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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
This video is to give you some information on the finer points of creating the base for your hoop house
0:07
So the perimeter of the hoop house is defined by these 2x6 pressure treated boards
0:15
You could go 2x8 if you wanted to. I wouldn't go any less than 2x6 though for reasons I'll explain in a minute
0:23
So the framework as I said defines the outside and chances are you're not going to have pieces
0:31
of lumber that are long enough to make the sides of the hoop house without some sort of splicing
0:37
So you can splice on the inside like you see here. A 24 inch piece of lumber with some weatherproof
0:46
glue and screws driven in the face here. That's going to do a good job for you
0:53
The first thing you're going to have to realize though is it's actually you have to be intentional
0:59
about getting something like this square something this large to be square is kind of tricky
1:07
You can't just use a carpenter's square in the corner because the structure is too large
1:12
Instead you need to ensure that two things are in place. First of all that opposite sides here and here
1:24
and then the ends here and here are the same length. That's step number one. Now that's not
1:31
going to make the corners square but it is going to lay the groundwork for making it easy to make
1:37
the corners square. This structure will be square when diagonal measurements taken from this corner
1:47
all the way over to this corner and this corner all the way over to this corner. When those
1:53
measurements are the same and when opposite sides of the structure are the same length
2:00
then you can be assured that the corners are square. And so once you've done that without any
2:06
of these ground pipes in place this is a preliminary activity you're going to want to drive
2:15
the corner pipes in at the corners only in order to preserve that square orientation with the 90
2:23
degree corners that you've created. So that's your starting point. Your corners are square
2:29
but the sides are not necessarily straight. Lumber this long I guarantee you is not going to be
2:36
perfectly straight as it lies on the ground. It could bend in or it could bend out. It could go
2:42
in a kind of an s-shape. All kinds of things and you really want the sides to be straight
2:49
It's especially true for the long sides that have the ground pipes in them because you want a
2:55
consistent building width all the way along the length of this thing and the sides need to be
3:01
straight for that to happen. So there's a trick to making that happen and also to ensuring that the
3:08
sides stay straight once you've straightened them. Just to recap the corners are secured
3:15
with ground pipes driven down into the soil and the structure is square because diagonal
3:21
measurements are equalized. Now a tight string is a reliable guide to creating a straight edge to
3:30
follow as far as adjusting the straightness of the sides goes. The problem is if you just
3:36
run a string from one corner here to the other it's not going to be any use to you because
3:44
the moment the board bends outwards it throws the string out of straightness
3:51
So that's where you need to do something a little bit different. Now this is not a hoop house
4:00
that I'm building here but the theory of using the string still applies. So right here we have
4:08
the pieces of wood that I want to make sure are straight and then this is the corner of the
4:13
building and this fuzzy piece of plywood here is a spacer. It's three-quarter inch thick
4:20
plywood. There's one here and there's one at the other end and the purpose of that is to
4:27
keep the string out away from the wood that I'm straightening. So when I want to see whether the
4:34
wood is straight at any given spot I'm going to use a third piece of three-quarter inch plywood
4:40
as a spacer and I'm going to push it down in here and I'm going to see if the string is
4:46
outwards from the spacer or whether it's inwards and I'm going to adjust this piece of wood
4:53
accordingly. So it's exactly the same situation with the hoop house base. So you'll get your
5:03
spacer here and your spacer here and then you run a string along the whole length
5:12
and then you'll test with your spacer all the way along. The thing is the first place you want to
5:17
test is right in the middle and you want to get that in alignment with the corners. So you
5:25
pull your wood one way or the other as needed for the spacer to give you the right message, the right
5:32
situation and then you pound a stake down, the ground pipe down without interfering with the
5:41
positioning of the wood. You pound the ground pipe down and that forms an anchor point. So
5:50
you know that the side is straight at least in the middle at that stage and then you repeat the
5:56
process again in this other section. You go in between the middle and the end and you straighten
6:03
that section and you just keep doing this back and forth until you have all of your ground pipes in
6:09
place and the side's going to be quite straight. If it's a little bit out, if it's a quarter of an
6:14
inch out or even a half an inch out of straightness over the length of it, that's fine. That's close
6:19
enough for us to consider that perfect and you just repeat that process over here on the
6:27
other side and this middle section here doesn't have any pipes in it. So just straighten it as
6:35
best you can. You might have to put in a stake of wood or something in the middle to hold it straight
6:42
if the wood isn't behaving itself. That can be pounded down flush and trimmed off flush and
6:47
to hold that piece of wood secure. But that's basically the process. Now I should mention that
6:53
there are some tricks when it comes to pounding the ground pipes in. These ground pipes I recommend
7:00
a two inch diameter PVC schedule 40 conduit. So this is a large diameter electrical conduit
7:10
essentially and you want that ground pipe to be pounded straight down. In most soil conditions
7:16
you can put a piece of wood on top, scrap two by four, scrap two by six, whatever, and then you pound
7:23
that down and you pound it down so that it's vertical. Now the bottom end of the ground pipe
7:31
is open so as you pound it down, soil is going to kind of come up inside. It's not displacing
7:39
the soil. The soil is rising up in the pipe as the pipe gets pounded down. But the thing is
7:46
the pipe doesn't go down below ground level or it's not even flush with ground level. It's higher
7:52
than ground level and it's this distance from here to the ground level that's going to remain soil
7:59
free. So your hoop pipes, which will go in in a later step, they have a certain amount they can
8:07
go down into and this will all be locked together later. But don't worry that the pipe has filled
8:12
with soil up to soil level because you still have some up above to engage those hoop pipes
8:20
Now there's one other major parameter you need to deal with and that has to do with the levelness
8:27
of the frame. With wood this long, not only is it going to vary to bend from side to side
8:36
until you make it straight with the string, it's also not going to be level. I mean wood can bend
8:42
along its edge so this end could be higher than this end and there could be a rise in the middle
8:48
somewhere. So you really want this frame not only to be square and straight but the top edge of it
8:56
needs to be level. And here's how you do that. Your first step is to determine which part of
9:05
the frame is naturally the highest. Now presumably you've chosen a flat location for your hoop house
9:12
but one spot is going to be a little higher than all the rest. Let's just say it's this near corner
9:17
here. So your first step is to temporarily lock the ground frame to the ground pipe
9:28
And you can do that with a fairly short wood screw. As I said this is temporary and you want
9:37
the wood screw to be able to go through the wood and then into the plastic but not into the inner
9:44
space in the plastic. So you just want to go through the plastic and then no more. Now this is important
9:50
and I'll explain why that is in a minute. So you're going to use a laser level or a four foot long
9:59
carpenter's level or something like that to work your way along the frame and put whatever props
10:08
are necessary underneath to raise it up to a level position. So if this is your starting corner
10:15
then you'd go over here and you would raise it with props and wedges or you know a chunk of firewood
10:22
whatever you need to to get it up to a level spot in relation to that first corner. And then you do
10:29
the same thing over here and then you do the same thing over here. Now at this stage before you lock
10:38
the ground frame to the pipes the pipes should be a little bit higher than you expect them to be
10:45
ultimately. When you have determined this height here then you want to pound in the corner pipes
10:57
so that they are more or less flush with the top of the wood frame. Because at this stage the top
11:04
of your wood frame is now your reference because you've leveled it. At least all four corners are
11:10
level with each other. So pound the ground pipe down so it's a little bit above the ultimate
11:19
level of the top of the ground frame. Here in this illustration I'm just a little bit above
11:25
I could be a half an inch above or even an inch or two above and that would work fine as long as
11:31
it's consistent. Once you've done that you want to lock the ground frame to the ground pipe with
11:41
that short temporary wood screw. The reason I'm having you do this just temporarily at this stage
11:47
is because these permanent bolts, the ones that you see here and here, they can only be installed
11:55
when the hoop pipes are in place and that comes in the next section. So at this stage
12:01
you want to get things level and you want to rely on the ground pipes to secure your ground frame
12:08
But you need to do that in a way that does not extend right through the ground pipes because
12:13
then you wouldn't be able to get your hoop pipes down. So a wood screw that goes from here
12:19
to about here just through the wall is enough to do that temporary locking but it's not so much
12:26
that you can't put the ground the hoop pipes in later. So when you've leveled and anchored all
12:32
four corners like this you'll want to do it in the middle here and here and then you want to split
12:39
that area. So from the middle to here you split that section up in different places
12:45
You level your wood, pound down your pipes and temporarily join the two together. Here on the
12:54
ends, since we don't have ground pipes, you can do the same sort of thing with just wooden stakes
13:03
pounded down in if necessary at all. A narrow hoop house isn't really going to need this sort of
13:09
thing. It'll probably be fine and really this is just to connect one side to the other so it
13:13
doesn't matter if it's a little bit high or low in different places. Different situation though
13:19
with the sides because they do all need to be in the same plane for your hoop framework to be even
13:27
and level. But that's the procedure. Don't put the carriage bolts in yet because as I said we're
13:34
going to want to drill for those later once the hoop pipes are in place
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