Best way to transport a used greenhouse?

brians_daughter

ok, finally found a bargain glass greenhouse (6ft x 8ft) after weeks and weeks of scouring.

Now for the practicalities... whats the best way to transport it? Obviously its delicate and will be dismantled but what packaging (if any etc) do i need to look at laying my hands on to transport it back to its now home? Managed to blag a family member who owns a van to assist me, but he reckons we are headed for mysery trying to move a glass greenhouse. so ideas would be welcomed

RAS

How far are you moving it?

And yes, all the glass needs to come out first.

wallbash

Yes to the the glass , must come out.

You start taking the green house to pieces you will never reassemble.
Difficult with a new one , with so many near identical pieces.

Luton van or trailer .

brians_daughter

Thanks guys.. i really should work these things out 1st shouldnt i?

So we need to take the glass out but leave the 'casing' assembled?

We will be moving it about 10 miles or so give or take, there are 4 addittional peices of glass with it as well, incase we do have an accident

Its a luton van.

Thanks for any advice

valentina

If you are dismantling it, take some pictures of it before you start. Might be an idea to get a pen that writes on glass, aluminium etc and mark the glass panels and parts of the frame - you could draw a rough plan, that'll help when reassembling it.

wallbash

Luton van , the green house should just slide in .
But structure will not stay rigid , tie bean poles ( light-headed ) across corners.

Mankysteve

i would get a selection of cheap nail polish varnish and make each join with its own colour combo to matching joins.

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

Glass must come out. If you can take the glass out but leave it assembled it will help a lot. Whether you can get the frame to the van in one piece is another matter - they are usually in back gardens which are often accessed by passageways. Even if it isn't, take a a few people to help you carry - not at all heavy but it will be unwieldy and might bend/distort.

If you need to disassemble and you've not assembled one before nor got one to compare to, then ditto to the marking/numbering the ends with permanent marker and photographing the joints. Looks a bit silly when reassembled but makes life a lot easier, and plants are rubbish at maths. Generally speaking the corners will be X section and the other uprights T sections. The ones on the ends will probably have angled tops to fit in the "gable". There's a few web sites with instruction details on, and they are fairly generic.

I'd also suggest you mark the glass. Some models only have a few different size panes, but others have a lot more and some even have non-square ones in the ends. Label or number them with a permanent marker, and possibly even which way "top". On the same subject, think how you are going to transport the glass. It's usually end on, but you may want some decent cardboard to wrap around it. Think how you are going to keep them in that position and not falling over when you go around corners, brake and accelerate. Consider some paper between the panes if stacked, otherwise capillary action might mean the panes stick together. Don't forget to take gloves.

Other things to consider. Cheapest place to get W clips, Z clips and bolts is Wilkos. You might find the existing W clips rusty and not very springy, and relying on them would be a false economy. Similarly the Z clips have a nasty habit of getting lost, and the bolts of seizing up. Always wise to have spares.

If disassembling, make sure you have a suitable socket spanner and a couple of pairs of pliers, and something to lever the W clips out with (e.g. screwdriver).

Take a tub to chuck clips and bolts in.

Clean off the frame and glass before you load up especially if in a car rather than cleaning a car insides. If you are in a car and it's a tight fit, have some old cloths to avoid the ends digging in. And unlikely at this time of year, don't dismantle on a hot sunny day as it'll be dazzling bright and hot inside. Make sure you have somewhere safe to store it for a while as you might not be able to reconstruct it the same day.

Look out for any associated freebies, staging, shelving, spare panes, clips etc.

In terms of time, one person would take about 3 hours to fully dismantle, one hour to load.

Good luck

brians_daughter

Hi thanks for all the advice! loads of things i would never have thought of.

The greenhouse is in an allotment and the guy did say there was access to take it to the entrance without taking it down if i wanted to do that.

Thanks again!:j

hermanmunster_3

overtook a truck with a greenhouse on the back a few weeks ago. Looked in the rear view mirror to see the greenhouse flying off the back of the truck, glass everywhere and bits landing on the cars behind

laurel7172

I moved a greenhouse recently.

I bought it on ebay, and the seller was kind enough to take it down.

The ends slotted into a Luton van, secured to the internal racking with bungee cords, and we laid the glass (toughened) on and between blankets on the van floor. They were fine for 100 miles.

The vendor marked the roof pieces and glass with notes written on bits of duck tape. That was a HUGE help.

If there are any plasticky bits between the glass panels (they have a technical name but I've forgotten it), fix them to one of the panes with tape. Again, that's something my vendor did that really helped.