Hi folks, I've been thinking about making a little hoop house or stock panel green house, but have held off because I can't figure out a way to attach the plastic covering snugly without risking chafing holes in it where it touches the "frame." We get a good bit of wind, so unless it's pretty tight, the covering will move around, and stock panels seem like they'd be a bit abrasive. So how do you guys do it (those that do)? Thanks!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), February 13, 2002

Answers

I had the same problem and came up with the idea of using 2x4 welded fence wire as a hoop. This way I can use cheaper grades of poly as the wire protects the sheeting while also giving me a way to "sandwich" it to the framework.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), February 13, 2002.

Jay,would you explain a little better. Not sure what you mean? Thanks,Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), February 13, 2002.

I have made a greenhouse/chicken coop with PVC and plastic sheeting from home depot, I think it was 6 mil. The plastic doesn't wear out where it touches the frame, although it doesn't last more than a year, but we can cover the house about 8 times with the $40.00 investment in plastic. The bottom 3 feet of our coop/greenhouse is wood framed so to secure the plastic we just bought wood lathe (about $5 a bundle) and rolled up the lathe in the end of the plastic until it was wrapped around a few times and put three screws in each piece of lathe to secure it to the framin. This has worked very well for us though wind, snow, whatever. If you secure the PVC to some sort of wood base you could do the same thing, we secured ours by drilling holes into the wood, sticking in the PVC, then straping them in with pipe strapping.

-- Bob Fade (fadefarm@aol.com), February 13, 2002.

Hey Laura: We made a hoop greenhouse using cattle panels, and purchased actual greenhouse plastic, the UV treated type that lasts for several years. It is much tougher than the 6 mil stuff, but even with that, it does "rub" against some spots so I took waterproof first aid tape, the stuff you use to attach gauze pads to a wound, and just cut off little pieces and stuck them inside the greenhouse right on to where it rubbed. Works like a charm.

-- Katie (homesteader@accessnevada.com), February 13, 2002.

We used cattle panels. We used 6ml plastic, and double layered it. We wrapped it around the ends and brought it "inside" the green house, and then put wooden ends on, with the plastic inside. I THINK I put foam for water pipes around the edges before I wrapped the plast around to keep them from tearing the plastic. We live on the ridge and have FIERCE winds and no tears.

We used two panels and overlapped them four inches. On the north side we installed a layer of black plastic towards the bottom. AND next summer will go to Menards and buy corrogated plastic panels and attach them to the outside and inside over the other plastic to make a better barrier and more permanence. It wil cost roughly $100 to do this, or less.....

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), February 13, 2002.

I built my hoop, then mounted scrap pieces of welded fencewire to the inside so it resembles those covered walkways over freeways. I go inside and first tape my fabric tight across the wire, then use strips of fence wire at the tape seams to pin the plastic sheeting tightly to the covering hoop.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), February 14, 2002.

Having just finished making one from a Kit, I would suggest foam insulation tape. When you make a hoop greenhouse you can actually screw thin pieces of wood to the PVC piping and then staple the plastic to the thin pieces of wood. You put the plastic down first and the the foam tape and then staple. As for Friction areas, you can either staple foam tape over the area then install the plastic, or use anything that allows the plastic to slid without catching.

Hope this helps. And after making one with a kit, don't think I will even need to do that again. Now I know how it is done.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), February 14, 2002.

My cattle panel chicken house has a floor made of pallets and OSB with another sheet of osb for the back wall. I covered it with a tarp and held on with nylon cable ties. the front is chicken wire with a 2x4 door frame and door.It has held up thru a major ice storm and high winds so far. I'd like to put up one for a greenhouse with no floor and thought I would make a bottom frame of 2x4s and use fence staples to attach the panels, on the inside of the frame and then staple the plastic to the 2x4s on the outside. Haven't tried it yet, but that was my plan.

-- Deb Foster (DFoster987@aol.com), February 14, 2002.