My apologies to The Bard, for twisting his great words into my Chapter 3 title. If those were indeed his words, as The Shakespeare Conspiracy theory goes... but back to my hoop house story. The words, deeds and blunders which follow are indeed my own!
I mentioned before that additional trips to the store were caused by changes in the plan. Or lack of a plan - you decide. Anyway, my first change in plan came while in the store on trip one. As I mentioned, I had planned to build a 12'x15' hoop house, with hoops spaced every three feet apart. As I loaded the 16' treated lumber on my cart, I thought, "why cut a foot off these boards just to make the math easy?" I decided add another hoop and make the frame the full 16' long. I bought one more cross fitting and two more lengths of PVC. This meant the small pieces of PVC between the hoops had to be a bit shorter, making the hoops about 31" apart.
The next plan change came when I assembled the treated lumber frame. Our back yard slopes gently away from the house. I had planned to dig under the higher side and level the frame. I assembled and squared the frame and grabbed my shovel. I propped up the lower side until it was level so I could measure how deep I had to dig. It was 5 1/2" inches off the ground. Two thoughts went through my head at about the same time. The first was, "that's a lot of digging." The second was, "that's exactly the same height as a 2x6 board. After a full 30 seconds of debate, I put the shovel away and climbed in the truck for the second trip to Lowe's for another 2x6x16' board.
Once the frame was square and level, the next step was to install what Steve Maxwell (See Chapter 1) had called "ground pipes." Due to my desire to some day move my hoop house, I altered his plan a bit. To be completely honest, if I had stuck to his plan I might not have run into some of the problems you will read about later. However, the stores near me did not stock 10' lengths of the flared pipe he recommended. I took some ideas I liked from Roger Marshall's book (also mentioned in Chapter 1) and much, but not all, of Mr. Maxwell's advice to come up with my own plan.
I anchored my frame in several places by driving 1x4 treated lumber boards in the ground and screwed them to the frame. I used much shorter ground pipes - about 12" long. However, in no circumstance would I recommend not using the ground pipes. They are invaluable when trying to wrestle 20' long hoops into a 12' wide frame!
Also due to my plans to move the hoop house, I hoped that the PVC would hold together by friction. After all, those fittings are a pretty tight fit. I was wrong, as I discovered as I tried to wrestle the 20' hoops into the 12' frame. As soon as I started bending the hoops into place, the fittings started popping apart and the PVC pipes sprang back into their full and upright position. I was ready to admit defeat and break out the PVC cement, but Barb was concerned - how would we ever move a 20' x 16' hoop frame?
It was then that I came up with a really bad idea. In a flash, I was off to Lowe's (trip three if you are keeping score) to buy some #10x3/4" self-tapping screws. Upon my return, I assembled the frame on the ground and screwed each joint in place. Then I turned the whole frame over (which was not an easy task, by the way) so the screws faced down and would not puncture the plastic cover. This seemed to work beautifully - but as I have already said, it turned out to be a really bad idea. More on this in Chapter 4, but suffice to say, don't try this at home!
Once the hoops were in place (this is a job for two or more people) I began to build the outer frame. I decided to notch the upright boards which seemed to make the walls more secure.
The fourth trip to Lowe's was for the hinges for the doors and two 2x3's that I needed to finish the second door. Once the frame was complete I installed the first layer of plastic. I had a bit of a panic attack when I opened the box of 6 mil clear plastic I had bought on trip one. Folded up in the roll, it looked completely white, not at all clear. Even unfolded, the plastic I bought was more "opaque" than "clear." But it was mid-afternoon on Sunday, with a threat of frost that evening. Opaque would have to do. I got out my electric staple gun and went to work. Barb helped move the smaller plants while I stapled, and by dark the first layer of plastic was on and the plants were all inside.
By the next weekend the fan had arrived and I had a plan for installing it without the hoses and brackets. I cut a piece of 1x4 about 16" long. Near one end, I drilled a hole with a 2 1/2" hole saw. This whole was slightly larger that the output opening of the fan. Then I marked and drilled 3 mounting holes and bolted the fan to the board with 1/4-20 countersunk bolts. I screwed the board and fan to the treated lumber frame so the board was in firm contact with the outside plastic. The whole assembly looks like a blow dryer mounted inside the hoop house.
Now the hoop house was ready for the second layer of plastic.
Once the outer layer of plastic was pulled carefully over the hoop house, I began neatly stapling it into place. At this point, the perfectionist (some might say OCD) in me overcame my common sense and I very neatly and snugly stapled the plastic into place. Then I screwed 1x2 furring strips over all the ends of the plastic to seal the air. I plugged in the fan and watched proudly watch as half - and only half - of the hoop house inflated nicely. Puzzled, I looked everywhere for air leaks, making sure my furring strips were on tightly. Then I realized what was wrong - as the plastic inflated on the side where I mounted the fan, it pulled the plastic so tight against the center support that air could not get through to the other side. I shut off the fan, and began removing furring strips and pulling staples.
I reattached the plastic leaving a couple of inches of slack, and turned the fan on again. This time, I proudly watched as both sides of the plastic filled with air and billowed out like a balloon in the Macy's parade! It was time to open a bottle of wine and toast to my success. As you might have guessed, this success was short lived - about two weeks to be exact. But that's a story for Chapter 4: "My Hoops Go Oops!"
Peace and Blessings,
Alan
