Installing a Sunshine Gardenhouse (Greenhouse) on a Deck

The sink with running water. I found this sink on ebay; it is the best thing since sliced bread. It is better than the sink I have in the house. No more worries about clogged plumbing from potting soil down the sink!

Got to have a radio!

A couple of hooks in the ceiling for hanging plants.

I had to install a shade cloth, because of the tropical plants that I am growing. It also helped to cut heat.

That is it. One final photo of the reason I put up the greenhouse in the first place.

Very nice, Hoya, but I have to correct you on one thing...

what a great job! looks lovely as well as useful.

Thanks for the compliment darius, and yes SB, I'm sure that you are correct about never being totally "done" with it.

ok I just love that greenhouse...so where did you get it from.. I often just lurk in this forum in hopes to one day be able to afford...and i maybe able to save my pennies for one...

Char

Char,

I ordered the greenhouse online from ACF Greenhouse Supply. I've had really good luck with them and have also ordered a number of accessories. I am really having a lot of fun with the greenhouse. I hope that you get yours sooner, rather than later.

Doug

hey doug, your greenhouse looks superbe....what a great job you did. i only have two suggestions if you like. the first is that you could try that spray insulting foam called great stuff to seal the holes. i live in an old farmhouse and it did wonders on the tiny cracks in the foundation in the basement. once it sets you can file it down so that it doesn't stick out so much. find it at any hardware or home depot type store. that second thing i would like to tell you is that i used to do a bit of commercial roofing back in the day before my knees declared war on the rest of my body, we used a product that was very similar to the "waterproofing" product that you used on your floor....a polyester fabric with a type of "paint" that was actually an acrylic coating. it looks beautiful and works for a little but the prodlem is that uv rays from the sun break down the acrylic and it starts to flake off. my suggestion would be to re-coat it periodically or even go over it with an urethane coating loaded with uv inhibitors. just a thought.

nc, I'm planning on doing exactly what you describe with the acrylic. I had to buy a five gallon pail of the stuff and only used a little over half of it. I first heard about the acrylic at my job; I take care of the maintenance on a large library here in VT. A salesman demonstrated the product; I bought some for some problematic leaks at the library, and fixed some very bad spots that kept the water at bay for years. If I knew how to work with rubber membrane roofing, that would have been my preferred material for the floor, but since I wanted to do the whole thing myself, I had to use what I did. The Acrylabs product was not inexpensive; I paid around $180 for it including the shipping. The salesman threw in the polyester for free.

That spray foam is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I also live in a old farmhouse (175 years old to be exact). I have an old bulkhead that goes into the basement that was literally falling apart, I filled all the cracks in the field stone and rubble base with about 10 cans of that stuff, and it has kept out the water and helped hold the thing together now for about 3 years. It is really ugly from the outside, but who cares; it did the job.

I don't know if Hoya_24 is still out there, but I want to thank him for posting this photoessay. I have referred several people to it and it has been very helpful.

Thank you Stressbaby!

I'm still hanging around, and you made my day. Other than wishing my greenhouse was larger I still love it; it works great, and I look forward to using it every year. I'm very happy that my experiences with putting this thing on a deck could help someone else.

Thanks again,

Doug

I just finished building a small addition to my Sunshine Gardenhouse. I did not use a kit, but did it all from scratch. The factory extention kit did not fit my needs, because I did not want to tear down my existing house to install it. The hardest thing to find was the polycarbonate. Getting large polycarbonate sheets trucked shipped is easy, but finding some place to UPS smaller pieces is a lot harder. I finally found a place. It was not inexpensive, but at least I didn't have to fool around with truck shipping which I hate. The place I used can be found here: http://www.greenhouses-etc.net/glazing/polysheet_small_8mm.htm

Doug

I bought all my cedar at Lowes for a fairly cheap price. By building the addition from scratch, I was also able to incorporate an exhaust fan, which with the factory house was not really possible.

Doug

Final picture. After building the addition, and finding a source for the materials, I feel that I could build a pretty nice cedar greenhouse from scratch without having to use the kit. Now if only VT were not so cold in the winter, and I could use the thing for more than four months a year!

That looks like a very nice greenhouse, Hoya.
There is one difference from the actual Sunshine to your greenhouse tho. The Sunshine greenhouse is made out of redwood and will last its lifetime. The cedar last a very long time but redwood is longer lasting. This is one reason why I went with the Sunshine over another type like cedar.
But you did a great job on it tho. I bet you will enjoy it even if it isn't usable in the winter time in Vermont.
Carol

Thanks Carol. I keep forgetting that the Sunshine is made of Redwood. It looks just like the cedar.

I am considering converting my garden shed into a green house, and adding my 6x8 Rion to it. The existing shed is 8x8, has a concrete floor, wood frame, plywood/shingled roof, and the siding is horizontal masonite planks, but there are no windows. Originally, I was going to put my Rion on that concrete slab, but I'm glad I didn't, as I would have no where to store my other garden tools and things. I'm now thinking I could pull the siding and roof off, and replace all with polycarbonate panels, but I'm at a loss for how I would secure the panels to the wood, and am concerned that the existing wood frame is not treated or cedar/redwood, etc. It's just regular framing lumber.

Any suggestions on if this would be feasible to do, or would I be better off just starting from scratch? I also thought about just installing a bunch of windows on the the shed, but even that would require reframing the structure to hold the new windows.

I think you would be better off starting from scratch. They do make cap and trim systems for installing polycarbonate that would make your structure waterproof and protect your framing from outside moisture, but the cost and logistics of ordering such a small amount would probably be prohibitive. My greenhouse is composed of a number of preassembled panels that I dadoed to accept my 6mm poly so I did not need to use the special fastening systems. If you wanted to use your existing structure, you would have to use one of these systems available here https://www.sundancesupply.com/index2.html for real a real watertight structure. In my opinion it would not be worth the effort.

This was an awesome thread and I learned a lot and got ideas too. These are windows I have to work with, so doing lots of research.

Nice looking windows in very nice condition. You should be able to build a really cool looking greenhouse with those.

I got some books at the library yesterday on greehouses and one on order that is from 2008, can't wait to get it.
I scored this today and another old singer machine yesterday for $30 and sold the top to the antique dealer for $10. I am making a plant stand this time I think or a potting bench. But this little item was only $5 and I love it, it folds flat.

GREAT HELPFUL ARTICLE WAYNE