need help with GH setup

The reason i'm not wanting to go with treated wood to build it is that i have been reading that it can be harmful to my plants. If i was sure the treated wood would not harm my plants i would go with that to save on having to do all that painting.

Tell me if i'm right on this. If i'm starting seeds on a heating mat i don't need to heat the GH until they sprout??

Love the idea of building the sidewalls into frames, I ran that across hubby and he can do it.
Even with building the sidewalls into frames i'm still going to need to have exhaust fan, shade cloth, misting/evap coolers. Our spring weather is crazy here, One day it can be 80 out and the next 40. so until late spring i will not be able to take the sidewalls out.

Just making sure i have this right. If i go with exhaust fan and misting system i don't need an evaporative cooler? I have planed on having a misty system set up on a timer to start my seeds. I can just add more to help cool the GH. I was also looking at the foggers that attach to the fans.

I have never seen that treated wood can harm plants though I have heard it said it isn't too healthy for people if they eat platns grown near treated wood. Of course much info relates to the old method of treated the wood with arsenic which is no longer done

When we built the pergola a few months back we was considering the treated wood. We used the brackets that made it go together faster. Sorry not sure what the technical name of them are, You needed to use a special type of screws and stuff so it will not rot them out.
I can be so wrong and trust me i have been threw most of this GH setup but i'm thinking if its going to rot out screws then what will it do to my plants.
Like i said if treated wood is fine then i'm all over it to save me some time on painting.

SB,
Now that you came up with the great idea of removable walls, any ideas on how we should build them?
I guess its going to be about the same concept of roof vents but on a bigger scale.

Sure, I would just make a simple frame for the twinwall PC, then screw them through predrilled holes into your GH posts. You may have to fool around with the frames a bit, because I don't know how rigid they will be with the PC in them. You could hinge some of them for spring and fall ventilation.

I would use PT wood if I weren't growing too many edibles. Just my opinion. Use hot dipped or better yet, stainless fasteners rather than regular galvanized fasteners.

You won't need the whole cooling shabang if you have removable walls. You are right, you'll need an exhaust fan for cooling when the walls are up, but in the middle of the summer you won't. The mist might feel good, but it will have a negligible cooling effect with the walls out. Any air cooled is just going to blow right on out and be replaced by more warm air. In the summer, with the walls out, I would say that you just cover with 50-60% shade cloth and that's it. And in the spring and fall, I wouldn't automatically assume that you need cooling mist...certainly not an evap cooler.

You will use a totally different mist system for cooling than you will for propagation. I don't know many people that use mist for seeds. Tigerlily123 starts thousands of seed for her business and I think she covers them with wrap rather than misting them, at least initially.

I'm rambling, here...did I answer your question?

I will have hubby get to working on this and once he comes up with something if you don't mind i will post here and you let me know if its going to work or not.
I do plan on growing most of my veggies, herbs, and annuals. I have not grown much from seed so the first year will be touch and go. But i do have a back up plan to buy what ever i kill so i'm good there. Hey in a few years i will be a growing pro, its just keeping my doors open till i get there.

I guess i need to hunt down Tigerlily123 and get some growing tips from her.
At first i was just planning on hand watering everything. Then i started thinking i should setup some watering system for if i ever get to leave town i can do an over night and not have to worry about the plants so much.

Now i'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a good gas heater.
I hope i'm not driving you guys crazy yet cause we still have a long way to go. Next it will be alarms, timers, controllers, ECT.

On gas heaters, you first need to decide whether to go with vented or unvented. Google will bring you many threads (particularly on GW) about the various risks/benefits of each. TL and I both have vented heaters, FWIW.

Tigerlily123 has written detailed posts on her seed starting techniques, I'm sure you can find them with a search.

SB

Sb, i went to GW and did a search on gas no vented heaters and man did ya'll have some heated discussions over vented and no vented hehehe. I did decided on a no vented but once i started talk to hubby about it before i even said no vented he said vented so i'm just going to leave that one up to him .

This is what we have decided on so far. The GH will be built from non treated wood, He refuses to use it, we have had no luck with it in the past cause all we can find is wet and it bows before it dries. I forgot i got him a big air compressor and framing nail gun for fathers day so i'm sure that is why he wants to go with the wood LOL. Painting it will be fast i guess cause he has the air compressor and the paint gun attachment.
We are going to go with the single panels of polycarbonate and only because of the cost factor. The grant will only be about 40% of my startup cost and the rest will come out of my pocket, i don't plan on getting any loans to do this. And with me also having a gift shop that needs a lot of inventory i need to cut cost as much as possible. Vented heater, heating mats, fans, exhaust fans,shutters, water softener, shade cloth, flooring, tables.
I still need more info on misting or fogging systems, placement of them. SB i see that you have the aqucool system and in this Growers supply they are pricey and i'm not sure what all comes with then, and with the walls coming off i wonder if i need to spend that much.

The thing with the screws was the corrosive action of the copper in the treated wood and disimilar metals. When they stopped using arsenic they upped the copper content to maintain the rot resistence. Which made the wood even more corrosive to some types of metal. You should use either stainless steel or copper nails and fasteners with the new pressure treated wood. avoid galvenized or aluminum

Thanks j
Jazzpumkin that is great info. I know we will use the PT wood for the base of the GH. But the rest of it i'm going to paint a white i think. I have been doing so reading and white helps reflect light into darker spaces, it also said to paint all you tables and so forth but i'm not feeling that energetic LOL.

We used cedar for our base but then out GH is very tiny. IT wasn't cheap. The only potential issue I see whith painting would be that with the moisture inside the greenhouse, the paint would start peeling sooner. (I hate scraping and repainting) Depending on the wood maybe you could do a wash or stain and get the same effect?

Oh i did not think about peeling paint yuck. What about a water sealer? let try and use hubby are toy on this sealing job LOL.

If the HF in your first posting is "Harbor Freight", you might want to read this thread before making the purchase http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/694127/#new

Oh i have decided not to go with the HF GH. To get the size i needed i would have to have 2 of the biggest ones they sell and that would be double everything i would need to buy for them. So we are just going to build it the size i need it.

thought I'd inject my 2 cents worth here, Ive been working on starting up a small nursery for the last two years. i started with a 20x32 hoophouse I got used for 275$ with new plastic (6mil poly) spent another 150$ on pressure treated wood for the base boards and end wall framing , 2 recycled free sliding gass doors , 2 2000 cfm attic fans, about 60$, I made my own louvers-free, 1 large intake louver with thermostat and auto opener- free from a hvac retrofit on a commercial building, 2 -25x 30 pieces of shade cloth 50$ used, (look on craigslist). for my misting system I used a 25$ sprinkler system timer, 10$ valve, 75' of 5/8 poly pipe and about a dozen mist heads designed for drip system, bought on clearance at the end of season for about .75 cents each. and you can add another valve (10$) to your sprinklers on the plants in the yard. total =less than 700$

I have no winter heat, but im working on a waste oil boiler system. and ive totally out grown this greenhouse, and am now figuring out where to put a 30x96. Im now trying to find a good used GH i can pick up free for the tearing down.

if you go with single polycarb panels on the outside you can always staple up 6 mil poly on the inside of your studs during the winter for more insulation. I would definately go for Pressure treated wood, dont buy what is called sunwood, its also PT but doesnt have the little cuts in the wood and is usually made from inferior grade hemlock instead of fir.

ok I think that about does it. good luck to you.. It can be done cheaply, you just dont want to have to be replacing stuff you should have spent the exta $ on the first time ok now im really done gook luck