My lambing tunnel

[shearerlad]

Trying to take as many photos as I can. Polly tunnel is 100x30 feet, built by contractors. Site is free draining corner of a feild. It's sheltered from the west by trees, from the south by cattle shed and from east by earth bank of silage pit.

Access being dug through bank of silage pit

Green feild site

 

[shearerlad]

Foundation holes dug and posts in with concrete.
Guys will be back once the winds die down to erect metal framework

 

[JohnGalway]

Have they come back?

 

[shearerlad]

Back tomorrow to start on the metal work. There has been a mix up in communication and somehow the wrong hoops were ordered/made. New ones were delivered on Friday afternoon so all going well it should be up this week. Will update with pics of the progress.

 

[shearerlad]

It's amazing what can get done in a day!!!

 

[shearerlad]

Starting to take shape

 

[JohnGalway]

Question on the side netting. I have smaller mesh net, just looked at the original net cover, and it says it's 50% open. It's letting in an awful amount of water into my tunnel, to the point I'm looking at solutions (roof lights laid on their side look the likely winner) to keep water out now. Have you thought about that, or has the tunnel builder said anything regarding water coming in through the mesh?

If your plastic cover lets in a lot of light, you might get away with ordinary corrugated tin. I can't use it as my cover is dark green, so if I use opaque tin I'll have a very dark tunnel indeed.

 

[shearerlad]

The plastic is still rolled up and in its transport covering but I'm guessing it's white.
I will just have to wait and see what happens with water coming in. My neighbour has same tunnel as mine but is far more exposed and doesn't seem to have much trouble.

 

[Recoil]

Are you lambing in there yet?

 

[Sweepa]

How strong is it? against stormy weather

 

[shearerlad]

It's starting to come together.

Eclectic board

Lights

Bit of work to do outside

 

[shearerlad]

@Sweepa93 It's not the strongest spec available but fairly sheltered. I have 6 feet between hoops, a neighbour has one with hurricane spec with 4 feet spacings and more cross bracings

 

[Sweepa]

Whats the expense on this?

 

[shearerlad]

It's about £7100 plus vat. That's the kit, delivery and erection. There is 2.5t of gravel for concrete at the base of each hoop.
Cheap compared to a steel shed of same size

 

[renewablejohn]

Cannot believe anybody would put a plastic cover on in the middle of winter. I have two tunnels to recover this year but would not attempt to do it until May at the earliest.

 

[Hurdle bunter]

Do you have to have "shed" planning permission for one of these?

 

[itsintheblood]

How long do you expect it to last for compared to a shed ? Or is it a case of putting a new cover on when needed ?

 

[renewablejohn]

Our tunnels are on an exposed hill top site and normally last between 5 and 7 years although we did lose one in 9 months after putting the cover on in January and it went slack and ripped in the Autumn storms. Tunnels in the past have ripped where they rub against the bar even with hot spot tape or split on the fold seam where the sheet has been left folded on the roll to long. Tunnel I recovered last year I used pipe insulation instead of hot spot tape and it seems to be working well. Normally recover at least 1 tunnel every year but this year we already have 2 to renew due to the high wind speeds we have had this year.

 

[shearerlad]

@Hurdle bunter prior notification is all that is needed here. Not sure if it's the same south of the border.

@itsintheblood been told the life expectancy of the plastic is 5 years but most last 10 or 12

Water plumbed in

 

[shearerlad]

Sheep in. They seem to have settled in ok.