I recommend covering up the dirt floor, or you have the possibility of weeds/grass growing in it. We planted some items directly into the floor of our green house and used a black plastic/fabric material to cover the floor around the plants. Before that, we had grass and weeds growing like mad in our greenhouse.

I started with crushed limestone gravel in my 8.5 X 16.5 Rion. I hated it. This spring I covered the floor with a pine bark/mulch stuff from Lowe's. It's soft and easy to walk on. I don't drag it in the house and up on the deck. I love it. :)

My smaller HFGH has round pea gravel with pavers down the center. That works fine. We couldn't afford to pea gravel and paver the Rion.

I used 1/2 to 3/4 crushed rock, no fines (no dirt, silt, etc) I am happy with it. it lock in place well, and is large enough to allow you to wash away soil and spills down the cracks.

pavers are to $$ for me, or I would have liked to do that. maybe later I can.

Pea gravel alone is way to small. It gets annoying quick, and to hard to keep clean

We are replacing pea gravel with 3/4 minus crushed rock today. Had the pea gravel for three years. Knew it was a bad idea almost immediately.

You can't walk on it. It rolls. Had a big trench down the center of the greenhouse. Almost twisted my ankle several times and almost fell a couple of times too. If you cannot afford pavers, crushed rock is the way to go.

You aren't going to notice what it looks like when it is filled with plants.

I am VERY happy with the crushed rock floor. It packed down beautifully and is so easy to walk on and my display racks sit up straight on it.

Hi
I use no covering at all because I don't want to lose a a square foot of planting area. I grow in the ground in pots ,raised pots and hanging baskets . Don't have so much trouble with weeds more like the plants I'm growing become weeds. I cut up the prunings and use them as mulch .Produces some good soil over time but is developing another problem that the soil is getting so dense drainage has slowed.. Since exposed to rainfall becoming a more serious problem. I think if I were to do it again I'd do it the same though everything would be in pots.. This method allows endless changes ,don't have to remove clippings and have an incredible supply of earthworms lol gary

Glad I looked at this post again, I still haven't put anything down and really glad I didn't buy pea gravel. Getting a little older and worrying about falling is a real danger. I fell a couple weeks ago and cracked my kneecap on the concrete porch. I may just leave the soil uncovered and sink the pavers in the middle so they stay put when I walk on them, and leave the bare soil under the shelves. Thanks for all your ideas everyone. Cheryl

I have a very heavy ground cover under my pavers. It stops the weeds from growing up but lets the water drain.

I put down bricks that I got for free, leveled the ground, then filled it up with sand (also free from a job site).

I would say that they really helped my GH this winter, it was almost NEVER cold in there, and I only used the heater a handful of times all winter. I did it all myself, so I was proud of how it turned out.

I will second the bare floor and weeds, before the bricks, I had weeds growing in behind my shelving units and they were as high as the ceiling!! hard to get too to pull them out too. I had always hoped to be able to plant things into the ground inside the GH too, but it turns out that that would never really be very practical here, not sure how your climate would work for it.

I also found that when I did attempt to grow things (ie: peppers this winter) I had a big problem with aphids etc. something to consider.

here are some pictures of my floors:

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That flooring is beautiful! I love how it looks!
I am planning on building a green house this summer so it is always good to see some finished ones. Did you buy your GH? how big is it? How much did it cost?(if you don't mind my nosiness.) Good work

I like my "no floor" greenhouse with the plants growing right in the ground. Your plants will grow larger and produce more flowers or fruit if they are in the ground as opposed to growing in a pot. I do have shelves the line the walls for potted plants, too. Here's some photos.

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Those bricks look really nice.

IF my greenhouse was bigger I'd have dug down and insulated the floor and filled it up with potting soil and grown right into it. My inspiration would be Bahai's greenhouse in Florida but....my greenhouse is only 6 x 8 and I've got a wood framed pond across the back end too so we dug down and spread landscape fabric and filled with pea gravel. I hated the pea gravel immediately. It does not pack down and it is a hazard to walk on and my racks didn't stand up straight. Took three years to finally get DH to get rid of it. The crushed gravel is in a 4" layer and packed right down and cost about twenty dollars...total. I'm still very happy with it.

Hi All, I have been asking the very same question. Most of the large retail growers here in Massachusetts use crushed stone. The older glass houses have brick flooring. I will be constructing a 10ft.wide, 16ft.long, 7ft. high hoop house, double layer 6 mil. poly. Because of the bitter cold winters here in Massachusetts, and because money is very tight, I need to come up with many ways to help keep the greenhouse warm. I know this idea may sound strange but, what if i were to lay down black foam rubber interlocking mats? Would doing this help keep the floor warm? I am willing to give it a try. I have been told by one local grower to feel free to try something out of the norm.

I am embarrassed to confess that I still haven't put down anything except some weed stop fabric and a bit of sand, just to hold it down inside the greenhouse. Our youngest DD is in the Army and sked to deploy to Afghanistan soon so we now have guardianship of our 2 YO grandson, Dustyn. He goes everywhere with me, including the GH and he really loves to dig the sand, play in the sand, kick it, throw it and rub it in his hair. He's such a little BOY and so much fun to play with, but my trips to the GH are much shorter than they used to be and I just haven't had time to get in there and really do any work, including laying a floor.

I decided to use the free pavers and I have a bunch of them stacked near the door, but that's as far as I got when the little curtain climber showed up. DD will be gone until about December of 2010 so maybe I'll lay that brick floor then. In the mean time the plants in the GH don't seem to mind what's on the floor, so I'm not sweating it for now.

Cheryl