How to protect a greenhouse in winter

tombrown

Hi

Funny time of year to be posting this, but want to get ahead of the curve.

Every winter we lose a few panes (sometimes many) in our greenhouse due to the winds. Other than moving the greenhouse to a more sheltered spot is there anything we can do?

My wife says she spotted a greenhouse once that was wrapped up in what looked like heavy duty cling film. Is that a possibility? We dont use the greenhouse during the winter, so sealing it up would not be a problem

Hocus Focus

What she saw was probably Pallet Wrap. Ask a friendly truck driver for a roll, or get it from the likes of Viking Direct or AJ Products .ie. You could place a lath vertically in front of the panes to stand the pallet wrap off the glass so that there is no wind pressure on it.

tombrown

Thanks

But will it work?

lazybones32

Does the wind blow the panes off the glasshouse or does the wind send projectiles through the panes?
Just an idea in my head now is about leaving some ventilation through the glasshouse (if possible) to lessen the force of the wind - instead of all its force hitting the same few panes? Remove a row of panes to allow the wind pass through the house, instead of all the force being spread across the side that faces the breeze...don't know if I'm explaining it right.
If there are foreign bodies being launched through the glass, sheets of styrofoam could be attached to absorb the shock of impact - theoretically...

tombrown

Its panes gettign blown out ... no flying objects, except the panes themselves. In the past we opened the vent window & door, but that didnt do much good. Maybe removing a row of panes all the way round will do the trick as you suggest

Marhay70

Certainly opening doors, vents and roof vents will lessen the damage if the openings are on the windward and leeward ends, allowing the wind to blow straight through, if they are not it traps the force of the wind. The best solution though is to move the greenhouse to a more sheltered spot, provided it's not shaded.
You don't say if the greenhouse is in a wide open exposed place or in a suburban garden, ironically garden walls can cause more wind turbulence in the garden than they prevent.

Lumi

tombrown wrote: »

Maybe removing a row of panes all the way round will do the trick as you suggest

I tried that last winter and left the door open but all the panes in the roof and sides were still blown out

Marhay70 wrote: »

ironically garden walls can cause more wind turbulence in the garden than they prevent.

That certainly seems to be the case in my garden. I've replaced all of the glass with twin-walled polycarbonate this season - fingers crossed it'll withstand the Autumn/winter gales a little better.

Shemale

I had a disaster last year, lost four twinwalled polycarbonate panels before any of the serious storms so I took all the panels out and put them under the gas canister.

The problem with my greenhouse was the panels are clipped in and for some bizarre reason there are diagonal supports with bolts in the middle of each panel(either top or bottom), these supports are bolted in place and the net result is the bolt is stopping the pane from being flush and I think the wind was getting in behind and popping the panels out.

I looked all around for some thin cheap metal but couldn't find any so I got some wood about 3cm wide, cut it so it was the width of the panel and would have to be slighted turned to get them to sit flush against the greenhouse. I painted them with green fence paint and then drilled through them and the panel into the frame of the greenhouse and fixed them with 6M nuts and bolts.

Where I have the diagonal supports I took out the nuts and bolts and drilled the wood and panel and put the longer bolts through the wood, panel, frame and support so everything is flat. Then I sealed the wood with silicon to stop water lodging in behind and rotting it.

I will post some pictures later but it's a right job and it would have to be some wind to cause me problems.

tombrown

We live in the middle of county clare out in the sticks. Greenhouse is in the corner of the garden beside a wide open field. We did put in a sewage filtration mound (about 5' high) in the corner of the field last year right beside where the greenhouse is, so this may be causing some unusual air flows - certainly the damage last winter was the worst yet (needed to replace ~8 panes), but we have had 2-3 panes of damage every winter in the past

Moving the greenhouse is not an option, unless it is accompanied with divorce We did use polycarbonate for a while, in particular when the kids were small, but they turned yellow after about a year or so (the poly panes, not the kids)

I might just give the pallet wrap a go this year & see what happens - it should at least stop the panes being blown out, and I cant see how it could cause any worse issues ???

Marhay70

tombrown wrote: »

We live in the middle of county clare out in the sticks. Greenhouse is in the corner of the garden beside a wide open field. We did put in a sewage filtration mound (about 5' high) in the corner of the field last year right beside where the greenhouse is, so this may be causing some unusual air flows - certainly the damage last winter was the worst yet (needed to replace ~8 panes), but we have had 2-3 panes of damage every winter in the past

Moving the greenhouse is not an option, unless it is accompanied with divorce We did use polycarbonate for a while, in particular when the kids were small, but they turned yellow after about a year or so (the poly panes, not the kids)

I might just give the pallet wrap a go this year & see what happens - it should at least stop the panes being blown out, and I cant see how it could cause any worse issues ???

You'll just have to decide which is the more functional and useful, the wife or the greenhouse.

Last year was an exceptional year for storms although it looks like it may become the norm in the future. My own gut feeling is that if you wrap the greenhouse up in pallet wrap and we have the same sort of stormy weather then the wind will just lift the whole structure and deposit it in the next field or worse still, in your living room, even if the greenhouse is secured to a concrete base the wind can twist the frame and break the glass.
What might help is to erect mesh netting, like what you see protecting newly sown hedging, on the windward side of the greenhouse about ten feet away and as high as you can manage, you could then plant a hedge of maybe escallonia or eleagnus inside that to provide future protection. The idea is not to stop the wind but to filter it and slow it down, solid obstructions don't do this as the wind will just go up and over them and create turbulence on the other side.

tombrown

Hmmm ... food for thought. Thanks all for the inputs

Gautama

When a pane breaks make sure it is replaced by greenhouse glass, not window glass.
If you get the local glazier or handyman to replace broken panes they'll probably use window glass.
This is what happened to my mother. Every year more and more panes broke and she used a handyman to replace them.
When a dozen panes broke one winter I tackled the problem myself. I noticed that the original planes of glass (greenhouse glass) were 3.5 mm in thickness whereas the replacement panes were 5mm. These were too rigid and stiff in the frame and allowed no movement or sway in strong winds. When a gale blew, something had to give. And it did, numerous panes, new and old.
I ordered replacement greenhouse glass from that greenhouse supplier in the Midlands, to replace the broken panes and the window panes.
That was three years ago and only one pane has broken since... due to a wayward shovel.