, windows have no structural integrity, so it is important to support
everything as opposed to just having a bunch of windows sitting on top of each
other. So when we put this all together the first thing we did was put in our large
windows. We have 3 windows all approximately the same size on all 3 sides.
And then we took a 2 by 4, and we got it in here, along with a cripple stud right here.
Which again, it just takes the weight away from the window and puts it on these 2 2 by 4s.
And then on top of this 2 by 4 we have, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4 windows sitting on
top of here. And we really just had to play a game of Tetris to just see which ones
fit where. And there were several instances where we had to add things. Like this
is just a 2 by 4 that we added to block the gap but once we got the windows sitting
on top of this 2 by 4 we would use thinner strips of a 2 by 4 to secure them
in place. That also just serves as a means of closing the air gap. Because when you
have a greenhouse like this it is really important to keep all the warm air in.
Because what happens is the sun will heat the air inside the greenhouse during
the day, but if it is all drafty you are going to lose it all. So our goal was to
make sure this was as airtight as possible. They are old windows so that is not
always a feat that is easy to achieve. But that is why we have these little blocks
here. These little furring strips to kind of cut the airflow.
As far as sealing up the roof goes, there are these little foam pieces that fit
right in the ridges there and again that just seals everything up so that no air
escapes and you save all your hot air. So the whole reason why we wanted to
build this greenhouse is because we live in Southwestern Connecticut which is zone
6B. It is a relatively short growing season so we wanted a chance to be able
to start our seeds early. Especially things like tomatoes and peppers.
And we wanted to also just kind of extend our growing season. It also afforded us
the opportunity to build a lot more growing space because we ended up planting
a lot more seeds that we had room to actually sow. But we would rather grow food
over lawns any day so we will take it. So overall it took us probably about
8 months to build this thing from start to finish and that includes picking
up all of the windows which was the most time-consuming part. Just because we
weren't buying it so we just had to wait until the opportunity presented itself.
And then, I am sure some of you know, if you are on the free Craigslist section
some things are only up there for a few minutes and you have to nab it as soon
as possible so we were on there checking a few times a day and sending messages as
soon as we possibly can and we actually started building this in November of 2019.
Because in October of 2019 we were getting our Alpacas so the first thing we had to do
was build our Alpaca barn. So it was a little bit tough because we had to build
this thing in the winter months and there was a lot of time where we had some
trouble with ice and in general it was just kind of cold and sometimes it was
really miserable to be out here. But we wanted to make sure we had it ready for
February so we could start our seeds so that was a good motivation. So about 8
months time, including the time to procure all the windows, and then 3 or 4
months to build. So again this is a 12 by 12 structure and I think we had about 35
windows so it really all depends on what sizes you get. We were really lucky. The
largest windows actually came from a local contractor who was remodeling a house.
We were just driving by, saw there was a bunch of windows in the dumpster, we did
not just jump right in. That is dangerous and unadvisable. We actually saw that
the house was for sale so we called the realtor, realtor hooked us up with the
contractor, and he was so happy to get rid of them he even loaded them into our
truck for us. Which was really nice because they are giant and heavy.
So again it was 12 by 12 and it really suits our purpose well. If you are
planning out your own greenhouse I would suggest remembering to plan for
the tables. They actually take up a good amount of space in here and you are
going to want to have easy to use working space. All in all I am really proud of
this greenhouse. I am super happy with how it came out. I think it looks great.
It makes me feel nice to have taken a bunch of stuff out of the landfill.
Super glad we were able to use a bunch of recycled materials and I hope that this
inspires you to build one of your own.
If you feel like you'd like to try to build your own greenhouse made out of
recycled windows I totally encourage you to do it. I am not a carpenter. I am
actually a graphic designer and I have a full-time job. We built this in our free
time, over the weekends, and honestly I learned a lot doing it. There is a lot of
information out there on how to build these types of things. Whether it is
recycled materials or not and only good things can happen by trying.
That is how you learn.
I hope that you found John's example as inspiring as I did. I know the first time
that I ever heard of the concept of building a greenhouse out of windows
and doors that were being thrown away I was pretty excited about it. So I hope
that many of you will actually put this into action and use it to grow more food.
Now if you were inspired make sure to subscribe to John's channel. The links
are in the description to follow him and make sure to subscribe to this channel
where there are many more educational and inspirational videos to come.
And if you want this video to get out into the world make sure to 'like',
comment, and share it with people. I love you all very much and I'll see you
again real soon.
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