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How to Build a Hothouse

How to Build a Small Hothouse - Foundations

Care in levelling off the concrete is repaid by a good start on brickwork. Soak the bricks for the same reason as one damps the trenches, then set the quoins or corner bricks in 4 to 1 sand and cement mortar, level these carefully and stretch lines along the face of the wall from one quoin to the other before proceeding to lay the rest of the stretchers in that course panel upward.

In order to get plumb corners it is usual to carry them up three or four courses ahead of the plain wall, then to fill in, course by course, to a line before finally striking or lining off the joints with a trowel and straightedge and cleaning of cement stains with a weak solution of spirits of salts.

Remember to build in the ventilators and their also hoop iron straps to fasten shelf bearers (left) then the 9in. x 9in. piers can be built and all will be ready for the timber framing. to be built of 3in x 1 1/2in, Oregon, which, when dressed for painting, will actually finish about 2 7/8 in. x 1 3/8in.

The diagram left shows that wall glass will be butted edge-to-edge to avoid the eyesore of grimy lapped joints, the bottom pane being held by a metal clip or a couple of brads beneath. Fig. 9 explains how rebates are to be formed by nailing narrow fillets to the studs. Fixed in this way all that is required to replace a broken sheet is to chip the putty from each side and lift it out and with a little care the joints between sheets can be so closely fitted that very little heat will escape.

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How to Build a Hothouse