JERRY’S CARPORT TUBE FRAME GREENHOUSE

Carport Tube Frame Greenhouse
Built by Jerry and Wendy
This was a standard 10’X20’ Costco carport that had lost it’s cover. We purchased it for $50. They seem to be flimsy, and maybe that’s what causes the tarp covers to tear. We decided to beef up this one by attaching the bottom of the posts to some pressure treated 2”X6” boards. Actually, the first step was to level the ground area about 15’X25’.
Then continued to install more non pressure treated 2”X6”s around the sides about 3’ up from the bottom.
The 36” diameter door frames were assembled on either end by attaching the bottoms to the existing pressure treated boards with a piece of steel angle, and the tops to the cross 2”X4” that was bolted to the angle part of the pipe on either side.
To stabilize the ends, we installed 2 extra turnbuckles on either sides of the doors.
At too levels full-length on both sides we installed wire and turnbuckles to keep the greenhouse plastic from sagging.
The doors were made by laminating 1”X4”s and chicken wire with a turnbuckle like the old screen doors, then covered them with clear 3mil plastic.
(4) 10’ 1”X4”s were bolted across the center two sections and cut off the ends so we could use them for propagating flowers in hanging baskets later.
We covered the bottom 36” around the outside with a white roofing felt (attached with staples) to help keep out the animals.
The 6mil 4 year greenhouse plastic sheet was purchased from McConkey Co. in Sumner. It took a piece 32’ long and 20’ wide.
Small pieces of the white felt or duct tape were attached at each of the corners and joints to prevent excess wear to the plastic sheet.
We folded the plastic appropriately on the ends and used 1/4″X2” wood lath to attached it to the door frame, and to the 2”X6”s around the sides and ends.
Next came the inside table tops that were made from long pallets which were covered with chicken wire. The table framework was made from H section 2”X4”s attached to both the pallets and the side 2”X6”s. They were made at two different heights of which the north side was about 6” higher to accommodate barrels for water (solar mass) and to catch excess dirt when transplanting.
The commercial version of this would probably cost about $2000, and our costs were our time and about $250…..