patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
I'm seriously thinking of doing this (but not til next year), and am wondering a) whether anyone here has done it or seen it done and has advice to report, or b) if I can talk anyone ELSE into doing it FIRST 
Our attached 2-car garage (well it is actually not exactly attached, it is just built 'against' the house wall and is slowly detaching itself, don't get me started) has the big car doorways facing south. Small amount of morning shade from a not very close pine tree, otherwise full sun. Garage is unheated and uninsulated but still it stays warmer than the outdoors on the coldest nights and (here is the big thing, for me) it offers a way to build a small greenhouse with entry from an enclosed location I can access in my house slippers
Like most people outside of towns we do not put *cars* in our garage, just store stuff there
So I was thinking, what if I removed one of the garage doors and replaced it with a small homemade greenhouse, the full width of the opening and only maybe 4-6' deep, mostly *within* the garage (since winter sunlight is so slanty anyhow), with salvage doublepane sliding doors used for the glazing, and a lot of thermal mass in the floor and lower back wall (gravel, jugs o water), and a whole lotta of insulation everywhere else (styrofoam from stores and packaging).
It would be accessed through a door in its (heavily insulated) back wall so you would go from the house thru the basement to the garage, then into the greenhouse. My thinking is that if the greenhouse protrudes only 2' or so from the face of the garage, I am personally comfortable with calling it just a replacement of the garage door and not dealing with building permits. It'd be on VERY hard-compacted driveway that doesn't seem to heave, and I could build some latitude for frostheave into its construction, so no foundation required I think. I'd probably need a thermostatically operated fan, eitehr to vent hot air into the garage or to run it through concrete rubble under the floor for nighttime heat release.
My aim would be just to grow greens over the winter (so, it would not have to stay warm at night, just not freeze too bad, and I'd be open to making insulated shutters for it if I had to, or a small 'tent' over veggies with a 25 w bulb under them for warmth) and spend less electricity on the basement shoplights for starting seeds.
Someone out there wanna build one of these? It's not too late in the year... *seriously*...
Otherwise I will probably do it next year myself, if I can assemble appropriate materials and DH does not have a fit when I suggest it
Pat
Our attached 2-car garage (well it is actually not exactly attached, it is just built 'against' the house wall and is slowly detaching itself, don't get me started) has the big car doorways facing south. Small amount of morning shade from a not very close pine tree, otherwise full sun. Garage is unheated and uninsulated but still it stays warmer than the outdoors on the coldest nights and (here is the big thing, for me) it offers a way to build a small greenhouse with entry from an enclosed location I can access in my house slippers
Like most people outside of towns we do not put *cars* in our garage, just store stuff there
So I was thinking, what if I removed one of the garage doors and replaced it with a small homemade greenhouse, the full width of the opening and only maybe 4-6' deep, mostly *within* the garage (since winter sunlight is so slanty anyhow), with salvage doublepane sliding doors used for the glazing, and a lot of thermal mass in the floor and lower back wall (gravel, jugs o water), and a whole lotta of insulation everywhere else (styrofoam from stores and packaging). It would be accessed through a door in its (heavily insulated) back wall so you would go from the house thru the basement to the garage, then into the greenhouse. My thinking is that if the greenhouse protrudes only 2' or so from the face of the garage, I am personally comfortable with calling it just a replacement of the garage door and not dealing with building permits. It'd be on VERY hard-compacted driveway that doesn't seem to heave, and I could build some latitude for frostheave into its construction, so no foundation required I think. I'd probably need a thermostatically operated fan, eitehr to vent hot air into the garage or to run it through concrete rubble under the floor for nighttime heat release.
My aim would be just to grow greens over the winter (so, it would not have to stay warm at night, just not freeze too bad, and I'd be open to making insulated shutters for it if I had to, or a small 'tent' over veggies with a 25 w bulb under them for warmth) and spend less electricity on the basement shoplights for starting seeds.
Someone out there wanna build one of these? It's not too late in the year... *seriously*...
Otherwise I will probably do it next year myself, if I can assemble appropriate materials and DH does not have a fit when I suggest it
Pat
