Structure for a modular greenhouse and the like

A modular greenhouse has Y-shaped vertical support members connected to roof supports and horizontal supports forming a frame for sealingly adhering glass panes thereto. The roof supports extend from a central annular ring member which has a controllable vent member which can be moved between an open and close position at the center of the roof. In addition, two adjacent vertical supports can mount a standard storm door for entrance into the greenhouse. The modular greenhouse can be adjoined to other modular greenhouse sections sharing two common vertical supports. An entranceway formed between the two common vertical supports provides passage between the two modular sections.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention. 
This invention relates to frame structures, and more particularly, to frame 
structures for greenhouses. 
2. Disclosure Information. 
Portable and collapsible greenhouses have long been known. Various examples 
of greenhouses are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,869,827 issued to 
Anderson et al on Mar. 11, 1975, and 4,068,421, issued to Marovich on Jan. 
17, 1978. However, the Marovich greenhouse has specialized components such 
as curved molded transparent plastic sections which must be particularly 
adapted for this greenhouse. The Anderson reference discloses a greenhouse 
that is specifically manufactured to be foldable for portability. 
It would be advantageous to have a frame structure for a greenhouse that 
can be assembled with a minimum amount of effort. It would also be 
advantageous to have such a frame structure that can adhere flat glass 
panes thereto. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
According to the invention, a modular building has a frame structure for 
producing a hexagonal shaped interior. The modular building has six 
vertical supports. Each vertical support has a Y-shaped cross-section 
defined by three legs equally spaced apart from each other. The first and 
second legs of the vertical support form surfaces to which panels are 
secured. The third leg extends radially outward from the center of the 
hexagonal shaped building. 
In addition, it is desired to have upper supports connected at their inner 
ends to a central ring member and radially extending outward therefrom to 
the vertical supports and forming the frame for a roof. The upper supports 
and the vertical supports are both connected at their outer and upper ends 
respectively to horizontal supports in a fashion that forms a frame having 
flush surfaces to which panels can be secured. The panels preferably are 
glass panes such that the building can function as a greenhouse. 
It is desired to have strips of sealing material, for example butyl rubber 
tape, placed on these flush surfaces and having the glass panes sealingly 
adhered to the frame by the sealing material to form the walls and roof of 
the greenhouse. It is also preferred that each glass pane has a strip of 
opaque ceramic lining that adheres to the sealing material so as to 
conceal the sealing material from visual observation. 
It is also desirable that the center ring member has a vent opening 
therethrough. The ring member is connected to a vent cover support. The 
vent cover support has an aperture therethrough for receiving a stem 
portion of the vent cover. The vent cover is sized to fully cover the vent 
opening when in a lowered position. The stem is operable to raise the 
cover to an open position. A fastener bracket assembly engages the stem 
and locks the stem in place to maintain the vent cover in the open 
position. 
An adjacent pair of the vertical supports can, in addition, help support an 
adjacent modular building section. The two adjacent vertical supports have 
their third legs forming adhering surfaces for glass panes of the adjacent 
building section. 
Also, in accordance with another aspect of the invention, the vertical, 
horizontal, and upper supports form a construction joint. Each horizontal 
support has first and second flanges meeting together at a common edge. 
The first flange is separated from the second flange by an axially 
extending slit at each end of each horizontal support. The end sections of 
the first and second flanges are offset inwardly a distance approximately 
equal to the thickness of the legs of the vertical supports and the upper 
supports respectively. The end section of the first flange abuts the 
inside surface of the leg and the end section of the second flange abuts 
the lower surface of the upper support. The vertical and upper supports 
are rigidly connected to the offset end sections of the respective 
flanges. When assembled together, the major central portion of the outer 
facing surface of the first flange is aligned with the outer facing 
surface of one leg of the vertical support. The major central portion of 
the upper facing surface of the second flange is aligned with the upper 
facing surface of the upper support. The aligned surfaces can form the 
aforementioned frame to which glass panes can be adhered. 
With a structure according to the invention, a greenhouse can be 
inexpensively and easily assembled. Glass panes can be flushly mounted 
directly to the structural frame. The frame can also accomodate the 
installation of a conventional storm door between two adjacent vertical 
supports. The roof structure can also accomodate installation of a 
controllable vent. Furthermore, because the glass panes can incorporate a 
ceramic lining to cosmetically conceal sealing tape, the structure 
provides for a cosmetically desirable, as well as a functional, structure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawings, particularly FIG. 1, we see the greenhouse 
10 that has a generally hexagonal shape with five sides comprising of 
walls 12, a sixth side comprising a standard storm door 16, and a roof 14. 
The greenhouse walls 12 include kick panels 78 and glass panes 18 secured 
to two vertical support members 20. The glass panes are also secured at 
the top to a horizontal support 22. The vertical support members 20 extend 
down below the groundline to serve as anchors for the greenhouse. The roof 
14, as shown more clearly in FIGS. 1 and 3, has a central ring member 24. 
Roof supports 26 have inner ends attached thereto and radially extend 
downwardly and outwardly therefrom. 
The supports 20, 22, 26, and ring 24 form in part the frame of the 
greenhouse 10. The vertical support members 20, horizontal supports 22 and 
roof supports 26 are connected together to form joints 27 located at the 
upper outer corners of the greenhouse 10. Reference will be made to only 
one of the vertical supports 20, horizontal supports 22, roof supports 24, 
forming joint 27. It is noted that the other supports 20, 22, and 26 are 
identical to the described supports. Each support 20, 22 and 26 is more 
specifically shown in FIGS. 4 and 6. As shown in FIG. 4, the vertical 
support 20 is basically Y-shaped in cross-section and includes three legs 
28, 30, and 32 equally spaced apart from each other. The roof support 26 
has two upper inclined flanges 34 and 36 and a vertically downwardly 
extending lower flange 38. Lower flanges 38 have a series of small 
apertures 39 as shown in FIG. 2 which can receive hooks for hanging plants 
within the interior of the greenhouse. The outer end of flanges 34 and 36 
abut the inside surfaces of legs 28 and 30 respectively. The horizontal 
support member 22 is basically L-shaped in cross-section with a vertically 
downwardly extending flange 40 and an inclined top flange 42 which extends 
inwardly and upwardly. Each end section 44 of the horizontal support 
member 22 has flanges 40 and 42 separated from each other by a slit 46. 
The flanges 40 and 42 at the end sections 44 are offset and positioned to 
abut the inside surface of leg 28 and flange 40 respectively. A flathead 
bolt 49 passes through aperture 47 within the leg 28 and slot 48 through 
flange 40. A second flathead bolt 49 passes through aperture 50 in flange 
34 and slot 52 in flange 42. The bolts are countersunk in order not to 
disturb the flat outer surface of leg 28 and the flat upper surface of 
flange 34. 
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the end section 44 of horizontal support 22 has 
the flange sections 40 and 42 offset a distance equal to the thickness of 
the leg 28 and flange 34 respectively. Consequently, the major central 
portions of flanges 40 and 42 have their outer and upper surfaces 
substantially aligned with the outer and upper surfaces of leg 28 and 
flange 34 respectively. 
Similarly, leg 30 and flange 36 receive and are secured to an adjacent 
horizontal support 22 in the same described fashion to complete joint 27. 
Referring back to FIG. 1, a lower cross-member 77 is attached to a lower 
portion of vertical support 20. As shown in more detail in FIG. 7, 
cross-member 77 is L-shaped in cross-section. Cross-member 77 has two end 
flaps 79 (only one is shown) that are bent inwardly for attachment to the 
inner surface of either leg 28 or 30 of vertical support 20. The kick 
board 78 is positioned below the cross-member 77 and is attached to the 
outer surface of legs 28 and 30. 
Glass panes 18 are sealingly adhered to the outer surfaces of legs 28 and 
30, flanges 40 of the horizontal supports 22, and the outer surface of 
lower cross member 77. Butyl rubber tape strips 54 are lined along the 
surfaces of the support members and cross-members. Each pane 18 is pressed 
onto the strips 54 to become sealingly adhered to the supports and 
cross-members. Roof panes 19 are similarly sealingly adhered to the upper 
surfaces of the flanges 34 and 36 of the roof supports 26 and the upper 
surfaces of flanges 42 of the horizontal supports 22. In addition, pieces 
of butyl tape sealingly fill the slit 46 between flanges 40 and 42. 
As shown in FIG. 5, the strip 54 of butyl can be cosmetically concealed by 
having the glass pane 18 bonded at its outer periphery to an opaque 
ceramic 56 in a conventional fashion. If a person is outside of the 
greenhouse 10, the person only sees the ceramic underneath the glass pane 
rather than the sealing strip 54. The structural support 22 conceals the 
butyl tape when a person is within the interior of the greenhouse 10. 
Similarly, support 20 conceals the tape from the inside perspective. The 
glass panes 19 can similarly be bonded to opaque ceramic. The supports 22 
and 26 conceal the tape from the inside perspective and the ceramic 
conceals the tape from a top perspective. 
Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, a vent generally indicated as 57 is 
provided at the center portion of the roof 14. The structural ring member 
24 has a vent opening 58 therethrough. A cross-member 60 is attached to 
the underside of the ring member 24. The cross-member 60 has a center 
aperture 62 therethrough. A vent cover 64 has a dome shield 66 and a 
downwardly extending stem section 67 which is sized to extend through the 
aperture 62. The domed shield 66 is sized to cover the vent opening 58 and 
overlap the ring member 24 and the inner portions of the glass panes 19. 
An operator within the greenhouse can raise the stem 67 to open the vent. 
A fastener assembly generally indicated as 68 can lock the stem 67 in 
place. The fastener assembly 68 more specifically shown in FIG. 8 includes 
a U-shaped bracket member 70 having aligned apertures 71 therethrough 
which receive the stem 67 above and below the cross-member 60. The bight 
section 72 of the bracket member 70 has an aperture 74 which threadably 
engages turnscrew 76 which abuts the side of the cross-member. The 
turnscrew 76 can be turned to laterally move the bracket 70 such that its 
apertures 72 become offset with respect to the aperture 62. The edges of 
the apertures 72 and 62 will frictionally abut the stem 67 and lock it in 
place. 
The storm door member 16, as shown in FIG. 1, has a conventional 
construction, i.e. it has its own frame for attachment to a door opening. 
The door's frame is secured to flange 40 of a horizontal support 22 and 
legs 28 and 30 of two adjacent vertical supports. 
The modular greenhouse 10 can be easily adjoined to a similar greenhouse 
section 100 as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The adjoining greenhouse section 
100 shares common vertical supports. The legs 32 of the shared vertical 
supports 20 are used to adhere glass panes 118. In addition, one of the 
horizontal supports 122 of greenhouse section 100 is inwardly and upwardly 
displaced. Spacer washers 123 position the support 122 inwardly. Slots 52 
allow the inwardly displacement of support 122 while retaining engagement 
of bolts 49. Slot 48 allows the upwardly displacement of support 122. The 
slot 48 allows the upper flange 142 to be positioned flushly with the roof 
panes of greenhouse section 100, even though the support 122 is 
translationally moved inwardly with respect to roof support 126. Butyl 
tape is interposed between the two supports 22 and 122 to provide a seal 
against leakage. No glass pane is mounted between the two shared vertical 
supports 20 so that an entrance 90 is provided between the two sections 10 
and 100. In addition, the second greenhouse section 100 would not need a 
door since it can be entered into via entrance 90. The rest of the 
greenhouse section 100 would be identical in construction to the 
originally described greenhouse section 10. 
If desired, additional greenhouse sections can be adjoined in the same 
fashion to either the greenhouse section 10, 100 or both of them in the 
above described manner. 
In this fashion, an efficient greenhouse can be constructed from easily 
manufactured frame structures such as extruded aluminum that can be 
assembled into a frame which can easily adhere glass panes, mount a 
standard storm door, and provide an effective vent at the center of its 
roof. The structure has a unique construction joint which allows for the 
glass panes to be flush against all the frame members to which it is 
sealingly adhered. The construction joint allows for easy assemblage of 
this greenhouse, which makes it ideal to market the greenhouse as a kit. 
The kit can be easily produced since there are a minimum number of 
different members to this greenhouse. 
Variations and modifications of the presently described embodiments are 
possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the above 
described invention as defined in the appended claims.