Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Have you considered something like this:



$769 at HomeDepot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/ShelterLogic-GrowIt-24-ft-x-12-ft-x-8-ft-Heavy-Duty-Walk-Thru-Greenhouse-70593/204437679

Here is my little hoop house. I spent about 200 on it, and I have enough covering to build another one.

i read this thread because it is so entertaining, i feel like i am being trolled, i mean, i hope i am being trolled because holy moses.

"hello all! i have never tried something but i am going to do it for a living... Since i dont know anything about what i am going to depend on to make ends meet... i am going to ask this forum full of hobbyists for help"

best wishes and keep us updated, i am waiting on the edge of my seat

I have been fairly impressed with these greenhouses/hoophouses

http://www.deltacanopy.com/categories/GreenHouses/

cheap and easy to assemble

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses and suggestions
If I may, I would like to come back to the initial purpose of my query on this blog.
I would like to build myself a wood-framed greenhouse (about 16x20ft) with polycarbonate cover and I am looking for either design plans / construction drawings or a draftsman who could help me prepare the construction drawings for a small fee.
thanks all

That is a bit unfair Bccotton since he has offered to pay someone for their service.

@Yvoneg I could do it but depending on your jurisdiction you are likely to need a local engineer to sign off on any design/drawings.

I'd also need more infomation about dismensions (so far you have only provided floor area), local weather conditions (wind and snow), ventilation methods and other stuff....

All of that is going to be an exercise in why scale is important because the drawings for a 1,000m2 GH don't cost much more than a 40m2 GH.

There are plans out there on the net so if you don't need engineer certified drawings why not find one for free.

The time it would take for me to do a set of drawings would put a dent in your construction budget of only 3k.

I could offer to pay someone to build me a restaurant building but i dont know the first thing about making a menu, cooking, waiting tables or managing a restaurant.... so i dont know how the fact i started with money makes my dream viable.

I am just saying.. make this a hobby, learn, for several years... and develop a business plan based on actual first hand knowledge. Aquaponics is easy.. making aquaponics profitable is not.

My point was that rather than coming and having no clue and expecting help for nothing he has at least offered to make some sort of payment for services to be rendered.

why is that the only way it can work? Maybe he has people working with/for him that have significant knowledge of AP. If not...maybe he doesn't have years to waste. There are ways to leap frog in this industry and if you aren't willing to at least give it a go before you "learn for several years," then you probably aren't fit for this kind of work anyways.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=free+greenhouse+plans

Seriously though do one like helomech's, large and inexpensive.

1) If he had people working for or with him that knew what they were doing he wouldnt have created this thread.

2) The way you leap frog the industry is with experience, research and innovation... not hope, prayers and asking people who you arent even sure are qualified to answer.

3) Check out the threads of the people who are making it successful commercially on this forum. There are barely a handful and each of them have years of experience and learning before they tried to go make it a full time job. There way more threads where people "going commercial" that failed and that's just forum members.. The failure threads are harder to find because they update for a year and you never hear from them again..


I am not trying to discourage anyone from achieving their dream but spending a lot of money building a big system before you are ready is just going to be an expensive learning curve.


and yes, helo has a good green house design... use it to learn.

Eight years ago or so when I started my AP journey even though I had a head start (good brain and good education with farming experience) I didn't have a clue. We all have to start somewhere.

The bigger problem I have is not that the question was asked but that rather the answers where ignored.

I spent hours looking at cheap ways to make greenhouses which included at one point using Californian Redwood (almost all american GH were made from this timber before steel became the standard) and even though I could get the timber for only $300/m3 it was still more economical to drive around and make lots of offers on derelict greenhouses until I found one that was the right price and a reasonable design.

This may not be an option for the original poster but given the changes in GH design and the economy of late I would be surprised.

I used to have a book on building a greenhouse (by an American author, don't know if I still have it). The construction was rather clever; from memory it involved using pliable lathes/lats round a former, the clever bit was using small wood block spacers and running another lat on top of this. This gave you a frame that was light but structurally strong and the horizontal/diagonal bracers used were the size of the gap between the lats and that is where they went. The polycarbonate just screwed into the wood block spacers.
Don't know if that made sense as its been hot (again) and I have had a few beers.

Can you post a pic Sleepe, sounds intriguing...