covering a hoop house?

[cgjsmith]

Hi All I'm looking for a way to cover my hoophouse in plastic for the winter for my geese and other animals. Anyone got a good idea on how to do this? I tried zip ties last year and it just tore. I'm thinking strapping it down but not sure about the ends. thanks Crystal

 

[cjeanean]

what's a hoophouse??? U got a pic???

 

[thunder123]

I use snap clamps.

www.PVCPLANS.com

go to suppliers page lots of places to buy them online.

 

[patandchickens]

I have not tried to cover a hoop tractor specifically, but for covering outdoor things in general:

-- use a HIGH QUALITY tarp. This means expensive -- but only in the short term. A good agricultural-quality tarp is heavily uv stabilized and much stronger than the cheesy blue ones, which will repeatedly disintegrate and rip loose on ya til you've spent more (and had more aggravation and damage) than if you'd have bought the good quality one in the first place. If you want translucent, get heavy-duty agricultural greenhouse plastic. Talk to the guy at your feed store/ farm store. You can also order plastic online.

-- use strong rope thru the grommets on the tarp. Alternatively you can sandwich the edge of the tarp between two pieces of wood, roll it once or twice, then screw through in a number of places. This is seldom necessary but something to be aware of for difficult situations.

-- I would think that for covering the ends you would be best off extending the tarp well past the end of the hoophouse side, then gathering/pleating it to wrap around the end of the hoophouse, and bungeing it down VERY THOROUGHLY with a lot of rope. Alternatively if you are not in a very cold climate you could buy Palruf panels, construct a stud wall type arrangement of 2x4s to fit the end of the hoophouse, and screw the Palruf on. Or another alternative, just plywood over the ends of teh hoophouse (would probably be the simplest and strongest arrangement).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[cgjsmith]

http://www.fhcrook.net/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=7

thats the instructions we used. Its got pictuers as well. basicly its two or three cattle panels bent into a 2X4 frame. Crystal