Greenhouse: Greenhouse being reassembled: need advice re several problem, 1 by joanlc

joanlc wrote:
Hi everybody,

I bought an English greenhouse - Eden - in 1991 when I lived in central North Dakota. When we moved to my present home in western Minnesota in 1998, I disassembled it and brought it with me. It's been in the barn for 16 years! (Child-rearing and career, you know the drill.) And this fall I am finally putting it back together.

It never was very well sealed. The gaskets that sealed long edges of the panels were OK - but there were way too many places along the top and bottom ends of the panels without any sort of weatherstripping or sealant whatsoever. I remember well, trying to caulk all those places. What a mess. This was pre-internet, so I didn't have access to any Great Advice like I'm hoping for today.

So now, before I put the Lexan panels on, I'm thinking of getting some kind of weatherstripping that will stand up to greenhouse conditions. It could get wet, obviously. It will get very cold, in Minnesota, down to 30 below for a night or two, most winters. (Maybe a few degrees lower, but that's rare.) It will get very hot in summer, with high humidity.

What can I stuff in the cracks that will stand up to this, and resist mold/algae formation? *Should* I simply stuff something in - something that's not necessarily defined as "weatherstripping", or that's not necessarily adhesive? Or can I just run over to Menard's/Home Depot/Fleet Farm and get whatever looks like the right size? That foam stuff that comes in rolls with at least one side that's sticky?

While we're at it: with two-ply Lexan, how important is it to have ventilated tape on the bottom edges of the panels? I hear about preventing condensation. BUT. It's very, very dry around here right now. If I seal both top and bottom edges with the nifty Nashua waterproofing aluminum butyl-backed tape in this time of very low humidity, will I have really mucked up the job? (Seems to me that a number of bugs and a lot of dirt made short work of those ventilated bottom strips. Not good.)

(Re sealing up drafty panel ends: I'm wondering whether that Nashua waterproofing tape wouldn't do a darn good job. Hm. Maybe protect against moisture too, if it goes over foam weatherstripping?)

And finally: a number of the panels are pretty yellowed. Especially the ones that faced the sun during this greenhouse's first life. I'm going to reverse things, and put those on the shadier side. Do I need to be thinking about re-glazing the structure? How hard is it? Can I maybe use slightly thicker panels when I re-glaze, if I smoosh the clips down a little? ;)

Not much decent weather left here, although we've been amazingly blessed, so if you have any advice, gosh I hope to hear it soon! Thank you! Otherwise I'll just go do the best I can and learn from whatever my experience turns out to be.

And just because everybody likes pictures ( ;-D ) here's where I ended the day: