Okay, let's look at some hoop materials
Steel
As far as gauge ...
14 gauge is probably the thinnest you ought to look at on a large structure
The lower the number, the thicker the pipe wall, guys
So, you know, 12 would be a thicker than that 14 gauge
Um, we usually space these four feet apart
But, you know
Remember, strength of the steel is a combination diameter and wall thickness
That you're paying for weight when you buy steel
You can use top rail tubing on smaller houses
This is just a little 12-foot house
That's the chain link fence top rail
16-, 17-gauge
Very thin and you do not want to use it on a big house
It doesn't have that much strength
There are quick hoop benders that are available through Johnny's
That you can bend your own pipe
We did successfully with this
Pretty neat if you like to do your own
Todd Hanley has a bender --
This is the first model, not a later one --
That you can use to bend the square tubing
Those plans, I guess, Alan, they're still on your website?
At the Kerr Center, they have plans on making the Hanley house or bending your pipe with
his bender
Square tubing -- very strong
I mean the steel is strong
I really like the looks of it
And the nice thing about square tubing -- you can attach things to it very easily
I mean, it's flat
You can put a piece of wiggle wire base on it
Okay, PVC
This gentleman's got it right
It's not very strong,
But if you put some type of bracing in it to hold it together
That's what you need to do
He's had experience
Our poly pipe house is only fourteen feet wide
I wouldn't want to go any wider with it
But as long as it's arched
And you've got the plastic applied on it firmly and tied down
It's very strong
I've never had a problem with this blowing down
Okay, end wall
Gosh, you know you get what you pay for
This is steel
I love steel
This is really overkill
But, I like it when it doesn't rot, okay?
And now the issue with steel:
You've got to have a cutting torch
And you've got to have a chop saw
You have to have a welder
You've got to have a drill You've got to have a few more tools. Correct?
Than you would if you use using wood, timber, lumber
Alright, this is a laminated, treated wood
If you're certified organic, this is not permissible
You need to figure out some other way
Use some oil on it or something --
Linseed oil or something to treat it
But, laminated gives you a lot a string
It's very -- this is one of our first walls we put up
Well, actually the third wall on the third house
But, very functional
It's still in use today or still out there
The house is not used much but the structure, there, is
This a C-purlin
Possible there ...
Anytime you cut one of these C-purlins, you weaken it
You know, but this is an option
This is certainly an option and when they're curved like that
It's going to be stronger than just a piece of plate steel
Okay, when you install your post, you've got to have some structural members --
Some posts on your end wall if it's a permanent house, okay?
If you want strength
If you don't, the darn thing is going to blow down
So, this is Steve
He's using the old, you know, packing rod there
To compact the clay soil
Okay, concrete is really the ideal thing to use
Some people just dry pack it
If you're really a purist, you'll want to want to mix it and then pour it
But, hey
When you do this ...
Well, you just want to make sure that you've got enough moisture in that it will set up
properly
Okay, use the door
You get what you pay for again with the door
We use a commercial door or we build the ...
We take the ones that we can purchase off the shelf and we will strengthen them
Different types of doors:
This is the sliding (door)
If they're mounted on the top, it's much better
Obviously, there's not any soil that's going to get up there
At the bottom and that track, wow
You know, it will fill up with soil, so you have to clean it out
But I like these. They are a little more expensive to put up
But they're pretty convenient to open and close
This is the simplest door you can make
It's a scissor door
A chain or a bolt run through the two door components to the end hoop
You just open it -- I mean it's like a scissor, okay?
Very cheap not very strong
But for small structures it's very good
I've seen them on larger structures
It scares me to death because there's just not any structural strength there
For that on a large house
The curtain door
The structure is strong
The doors just cheap
You get, again, what you pay for
It operates just like the vents on the side of the house
Roll it up, roll it down
When I was in Israel
I noticed that some Israeli growers were tacking the side of the film to the column
And they were using these little clips and then running a nail through it
And then just pulling it on and off by hand
It's kind of a little time consuming but it's cheap
It's a way to make it happen
Just understand the limitations of the system
Okay, hinged doors, wow
This is great if you want something that you don't have to lift
Or to personally remove and put back and bolt back on
You just open it up and close it, right?
It's super, but, my goodness, I think Leon will attest to this
So it's difficult to make, difficult to hang
And it's expensive, right, Leon?
Okay, Penn State University has this type of door
It hinges to the top
Problem with that -- if it did catch some wind
And you were standing close by you can imagine what would happen
But it does have unhindered access to that
Alright, so we're looking at these detachable end walls
For a removable structure or if we want to drive through a permanent structure
This is our little portable end wall
It sits on a piece of angle iron to keep it from blowing in at the base
It hooks to two bolts at the top
It's pretty slick for the, you know, if you want to make your own
If you just want to use some wood
Okay, attaching your frame to the ground
Various ways to do this
This is brother Leon, here
He's using a chain
And that chain has got a little bit of a ...
It's got a hook or a little
What do you call it?
A yoke on the bottom of it
That will bite into the concrete and won't pull it out
And we're not going to pour that concrete all the way to the top
We're going to leave six inches or eight inches under the ground
So when we run a disc over that area
We're not going to tear up our brace or tear up our anchor
We can just bury the chain in the soil -- dig the soil out
Pull the chain up and attach it to our frame
If we need to, you know, need to get it out of the way and hide it
You can see there how it's attached to the frame just with a bolt and a washer and nut
Okay, this is another example how they fit right up into the frame -- the end walls
You got little post there and then you attach them to the top with some hardware
Not a bad deal
Okay, max venting
When you design, if you want to custom design it
Think about getting as much ventilation through there
And, again, if it this is for permanent house with a permanent end wall
It's kind of open enough you can get a small utility vehicle in there
Different materials for the end walls:
Sheeting -- this is PVC or polycarbonate
Expensive, but isn't that nice?
Low maintenance
And you couldn't afford to put it over your whole house
Well, I guess you could if you've got deep pockets
But, I like this because the end walls take a lot of abuse, kind of like the door
For removable end walls and doors, I like the ripstop plastic
This stuff, it's hard to run your hand through it
I mean, you've really got to whack it to get it to tear
And it will last a year or so longer than this, the regular clear poly greenhouse
I do not like to ... removal end walls
I'd prefer not to use regular six mil plastic on it
Just, when you lay them down on the ground, it just rips too easily
It would be better if you had something like this
If you can spend a few more dollars to do that
Cover at least your doors with this -- removable doors