Building a brick base for a greenhouse

Have just bought a new greenhouse and rather than pay out £60 for a metal base hubby has decided to build a brick one to use up some bricks left over from another project. 

Any helpful tips on this from anyone who has already done a brick base would be greatly appreciated. 

Need to get it square to avoid trouble. Unless I am teaching my granny to suck eggs, the way to ensure aquareness is to measure the diagonals (corner to corner) and they should be equal in length. Otherwise it is not too hard to lay the bricks in a straight line and level, it just takes a bit of time and perseverence.

Make sure that the base is of the correct dimentions as a 8x6 greenhouse is not usually exact ie might be 8'3 x6'4.  Go on the greenhouse people website for more tips on erection and care for your new greenhouse. Good luck!!

hiya Linda Taylor2, I'm a builder and bricklaying has been my trade for the last 26yrs.

A brick built base is a good idea and better than the alloy ones you can buy, but BEWARE!

Common bricks or any general facing brick is porous and will absorb water, during the winter months these bricks will remain wet/damp. then when it freezes the water will expand and cause the face of the brick to be blow off, once the face has blow off the brick will continue to erode.

I won't recommend using common or general facing bricks, nor would i use this type of brick to build such a base for a customer as I would not guarantee it and I think in 5 years time you'll wish you hadn't.

The only brick I would use is a none porous brick, A class 2 ENGINEERING BRICK red or blue.

assuming your husband is laying 2 courses, which would make the height of the base 150mm or 6 inches the top course would need to be a solid engineering brick. And these are not so easy to lay as general bricks, but are the only bricks I would be happy to use for a customers job.

also Berghill and Mark Talbot comments above are spot on by saying the brick base needs to be squared and double check the dimensions because 8x6 is really 8'3x6'4.

I purchased my greenhouse from the greenhouse people and had it erected for me by one of their prefered erectors.  It has a metal base secured into the ground on 6 points with a sack of postcrete in each hole. I must say from start to finish i received first class attention from all concerned with this company and am very pleased with the result. 

I brought my Grenhouse from the same place as Mark Talbot "THE GREENHOUSE PEOPLE", I too would highly recommend them. As I said above, i'm a builder and i'm very happy with the alloy base that was suppied with the greenhouse. A brick built base is a good idea only if it is built with engineering bricks, but to be honest, it is not worth the hassle of digging and concreting a foundation to lay the bricks on just to save £60.

I have to agree with these building chappies about this. I used concrete bricks rather than engineering or ordinary house bricks and so far they have lasted 16 years without falling to pieces.

It probably is not worth the hassle as said. My greenhouses were erected on already existing concrete bases so we did not have to dig foundations.

Thank you everyone for your help.  Have decided you are right it is not worth all the hassle of building the brick base and so have ordered the metal base to go with the greenhouse, thanks  for the advice.

I was interested to hear about this as I also had thought about a brick base.My 4' x 4' is to be delivered any day now and I have had two estimates for assembling by the recommended people.  Trouble is one was under £100 and the other was nearly £300.

Any guides to what is the going rate?

Bit of a contrast-is this for one person to do the job or two?are they professional or is this as an odd-job-cash in hand or cheque? -will you get an invoice and a guarantee?-are they insured for any damage?

How long will it take?-time is money

I know that is a lot of questions but those points are important

we have bought a house that has an aluminium greenhouse in the garden. It is a bit old and neglected but okay. I want to move it and site it in a better part of the garden and I want to raise it by putting it on 2 or 3 courses of bricks. Can anyone tell me how deep my foundations should be on which I wil lay the bricks?