Steel structure.

The skeleton that carries everything

Every system in a greenhouse — the glass, the screens, the heating pipes, the irrigation, the crop itself hanging heavy with fruit — ultimately rests on the steel sub-structure. Columns and trusses form that skeleton, and they are not a generic frame but a structure calculated specifically for the site. Local wind and snow loads, the weight of the cladding and screens, and the crop and hanging-gutter loads are all fed into the engineering so that spans and section sizes are matched to what the greenhouse will actually face over its decades of service.

Because a greenhouse stands in a warm, humid environment for twenty years or more, corrosion protection is fundamental rather than cosmetic. The steel is hot-dip galvanised, immersed in molten zinc so that every surface — inside hollow sections included — is coated and protected. That single choice is a large part of why a well-built Dutch greenhouse keeps performing for so long: the skeleton does not rust away beneath the glass.

The steel grid is dimensioned around the cultivation system, not the other way round. Span widths, gutter heights and column positions all follow the crop layout — the spacing of the rows, the height the crop needs to grow, the paths the internal transport will take — so the structure serves the growing rather than obstructing it. A tomato crop on hanging gutters, a lettuce system on moving benches and a potted-plant operation each imply different geometries, and the steel is engineered accordingly.

Sequencing also matters on site. Ventilation mechanisms and future provisions are mounted to the trusses before erection, while the work can still be done safely at low level, so that once the frame is raised the structure is already prepared for the stages that follow. The result is a skeleton engineered for the specific climate, crop and lifespan of the project — strong where it needs to be, and no heavier than it should be. Get in touch to discuss the structural engineering behind your greenhouse.