Who has a lean to greenhouse?

I am considering putting a lean to on my house. I haven;t measured the space yet, but I thinks its about 12 x 20.

Before we moved out here and I built my big freestanding greenhouse, I had a small Juliana Premium Plus that was if I recall 14 x 9 or so. It was a very nice little hobby greenhouse. I am thinking of going with Juliana again.

Can you please chime in with your opinions if you have a lean to? What brand? Pros and cons? Things that were hard to do when erecting, things that were maddening (like missing parts in the kit)?

Have you been happy with yours? Do you have water and heat? Especially heat from the house (that is what I want to try to do).

Thanks in advance.

That is about the size of mine, which is about 10 x 32. This one is a Four Seasons brand kit and is no easy task for someone who isn't a serious craftsman, or has little help. I raised the roof on the house and it attaches right to the gutter line. The raised roof has a pitch of about one inch per one foot and installed (2) vented skylights. Those skylights are the best thing in drawing out the excess heat, glad I insisted they were the type that opened. The greenhouse opens directly into the two upstairs rooms with 10 x 4 foot openings. These upstairs rooms warm very quickly in the sun.

The only thing that was "tricky" was maneuvering the large panes of glass for the roof. Other than that, simple roughing was all that was required, after the concrete foundation went in, that is. A drain in the floor is indispensable, and almost didn't get installed. Glad I discovered that BEFORE they poured the crete.

For the most part, the greenhouse is pretty open to the house on the second floor. You can see the openings to the second floor in this photo, which shows about 1/2 way through construction. Cold temps made it necessary to bring everything in before it was complete. If I had the budget, I would have DEFINITELY installed radiant heat in the concrete floor of the GH. For the most part, the house furnace (a slightly bigger furnace than the house would normally require) heats everything just fine, without there being a huge heating bill in the winter. Many days, such as today, it is 19ºF outside and 82ºF here in the house and the furnace is not running because the sun is shining brightly between some scattered clouds. Doubt you will have that trouble as much as keeping it COOL in the summer. The exhaust fans I have installed, while powerful and quiet, are too weak and loud. When they run in the summertime, you don't notice it, until you turn them off, and then it is, like, wow .... that's loud! There has to be more powerful, more silent exhaust fans out there, but I haven't looked.

I have cold water (was originally on the outside of the house before GH went up) but do not have electricity in the GH, except lines from the second floor to the exhaust fans. I thought plugs in the greenhouse and all that water were a dangerous mix. The only other thing I am going to install is a stationary tub sink that I can sumberge, wash off, and spray plants in. If you get a twin set, one side can be for watering and the other side filled with perlite to start cuttings. I like to spray mealy infested plants with isopropyl and then immediately wash the isopropyl off. The stationary tub is perfect for that. And, they're only like $25-$30.

I guess the only thing I did wrong was, when figuring the budget, I didn't multiply the bottom line by THREE!

That's really nice, willieB.

I wish I had some advice to give - I would have liked to do the same thing to our garage - the south facing wall has brick and a window that opens up to the garage. I wanted to dig out the area by 2-3" (our garage is partially submerged) to improve the heating/ cooling aspect. The brick of the garage would've helped, too.

But it would have been much smaller than what I ended up with, too.

Let us know what you end up doing!

Gothqueen - I have a lean-to, it was built in 2001 against the house on top of the attached garage. It is the Geneva model, built by the professionals from Florian Greenhouses. I LOVE it.
http://www.kammlott.net/greenhouse.jpg

http://www.florian-greenhouse.com/geneva_residential.html
I like the fact that I can walk barefoot into my greenhouse in the middle of Winter, without crossing a backyard. The heating system is part of the house which is heated with forced air/oilburner and a separate thermostat. The greenhouse acts as a heatsink on sunny days and circulates the warm greenhouse air through the rooms, so it is quite economical to heat in my zone. I use the central air-conditioning only rarely during warm days in early Spring and the end of September. Keeping it cool in Summer could be accomplished by installing proper shading, but I move my plants outside anyway for the hotter months here.
I took some pictures as I was moving everything back inside in the Fall, it will give you an idea of the arrangement on the inside. DH built the shelves and the watering is accomplished by collecting the rainwater from the greenhouse roof - routing the rain gutter into the garage into large containers which can be pressurized/pumped upwards into the greenhouse.
http://www.kammlott.net/Fallinside08/
(Sorry, the contact sheets are not linked)

Wow, RUK - quite a nice GH (capitalized GH!). And some fabulous plants, too.

Thanks! Yes, we do enjoy it! :-)

Ursula...I am trying to push my jaw back up!!! I am so envious!!!!!!!!!!!! I covet ALL of you plants..I can't even begin to phathom being as blessed as you!!