We had a fierce windstorm this weekend which got inside the greenhouse and blew the door open. I wasn’t surprised by this, because the doorhandle had finally broken a few weeks ago and I was waiting to replace it in some dry weather. I had to make two trips to the Lowe’s for supplies but was finally able to get a new handle installed and working. Then I set my sights on cleanup and prep for plastic. First I dumped all of 2018’s dirt out on the mulch pile and stacked the bins. Then I moved everything off the south wall into the center so I could look the footing over.

Here’s the south side of the greenhouse. This is before I started; the footing is the wooden section at the bottom (2″ x 12″ x 20′). There’s a horizontal metal rail bolted to five vertical hoops, which are set in concrete, as far as I can tell. The wood is screwed to the underside of the rail and sits on the ground. The soil from the inside is pushing the bottom outwards, and the rail is warped. Normally the plastic is fitted into a channel in the rail and held in with a strip, but that strip is gone and I’ve had to wrap the plastic around some thin wood boards and staple that to the footing. Ghetto.

Here’s the after shot. This is two new sections of wood connected with a metal strap in the middle. The plastic remains the same because I haven’t replaced that yet.

This is the interior; this is after I moved all the slabs inwards and backfilled the dirt. Next up is to order some U-bolts to secure the footer to each of the pipes for some added stability.

I’m going to redo the front footer under the door next, as it’s made up of several sections of wood that aren’t connected to each other anymore and it needs to be stabilized properly. The back section looks fine, and I’m putting off working on the north side until I absolutely have to because it’s going to be a soggy pain in the ass and I’m not looking forward to that level of excavation–but I know it has to be done. However, knowing now that I can raise the rail upwards means I can adjust the height of the footer, and that’s good news.