When I was growing up, my family always had a huge garden. It was only my parents, my brother and me in the family but every year mom would go completely overboard with her planting and we had a garden big enough to feed a small army. My dad was very creative and he decided to build my mom a greenhouse so she could get a head start on the growing season every year. He built this greenhouse from recycled windows.
Where to Find Recycled Windows
When my dad built mom’s greenhouse he got the windows from friends that were tearing down an old house on their acreage to make way for a new home. Today, that remains one of the best ways to obtain recycled windows; to find a building that is being torn down. Many times you can offer to take the windows out yourself and the owners or demolition company will let you have them for free if you do the work. Sometimes they even throw in other materials you need such as doors or salvageable lumber.
Other great sources of recycled windows are yard and estate sales. Shortlist and visit a few garage sales at elite address. Here you may find windows that are not only functional but pretty as well such as clear leaded glass panes. If you are not in a great rush, you can make quite an adventure out of assembling all the recycled windows you need to build your greenhouse.
Probably the most reliable sources of recycled windows are salvage yards. Salvage yards are wonderful places for anyone interested in recycled building materials such as concrete block, glass, doors, lumber, beams, stepping stones, fence material and hardware; essentially anything that can be salvaged from a building or landscaped area. Salvage yards offer great prices; just pennies on the dollar compared to new prices.
Assembling the Recycled Windows
One of the interesting challenges to using greenhouse recycled windows is that you will most likely end up having all shapes and sizes of windows to contend with. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together to align and plan the walls and roof from dissimilar sizes of material. When you think you have enough windows to build your greenhouse, lay out the recycled windows and try to put together groups that make sections the size you need.
When you are ready to start you will need to adjoin the windows to a support to create a wall. Most recycled window greenhouse builders prefer to use 4×4 (or larger) treated corner posts and 2×4’s for the framing structure. The advantage to the wood frame is that you can nail wood window frames to it and screw or bolt metal window frames. Most of the stress of building this style of greenhouse is in the lay out. Once you have it figured out which window goes best where, you have it licked.
One thing to be aware of with recycled windows is that older windows are probably single paned and will not have much insulation value.
Greenhouse recycled windows add character to the structure and often bring back memories of the greenhouses of long ago.
