[Lionelgee]

Hello MLUers,

When I worked in Parks and Gardens in Queensland we made a modular hot house which had a lightweight metal frame which could be dynabolted down to concrete blocks; or if you wanted bolted into concrete footings in the ground.

The sides of the vertical posts and the pitched roof had "C" shaped channels. The metal frame was made up of two posts and a centre flange which the pitched roof went either side of and then bolted to the posts. Then waterproof film which had circular ribbing sewn into its sides was fed through from the bottom of the "C" on one post up over the roof pitch and down the other side. Dishwashing liquid really helped you feed in the film through the "C"s. To keep the frame strong and the film rigid a number of horizontal spans of metal secured the film to the base of the posts.They also used wire and turnbuckles to make everything rigid and it was rated to be very windproof.

The units were originally designed to provide temporary housing for disaster areas in Asia as they were waterproof and could stand up to strong winds. If you wanted to expand the structure you just bought more waterproof film and more metal frames.

They were designed to be fully transportable so they could load into small planes and once they landed they were light enough to be transported by animal or human powered village vehicles and taken to where they were needed. All you had to do to shift it once it was no longer needed was slide the film out and unbolt the metal frame, roll up the waterproof film and throw it in the back of a truck or trailer and flown out to be stored and taken it to the next place it was needed.

Kind Regards
Lionel