wooden or aluminium
gardeninglily1
Posts: 424
I would like a greenhouse and would welcome some advice please. Wooden or aluminium? Is it just about aesthetics? price? Shall I go for the biggest I can fit into the garden space? Is it worth thinking of second-hand or is it a lot of mider to transport and erect? Thank you 
0
Posts
Painting?
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
We "inherited" a large timber one with the house. Probably about 50 years old. It needed some work and it was too big so after it served us for about 10 years I changed it for a smaller aluminium one. I had it for 10 years and it got killed by 4 feet of snow ! To be fair we also lost a barn roof that year!
I'd personally go for timber for look and durability.
Seriously though, how and with what do you treat the wood before you construct it and how, with the glass in place, do you keep it treated?
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
Mine was done with linseed oil. I then painted it as it got shabbier with age.
You can choose a naturally rot resistant hardwood, or use treated softwood.
Build on a base so you don't have timbers into the soil and make sure the air can circulate all around them so you don't get damp patches and many woods can last a long time without being painted.
My glasshouse a red cedar 13 by 10 foot has been in permanent use since 1980, apart from the odd drippers worked very well in use for the full 12 months, easy to double glaze inside by pining polythene sheeting, also have side windows as well as roof lights, (prefer side windows).
Thanks everyone - it looks like wooden is the way to go (I do love the look of Gabriel Ash but not in our price bracket!) I will have a chat with OH as we do need to keep cost down and the horticultural tunnel poythene with used timber sounds just the job
Only ever having owned one greenhouse...and that's only since February this year...I'd be inclined to go for timber too if you can afford it. Having experience in the building trade, timber has a great deal of tolerance compared with metal. And as a metal, aluminium has less tolerance than most others. It has an annoying tendency to stick when you want it to move and move when you want it to stick.
That said I'm still happy with my aluminium frame, its durable and strong but I wouldn't want to take it down again. Oh and aluminium doesn't need preserving against the weather
I've 3 aluminium greenhouses - all picked up for free, but each takes the best part of a day to take apart and same to put together. If I had the budget I'd go for wood as it looks a lot better. Either way I'd build a decent base (1 foot high) to raise the height of greenhouse. I'd also look at staging or the internals space as being more important - its for seedlings I'd be thinking about water electric and a heat bench.
I used to have a small, old aluminium one (that came with the house) and this year I traded up to a larger, red cedar one from Woodpecker Joinery on a concrete base. From what I have seen of Gabriel Ash, this was constructed from thicker timbers. I was impressed with the quality tho the price still made me go ouch...