Greenhouse question

Sharra

We have a small garden but would love a greenhouse. At the garden centre the other day we saw a lean to one. We've had the idea of leaning it against our draughty back door and full height window (the kind of place a conservatory would go). We thought this way it would help keep the heat in the kitchen too (we can't afford the £££ to replace back door and window) so killing 2 birds with one stone.
Its this kind of one..here
We have a couple of concerns that maybe someone could help with - we aren't sure whether the lean to greenhouses have to fix to the wall (this would be a prob cos of the window frame) and also, as the wall is south facing, we wondered whether it would make the kitchen too hot in the summer.

Any thoughts really appreciated.
Thanks
Sharra
x

Jayar

That looks like a nice lean to!
Just asked my tame DIY expert for you and he says it depends a lot on the weight of the greenhouse, but that it should really be fixed for safety's sake.
Yes, it will certainly raise the temperature of the kitchen in the summer, but not any more than a conservatory would. I'm presuming you won't be shading the greenhouse in the summer (i.e. whitewash etc) so that it won't block any light.

System

A thought I had was would you need to get planning permission?. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of regulation on this. Either way, it is something I'd be interested in and yes, I'd have thought to attach it in some way would give you peace of mind.

Sharra

Thanks for the replies.
I'm sure I wouldn't need planning permission as I know I wouldnt for a conservatory and this is much less permanent

planning_officer

Rubbish - a conservatory is development for which planning permission is required. Very often they benefit from permitted development rights, which automatically grants a blanket planning permission. Similarly, any outbuilding - be it a shed, greenhouse or summerhouse etc also requires permission - if it's small the chances are it will be permitted development though and not require a planning application.

paddy's_mum

I would have only one real concern, pp etc not entering the equation if, as I understand you to mean, you intend to place this little greenhouse across the back door.

In my experience, greenhouse doors are somewhat ramshackle after a little while, and unless you kept the door open permanently for many months of the year, you would very quickly find that having to open a rickety (probably sliding) door repeatedly in order to access the back door of the house would become an utter pain in the neck!

I would also think that a south facing lean-to would become very difficult to keep cool once the summer hits, even if you were to go the considerable bother of fitting shading to it. Good luck.

dazza001

Hi,

I would just like to pick the collective brains on here.
I have some wood and I want to make a small lean-to greenhouse with it, roughly about 5' high, 4' long and 2' wide.
My plan is to build the frame with the wood and then use plastic for the windows.

The problem is, I cant believe how expensive the polycarbonate sheets are.

Does anyone know of any alternative plastic that I could use for this, anything other than the type that comes on a roll eg, the flexible stuff.
It doesn't have to be polycarbonate or perspex, anything similar(but cheaper) other than glass.

cheers

kiwifruit_2

Im thinking about making something like this http://www.reapscotland.org.uk/reports/greenhouse%20v1.pdf its a greenhouse made with empty clean plastic pop bottles.....looks great and sturdy......and good for the enviroment

dazza001

wow, thats pretty cool, thats a lot of bottles, looks good though.

I wonder if I could get the plastic that the bottles are made with in straight sheet form so I dont have to have sticks running through them.

Thats give me something to think about anyway.

cheers

charlies_mum

Looks great, but where on earth are you going to get 1500 plastic pop bottles

kiwifruit_2

charlies_mum wrote: »

Looks great, but where on earth are you going to get 1500 plastic pop bottles

lol you will be amazed at how quickly they will mount up once you put the word out to your friends that you are 'collecting' bottles lol....just remember to ask for them already cleaned out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!