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Call to SOH Building DIYers

S

stiz

Charter Member 2011
ok so we brought a huge dome greenhouse last week (12ft diamiter, bout 8/9ft high) and now where putting it in our garden .. however theres a little war going on about how it should be done ... we have to prepare the ground ourselves which is what were argueing about ... heres a pic of the area its going in ..

P1010033929x697.jpg


its going where the mound is pretty much stopping at the sleepers. Now the thing is, it needs leveling .... no problem, however me and me dad dont see eye to eye on how to level it so to speek. Heres another pic to give you an idea of the slope, the paveing slaps and house are level

P1010036929x697.jpg


the plan is to level the earth, put some gravel down then plonk the greenhouse ontop.

Now my dads just leveling the mound seen in pic 1 (without all the plants in obviosly) hes dug down about half a spades depth at the top and leveling out from there ... thing is that the mound is just old turf and it hasnt fully rotted away yet and is still a bit springy, we dont have anything to keep the raised soil in place and it gets extremly windy in that area (faceing straight out into the valley with no buildings in the way) ...

Now i want to dig into the slope, its a lot of soild to shift and store but the greenhouse will be sat on solid earth and be cushend in so to speak by the soil walls either side.

My dad however wont have any of it and hes doing it his way, says i'll be there "till doomsday" so i've just left him to it .... but it just doesnt feel right plonking a greenhouse onto springy turf with nothing keeping it in place ... we spent money we really didnt have on it and the last thing i want is for the wind to take it or for it to slip to one side n such.

Would anyone would any of the above or are we both going about this the wrong way .. bear in mind we dont have the budget for concreate/paveing slaps etc.

btw for those who want to know what the greenhouse looks like ...

P1010058800x600.jpg


:running:
 
i had a similar problem a few years back, what my father did was bedded the base verticals into concrete so the weight is set low and won't move in the wind, they you build up to the top of concrete with dirt on the inside, add a few slabs... good to go... as for levelling your father has the right ideas, a spades depth is more than enough depth... so half a spade is goo, i hope it's not clay-y there, just had to dig a pond for my uncle was good fun trying to dig clay out :icon_lol: just noticed your concrete note, best way then would be to steak it into the ground, but just build to fact/install guide you'll be fine i'd reckon
 
thankfully its not clay round here, dry as a bone tho, half the plants died this year :frown:
 
If it were me, I think I'd excavate the whole base. anything you build up on a sloping property unless you plan and protect for heavy weather will wash away from underneath your structure causing certain failure of the stucture over time.

The other alternative would be to do a mid point excavation and backfill, but if you're going to do that, you better get yourself a good vibrating tamper and make sure your backfill is solidly compressed.

The best foundation is always undisturbed soil, so I really have to recommend the first option.

Just my $0.02 ... not that it means any thing but I deal with foundation situations for major commercial, industrial and multi residential all the time. :)
 
Years ago, I had a greenhouse, but I needed more room. I had the choice of replacing the smaller one with a bigger one or buying another smaller one and have two. I opted for this option. The greenhouses were side by side. The old one was bolted onto a concrete base. The new one came with a galvanised steel base. I had to dig a foundation for the base and bury it then bolt the greenhouse to it. This one moved quite a lot and I had loads of problems with opening and closing the door and keeping it closed.
However, when we had a bad storm one night, the old greenhouse, rigidly and properly anchored on a concrete foundation was destroyed, but the other greenhouse only slightly moved on its base with only one pane of glass broken. Still had problems with the door though.
 
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