And then one Monday morning ...

Door frames and base rail fitted

Things have moved along apace since my last blog. Only working at the weekends, you find that you are restricted by the weather and being in such an exposed site, it was invariably windy. We managed to get the door frames up and secure at both ends and the side and base rails fitted. The rails work as a floating system being fixed to brackets on the rib poles.

Side coverings on a not so windy day

Suddenly one Monday morning, hubby returned from his usual pilgrimage to the train station as there weren't any trains for the next few hours. Coincidentally, there was also much lighter wind. After a few phone calls to work, he arranged the day off and suddenly we were fitting coverings to the polytunnel. First up, the side plastic was fitted to the rails on both sides. Next green ventilation netting was fitted over that, again to the side rails. It was getting exciting! Finally the huge piece of plastic was unfurled on the grass, 48 x about 30 feet. We fed this up and over the ribs where it was fixed to the side rails on both sides. Next came the easing of the fullness around the doors, something which is usually done when fitting sleeves to a shirt, but it is basically the same thing. We had a polytunnel ... although it was more like a wind tunnel by the following weekend.

Main cover on but not trimmed 

With the brisk North wind whistling through the tunnel, the next job was to cover and fit the doors along with finishing the plastic on the north and south ends. The floating side rails were movable to provide some tension in the main polytunnel plastic. Clever but hard work as you had to undo the clamps holding the rails to the ribs, push the rail down and do the clamps back up. At one point that was taking three of us, two pushing and one doing. The excess plastic was trimmed back to the side rails, neating it all up.

So much better with doors

The side ventilation system comprises the netting and a neat roller system. The bottom of the plastic was attached to a 48 foot metal pole and then rolled up at one end.  I was amazed that it worked so well. This lets the air in through the netting which acts as a wind break. With the bottom of the side plastic being attached to a base rail, this system was installed on both sides. And there we have it ... a polytunnel  - completed ... well nearly.