leaky greenhouse

My husband and his godfather built a greenhouse for me out of parts from an old (1920's) commercial greenhouse. I haven't really had a chance to start using it yet, but am working on getting is set up. The problem is that it is very "leaky" around the four vents (they were doors in the original GH). Because they are from old wood they are somewhat warped and uneven and there are gaps between the wood of the vents and the wood of the greenhouse that they rest on.

I've attached a picture so you can get an idea of what it looks like. I'd like to figure out what I can put on the vents to kinda "fill in" the gaps. I thought about trying some foam weatherstripping tape. I'm kinda not thrilled with how the foam tape will look, plus I'm not sure it will be thick enough in some spots. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I would use clear caulking. Its fairly flexable and easy to use. Perhaps the stuff you use to seal aquariums would work.

Snoggle, Welcome to Dave's Garden! That is a beautiful greenhouse!

I agree about the silicone caulking.

You could try making some gaskets out of black rubber stripping and tacking it to the frames around the vents and putting two or three eye hooks to force the vents onto the frame. That way you really wouldn't notice the stripping when the vents are open but by latching the eye hooks would seal the vent to the frame.

Those are great ideas. I'll have to check out Lowe's this week and see what I can come up with. I'll let you know what works.

What a cute little GH. I wish my hubby was more handy. I would love to have a home made one. They did a great job.

I wish I had some good ideas for you. I love this site we have some really great people here with some fantiastic ideas.

Oh, I almost forgot, thanks so much for the compliments on my greenhouse. My husband's godfather built it almost 20 years ago in his yard as a prototype to start a business building hobby greenhouses out of the parts of old commercial greenhouses. Well, that was the only one he ever built. So when we were visiting his godfather a couple of years ago I noticed it and asked him about it. He and his wife don't garden and had never used it! He wanted rid of it since it had become a home to lots of wasps and bees. So the next summer he and my hubby took it apart, brought it down to KY from OH and put it back together. We joke that we could have bought a brand new one cheaper than what it cost us to keep his godfather supplied in beer while he was rebuilding it. LOL. Of course, you'll never find another one quite like it since the wood is nearly 100 years old and the glass is thicker than anything you could buy today.

So I'm excited to start using it to grow veggies all winter and start seeds for my garden in the spring. We have free natural gas, so I can heat it for free in the winter if necessary. I plan on growing things that are pretty cold tolerant and only heating it when it is exceptionally cold.

It just occured to me that we might have some of the brown silicone caulk left over from putting the glass back into the frames. I'll try to "fill in the gaps" with that first since we probably have it sitting around anyway.

Thanks again!
Sarah

OK, I'll bite..."free natural gas"? :)

msrobin - We have 2 natural gas wells on our property so we get free gas off of them to heat our house and can tap into them for other things. It's a pretty common thing around here.

Hubby had a fit over the silicone idea. He insists that it won't work well, will be hard to remove, and that he has better ideas (GRRRR!). So I'm back to square one. He wants to add wood to the ones with really big gaps and then some weather stripping. Of course, he doesn't have time to do it right now, and will freak out if I try to do it myself (life with an over-the-top perfectionist) so I have to come up with a temporary fix. This is why I haven't used the greenhouse for the last two years - he never has time to get it finished, but has a fit if I try to do any of it on my own (GRRRR!). I'll stop now, none of you want to read my annoyed rantings.

I think I'll try putting some rags in the gaps for now, just so I can use it a little this spring. Right now it isn't any warmer in there than it is outside because of the gaps, so I have to do something. Thanks for the ideas, I thought they were great. ;-)

Sarah, not to worry, we understand hubbys. :) Don't know if this is feasible, but here's another idea...how about insulating tubes that go over plumbing pipes. They are about 3' long and split from one end to the other. You could cut them to get to the right length. Open each one up a little to slip over the edge of the vent. They're pretty sturdy and should stay in place well. Should fill most of the gap and are reusable. They're not very expensive, plus wouldn't be "permanent" and can easily be taken down when DH has time to repair properly.

msrobin - that sounds like a great idea and not too permanent for DH (right now the D does not stand for dear). I think I'll make a trip to Lowe's afterall.

That is an AWESOME greenhouse!

Nice GH, Sarah. Unless the gaps are very large don't worry too much about them. The GH needs to have air exchange, even in the winter and you have free gas heat.
First year I used two 1500 watt elect heaters, don't know what it cost. Last fall I ran a gas line from the house and installed a 10,000 BTU heater (small) non vented, and the gas heater keeps things above 40 on the coldest nights.
My GH, made from recycled windows, has many cracks where the vent windows do not close correctly.
Just my opinion.
Dwight

^^You're right, I looked at things better and realized that only one of the vents has really significant leaks (funny, that was the only one I was paying much attention to). It has a huge gap on each side, but the others aren't too bad. I'll leave the rest alone for some ventilation and see how that goes. Thanks!

/ventilation is good. Only ventilation I have right now is opening the dutch doors! We will have to put a vent in or removet the Gable soon. Some days it is 86 in there. Working on the nat problem right now. We have a cold spell again. But I have to say my geraniums look awesome and my palms and Kalanchoe. But that blasted bug spray for nats did a number on my plant leaves. I am using peroxide now and going to try Diotemasious Earth.

There is a product made by Natural Forces. I think they may have changed the name, it used to be Sucreshield. Its a bug spray that is supposed to be organic and has at the base sugar. It smells awful. You use less than 1 ounce to make a gallon. You spray this on the plant and it will kill all soft bodied bugs, including fungus gnats. I have used it all winter with great results. I got rid of the spider mites on my brugmansias. I think it cost $20 or so and is enough to make gallons of spray. But it does smell bad. I use it once a week, on Fridays I go through the greenhouse and zap any bug I see. I virtually had no white flies this year, last year I had clouds of them. I get a few as it will only kill the adult bug that gets the spray on it, but none of my plants have suffered and I am very happy with the price.

I also use hydrogen peroxide to water with, mostly for the extra oxygen for the roots but I do feel it kills bacteria and bugs in the soil.