What do you use for the flooring?

Our greenhouse floor is currently grass. I'm abou to go outside and lay landscape fabric down as a flooring. This will (presumably) kill the grass below and make a nice floor. what do you use?

Bark chips, soft and keeps in the heat.

Alan.

My greenhouse is attached to my house, and was built when the house was built. So, it has a foundation and basement under it, which is our laundry room. So the floor of the greenhouse is framed, with a top floor of large clay tiles.

Frank, I call this a "conservatory" and I wish I had one attached to our house. One day maybe...

Hi;
Mine is slag, a very fine lime stone packs almost as hard as concret, but still drains well. Easy to keep clean with a leaf rake too.
Tom

We put down an old carpet upside down, then river rock over the carpet. I have heard of using sawdust also.

Mine is cement, warms during the day and helps release heat at night. Also very easily cleaned. It's not what I would have picked but it's what I got.

My greenhouse has a cement floor and I have the whole greenhouse anchored down into the cement. Why? Very simple...I live in a hurricane path on the coast. This came in very handy the other day when we had 50 mph gusts during a storm. I sure am glad I did it that way. :)

Terri

Mine has a concrete floor, but i found it was damp and cold in the winter, so i coverd it with a three inch layer of bark chips, and it has made a lot of differnece heat wise, one problem i do have in my green house, condensation on the roof, i get a good soaking every now and then, i go in shut the door and down it comes, it like a tropical storm in there, lol, but it still [profanity removed]ed cold when it drops down the back of your neck.

Alan.

I laid black shade cloth, then 2-3" pea gravel and then another layer of black shade cloth. The pea gravel holds the heat for radiant heat during the night



This message was edited Saturday, Mar 24th 2:07 PM

We put down weed barrier; laid a layer of black lava rock to collect heat; and the center aisle is stepping stones. We have a forced air heater that pushes air through the tubing with holes (can't remember what it is called). The greenhouse itself is made from polycarbonate, and stays toasty. However due to the increased natural gas prices, we are going to check into heating the greenhouse with radiant heat. Anyone use this system?

Becky G.

Never heard of that heating system, Becky. Could you tell me something about it? :)

Terri

We put old carpeting upside down on the dirt floor, with gravel over that. Keeps the weeds down and holds the heat.(Our hoop house is unheated and extends the season 1 month on each end) The last time we put carpet in the greenhouse it was from the Church down the road. Holy Greenhouse!

Terri, it is similar to radiant heat in a home. There is a small water heater with a pump forcing the heated water through tubing place about 2 inches above the floor. The heat rises and heats the greenhouse. I don't know how energy efficient it would be, so I thought I would post this and see if anyone else uses this method. We would continue to run the forced air heater, but set the thermostat much lower so it would only kick on in times of low temp crises.

Even though our energy bills were double from last year, I still don't think I could replace all the plants for that much! That is the reason we built the greenhouse, to preserve our tender plants, water plants and tropicals so we wouldn't have to buy new ones each year. However, I still find reasons to visit the nurseries to look for something "new" each spring! :)

Becky G.

Thanks for explaining, Becky. This method of heating sounds very interesting. I know what you mean about "visiting" the nurseries. My problem is that I can never just "visit"...I have to spend while I'm there, too! LOL

Terri

Half landscape fabric and half upside down carpet...works great for me! Lisa

For radiant heat check this out....http://www.bamafolks.com/~scuggs

nett: That link is broken. :(

Well I am not the most computer savy person, but I think I found it by getting rid of the ~scuggs~ part try this link:http://www.bamafolks.com/~rsuggs/

Sally

Mine is on concrete, part of a driveway turn-a-round area. Got the cheapest indoor-outdoor grass looking carpet we could find, works great & won't mildew like real carpet. I think it was 20 bucks for my little 8X12 space. My Neighbor is using excess bricks she salvaged from a building site.

Then for heat we have a small "Milkhouse" electric heater suspended under the potting bench so it won't get wet. Has a thermostat & fan, $26. When we built it we lined the corugated fiberglass with 10 mill poly film,UV proof. makes a huge difference, also taped bubble wrap over the door & window for winter.

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This message was edited Thursday, Apr 5th 12:57 AM

ok i got the carpet upsidedown and hubby wants to put sand on top then peastone??? any ideas? he thinks we need the sand to help the water drain do we? I havent a clue-im not martha!lol
thanks everyone,
dori

My husband put three rows of french drain in the ground the length of the greenhouse and then landscape fabric covered with 3/4# gravel. Never have a moisture problem with this and it's been maintenance free for four years.

We used landscape fabrick with peagravel over it and have not had any problem. The only thing is its hard on the knees putting pots under the benches...but then maybe its just my age!