This house is a gothic arch film greenhouse on a hot dip galvanized steel frame, built for pepper and vegetable production at commercial scale. The arch lifts the ridge above the eaves so the house has working height in the middle of the bay and a shoulder that sheds rather than holds, and the bay is clear of columns so rows run the full length of the house. The cover is a three layer compressed PE film. Spans run from 8 m to 12 m and length from 10 m to 100 m, or built to client demand.
Pepper is a crop that wants steady light and moving air, and it is easily set back by a house that goes from cold to hot within a morning. The roof profile and the ventilation decide both, which is why the arch and the openings are the first things settled when a house is specified for the crop.
A gothic arch carries the ridge above the wall line, so the greatest headroom sits over the middle of the bay where the plants and the trellis are, and the gutter stays at the wall between bays. That shape gives a pepper crop the vertical space to be trained upward, and it gives the house a shoulder that sheds water and snow instead of holding it flat over the crop.
The same profile changes how air moves. Warm air rises along the underside of the arch and travels to the ridge rather than pooling between roof sections, so the layer just under the cover keeps turning over through the day. Houses of this family are grouped on the film greenhouse range page on this site.
Pepper sets fruit more evenly in steady conditions than in peaks, so the house is run to keep the afternoon from running away. Opening the side walls brings the intake down to crop height, where it crosses the canopy on the way to the ridge, and the openings are worked in stages through the day rather than being set once in the morning.
Where the site is hot enough to need it, the same frame carries a shade net over the cover and a fan and pad set on the end wall, and the two are run against each other so the house cools by venting first and shades or pads only when the outside air is no longer enough. A house in the same family with roof vents is described in the gothic roof house with film ventilation.
The frame is hot dip galvanized steel, galvanized after the sections are formed, so the zinc reaches the bore of the tubes, the cut ends and the inside of every drilled hole. Hoops, purlins and the base rail are bolted rather than welded on site, which leaves the coating intact and lets a bent hoop be unbolted and replaced instead of cut out.
The cover is a three layer compressed PE film. The layers carry their additives separately, so the anti condensation face keeps working for longer than a single layer sheet does, and the outer layer carries the UV stabiliser. Film is held on the hoops and the base rail with clips, so a panel can be released and retensioned without a full recover. A gothic house with roll up sides is described in the gothic arch house with roll up sides.
The table below is the standard build. Span, length, height, cover and openings are set to the site and to the crop.
| Greenhouse span | 8 m / 9 m / 10 m / 11 m / 12 m |
| Greenhouse length | 10 m to 100 m, or built to client demand |
| Greenhouse height | 3 m to 8 m, or custom |
| Structure material | Hot dip galvanized steel pipe, bolted assembly |
| Cover material | Three layer compressed PE film |
| Roof type | Gothic arch roof, multi span |
| Ventilation | Side wall openings at crop height and gable openings |
| Cooling | Fan and pad cooling system optional; shade net optional |
| Crops | Pepper, tomato, cucumber, leafy vegetables and flowers |
| Customisation | Span, length, height, cover and openings set to the site |
The kit arrives formed and drilled with the fittings, so the work on site is bolting and tensioning rather than fabrication and no welding is done at any point. Ground posts or a base rail are set to the drawing first, the hoops and purlins go up bay by bay, and the film is pulled over and tensioned from the ridge down before the side openings are fitted.
Maintenance is mostly about the film and the openings. The side wall gear and the gable openings are the working parts, so they are checked and greased before the season turns. Film tension is checked after the first season and the cover renewed on a planned cycle, and where a shade net is fitted the net is taken off and stored over the cool season rather than left up to age in the weather.
Houses of this type are used for pepper and tomato production, for cucumber and leafy vegetables, and for flowering crops where the light level has to stay steady through the day. They suit commercial growers running a block through the season, farms in a warm climate that need shading as well as venting, and operations that expect to add irrigation, cooling or a control system to the same frame later.
Standards for structures and for steel products are published by DIN. Production and technical reporting for commercial growers is published by GrowerTalks. The specification that matters is the one that still suits the crop ten years from now.
The profile puts the greatest headroom over the middle of the bay where the crop is trained, and it gives the house a shoulder that sheds rather than holds. Warm air also travels along the arch to the ridge instead of pooling between roof sections.
On a hot site it usually does. The frame carries a shade net over the cover, and the house is run by venting first and shading only when the outside air is no longer enough to hold the set point.
The galvanized steel frame is rated for 15 to 20 years under normal growing conditions. The film cover runs on a shorter cycle than the frame, typically 3 to 5 years depending on UV exposure at the site.
We provide a 10 year structural warranty and a 5 year anti-corrosion warranty on the galvanized frame. Details are set out in the contract for each project.
Send your site dimensions, the crops you plan to grow and your local temperature and wind figures. We reply with a layout drawing and a full quotation.
