Greenhouse Repair

      Here is the inside of the east wall. The dark area at the bottom of the post is the rotten portion of the post. I don't know what was holding the house up. The plywood sheathing doesn't look too bad in this picture but was thoroughly rotted.
      We removed all the siding and tarpaper and then removed the plywood siding. It was in bad shape too. In most cases all we had to do was kick the plywood and it would fall out on the ground.

      Perhaps I should mention, that we didn't do this all at once or I would have had a heap of timber and glass. We started at the door and worked our way around, clockwise, one wall at a time.
      This picture shows the rotten plywood we kicked out on the south side by the most rotten post. One can also see a bit of the watering system lying on the ground.

      I had some great 4 x 6 beams that were treated with creosote. We cut them in two foot lengths, jacked up the upper 2 x 4 to get a little clearance and sawed off the post. We installed these 4 x 6's temporarily on each side of where the new post was to go, cleaned the hole where the post was, poured concrete in and positioned a Simpson post hanger at the bottom to attach the replacement post. The replaced post can be seen on the left and the newly prepared post position can be seen on the right. The corner posts were not cut off but were flanked on each side with a new post.

      Here is the inside of the east wall after it is fixed The extra post in the middle is where the two nine foot plywood sheathings meet. I should mention that they are treated with the copper based wood preservative. I'm not using that copper based material anywhere where water can contact it and then drop on a plant. It would probably kill the plant.
      Note the now continuous concrete base, the clips in the concrete at the base of the new posts and the straps that are on both sides of the joint between the new posts and the old posts.

      Here is the south wall. There is an extra 4 x 6 suppport which was put there because of the extensive termite damage in this area. The post just to the right of center has extra 2 x 4's on each side because of this. Note that the sag has been taken out of the wall. This area was the most damaged part of the greenhouse. That's apparent in the earlier pictures which showed the sagging!.

      One the west side, there is a deck outside the library. This deck is raised about two feet above ground. Some of the posts showed damage so several extra supports were added while the wall was open.

      The sheathing was continued around the base of the greenhouse. It was then covered with 30# felt tarpaper. We then used a composite siding called Cottage Lap. This was cut in two foot pieces and stapled vertically on the outside wall.

      Here is the outside of the south wall showing the new siding. I think it is going to look pretty good. I will replace the shelf as soon as I can. That is one of my sunny shelves.

      The timer is now mounted in a more convenient place. before it was mounted under the 2 x 12 shelf which ran along the E wall. It was well protected but a bit inconvenient. Now it is more accessible. It is a six position Hardie timer and controls all the watering in the back yard, inside and outside the greenhouse.

      I have five circuits for various parts of the yard. I can individually water the sunny, the shade, and other areas individually.

  And then you ask, "What happened to all the plants?".

      They are stacked along the back fence and on the deck. You can see the shelf on the ground that will be replaced. You can see the hose needed to water things till the timer is functional.

        Yes, you have to be careful you don't trip on anything!

        Here is another picture of the deck taken from the greenhouse toward the house.

        Here is another picture of the deck taken from the house toward the greenhouse.

                                                                        Here is a picture showing the structure of the new benches.

      Here is a picture showing Sauny using a template to arrange the spacing between the redwood 1x2's. I bought a pneumatic brad gun for this job and a wonderful investment it was!

      Here is a picture showing Sauny grinning over a bench she just built! It's looking great! I functioned as a silent helper here. Note the pneumatic brad nailer on the bench. This is the best tool I've bought in years!

      Looks good to me. We're almost done with the reconstruction, now for the reconstitution of the display! This first display has an "altar" look to me. It is mostly Tillandsias.

        Richard Arnold gave me these four photos he took during his construction.
This first one shows the state of the posts! ---->