Polycarbonate greenhouse dimensions

What are the sizes of polycarbonate greenhouses?

• Features and advantages of the material
• Standard and optimal dimensions
• The relationship with the components

• Frame material
• The foundation
• Length and width of sheets
•  Greenhouse shape

Greenhouses significantly extend the growing season of any plant. This is a serious reason for such objects to become common in all regions of a huge country. An important factor in the popularity of greenhouses are also the simplicity of the design, its low cost. If you make a greenhouse "conscientiously" from quality materials, then it can serve for many years, and the cost of its creation will pay for itself many times. Polycarbonate is the material that is most in demand, it weighs a little, is inexpensive and durable. Manufacturers guarantee a lifetime of at least five years.

Features and advantages of the material

Protecting crops from cold weather, providing it with everything you need at any time of the year can only help the greenhouse. Before building such an object, everything should be carefully prepared and planned. If there are any mistakes or errors in the design, then they will be difficult and expensive to eliminate. And also the imperfection of the design will inevitably affect the yields.

Before starting work, you should be well acquainted with the various materials and drawings of greenhouses. Popular modern material for creating a greenhouse is polycarbonate, it best meets the requirements. For many years glass and PVC film served as the material for the greenhouse.

All of these coatings have advantages, but also significant drawbacks:

• glass is fragile and heavy, it is difficult to mount;
• PVC film has a small strength and quickly comes into disrepair.

Cellular polycarbonate does not differ in its transparency coefficient from glass; at the same time, it is easy to install and weighs considerably less. The material is well resist temperature and humidity.

The structure of polycarbonate is three layers.

• The top layer is a solid sheet, in which there is a special UV-film that protects from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays.
• The middle row is empty cells in the form of cells. They can be an excellent heat insulator, while at the same time giving extra rigidity to the entire sheet.
• The bottom layer also provides overall structural strength.

Polycarbonate weighs a little, the foundation for it is needed irrelevant, therefore its cost is noticeably less.

On average, polycarbonate greenhouse “works” for 5-8 years. Polycarbonate has good thermal insulation properties. It has an excellent coefficient of light transmission, allowing you to grow a variety of plants. In the cold season, polycarbonate successfully withstands a significant snow load.

Standard and optimal dimensions

The size of the greenhouse varies considerably, most often in suburban areas of 6 acres there are 3 by 4 meters objects, the length can also reach 6 m. These greenhouses meet all requirements, at the same time they have acceptable dimensions that correspond to the plot format.

But objects in the following formats are also in good demand:

• 2x3 m;
• 3x6 m;
• 3 by 8 meters;
• 2 to 4 meters;
• 6 to 12 meters;
• 3x4 m;
• 6x3 m;
• 2x4 m

The width of greenhouses 2 m is also popular, the area of ​​2x6 m is one of the most common.

From chamber formats, the “Snail” greenhouse is in demand (2x2 meters), it is good to grow seedlings in it, it is easy to transfer it to different points of the plot. Such an object has a small height, only 85 cm.

It is going to be in twenty minutes, the hollow tubes are the skeleton, the foundation serve:

• stones;
• small concrete blocks.

In commercial farms one can meet greenhouses with a length of 10 meters, large greenhouses are very profitable, and they can be harvested four times a year.

The relationship with the components

Consider the most important blocks that make up any greenhouse.

The length is usually a multiple of the size of polycarbonate sheets:

• 61 cm;
• 121 cm

It is also important to consider the parameter of the racks that will be in the greenhouse, the number of pallets. It should be borne in mind that the use of solid sheets is more preferable, it reduces the cost of creating a greenhouse and is a significant factor for strengthening the frame.

Sheet thickness should vary between 3.6 and 6.2 mm, these are optimal parameters that will meet the following parameters:

• price;
• quality;
• transparency factor.

Frame material

The configuration of the greenhouse and its size is determined by the customer. The material of the supporting structures is most often wood or metal. All elements must be treated with antiseptics and primers, in our time there are effective compounds that allow you to ensure the absence of any corrosion for a long time. It is necessary to do this, the climate of the greenhouse is wet, it has a positive temperature; if you do not process the construction nodes, then after a few years it will hopelessly deteriorate.

PVC profiles have proven themselves well, they are not inferior to steel in terms of strength, and at the same time there is no risk that they will rust or rot. When making supporting structures from such profiles, it should be remembered that they should be located and installed so that they can withstand heavy loads during the cold season. There are tested templates for the location of PVC profiles, in which they realize their maximum potential.

The foundation

The massiveness of the foundation and its cost are interrelated with the weight of the structure. Often for the greenhouses of small mass used the foundation of timber or logs. But the foundation on screw piles is also quite acceptable. Piles in their characteristics are not much inferior to the strip foundation, at the same time they are installed quickly, are inexpensive.

Ribbon foundation is the most expensive and time consuming, it is able to withstand heavy loads. Under it should dig a trench, fill it with concrete and reinforce. And it will also take 4-6 months to make the foundation “shrink”. If you analyze the practical side of the issue, the strip foundation for greenhouses is not required. The weight of the structure itself is small; this type of foundation is more suitable for the home.

Length and width of sheets

Polycarbonate sheets are 6 meters long and 2.1 meters wide. Creating a drawing, it is necessary to proceed from these parameters. The sheet can be cut into pieces of 3x2.1 meters. As well as a working format, it is considered to be a sheet size of 1.5x2.1 meters. It is not easy to divide the material in width, so you can rarely find such things.

Roofs of greenhouses, like those of houses, can be sloping and gabled. The angles of inclination of the roof vary, they can be from 19 to 32 ° or even up to 46 °. The greater the degree of inclination, the less snow will accumulate, the probability of roof destruction under the weight of the snow cover is noticeably reduced. Shed roofs often have different diagonal fasteners. Usually the material is a metal corner 40x40 mm. Shed roofs do most often when the greenhouse is an extension to the main building.

The distance between such load-bearing structures is slightly more than a meter (1.1 m), this also applies to the rafters, which are mounted on the same level as the vertical wall structures.

 Greenhouse shape

The configuration of the greenhouse is determined by those plants that grow in it.

As an example, you can call:

• cylinder;
• semicircle;
• classic rectangular elongated shape with different roofs.

The classical sample greenhouse has a standard layout: different agricultural crops grow along the sides, and a walkway is located in the center. Such an arrangement is considered the most rational and therefore distributed very widely. The standard panel of a polycarbonate sheet is six meters long, 2.1 meters wide, and it makes sense to take these parameters into account when designing.

In total there are several main types of greenhouses, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

• The arch-shaped greenhouse has semicircular support nodes to which the beams are attached. Polycarbonate sheets are bent and screwed to the frame. The advantage of this design is that it experiences a minimum snow load in winter; it is easy to assemble it. Among the shortcomings it can be noted that the height of such structures has its limitations, which often hinders the work. The classic version is an arched greenhouse with a gable roof. The material for its creation requires a little more, but at the same time it is possible to solve the problem of eliminating the problem of the low height of the structure. On the basis of the arched greenhouse, you can make the so-called Mitlider greenhouse, which is notable for the fact that it has a good air exchange system.

• A greenhouse with a lean-to roof is the most acceptable option for a structure that is adjacent to the main house or fence. In technical terms, to make such an object simpler, at the same time significantly reducing the cost of additional communications (if the greenhouse is part of the house).
• The greenhouse breadbasket is a compact object in which a sash opens. She, in fact, in form resembles a bread box and is convenient, it is good to grow seedlings in it. Sash in such a greenhouse is easy to adjust depending on the ambient temperature.

• Well proved tent or dome greenhouses. Creating spherical shapes is not an easy task; some engineering skills are needed here. The semicircular structure is advantageously distinguished by the fact that it resists various loads (wind, snow). Illumination coefficient has a maximum. Aesthetic looks.
• Installation and installation

Polycarbonate greenhouse installation works begin with a choice of location, followed by the definition of the material to be used. But also the question arises with the foundation, it can be on stilts, as well as tape. The number of doors and windows is calculated, a diagram and a drawing is made. The more light, the better for plants, if during the daylight natural light is constantly present in the room, this will be the best option. These criteria are not always possible to withstand 100%, so at least 6 hours a day natural light should be present in the greenhouse.

It is easiest to build a greenhouse on a flat plane, if there is a significant bias (in mountainous terrain), then in this variant it is most reasonable to make a terrace. The longitudinal walls of the greenhouse are usually turned to the south, respectively, and the “faces” look to the west and east. Air ducts and ventilation openings are located from the south face.

It is also not recommended to build a greenhouse in the lowlands and on peat soils, often the temperature on such surfaces is noticeably lower, which can affect the vegetation in the greenhouse. Greenhouses are mainly rectangular in shape (except for greenhouses - "domes"). Along the edges of the object there are beds with plants, in the middle there is a path for passage. Most often, the height of the greenhouse does not exceed two meters, the size of the basement is not taken into account. With the help of the cap you can quite significantly lower or raise the height of the object. Often this opportunity is used in farms where the length of greenhouses is more than ten meters.

In that case, if the greenhouse has a considerable width, then it is necessary to make several tracks and beds. On average, the width of the beds is one meter; The width of the walkway is 55 cm. The width of the greenhouse is summed from these parameters: the width of the tracks, the beds and the thickness of the walls are summed up. The width of greenhouses varies from 2.8 to 6.5 meters. All calculations are made taking into account the width of a standard polycarbonate sheet, that is, there must be a multiplicity of 2.05 meters. The step between the vertical bearing structures is not more than one meter.

Review the assembly of polycarbonate greenhouses, see the following video.