Bending Hoops for Hoop Houses

The strength and interior air volume in hoop houses are made possible to the millennia-old building shape, the arch. Pipes equally bent into roughly half circles are very strong, especially when properly connected. Arches evenly distribute weight and live loads (wind) to the ground posts and in turn the ground.

The types of materials used to construct the hoops vary wildly depending on the accessibility of certain materials, the budget, as well as the farm’s individual needs

For DIY’ers you can bend your own hoops to save on shipping costs by sourcing poles locally. The trade off is sweat equity of easily bending your own hoops with a hoop bender. The other trade off is these hoops are made by hand and can be slightly un-uniform. While this doesn’t hurt the strength it is enough to bother the perfectionists among us.

Poles bent from 1 ⅜ top rail found in hardware store chain length fencing sections often are 17-18 gauge thickness.

Some wholesale type suppliers offer lengths of 21’. While this technically is ok, remember that this is out of spec of the intended in hoop house applications.

The hoop benders are made to bend certain radiuses and when bending the required amount of 10’ poles (10’ 6” with swag) they make the most accurate hoops for those instructions.

In other words, both 10’ and 12’ benders use 2 10’ poles but the radius of the pole bender makes completely different width structures with the wider house being a bit shorter.

Similarly a 12’ pole bender isn’t intended to “bend differently” to make a 14’ hoop. Often the best tool is the one that was specifically designed to do a specific job.

When comparing hoops in kits it is also important to note the spacing of hoops. Some budget manufacturing have spacing up to 6’ rather than the much stronger 4’ spacing. An important difference when it comes to snow and wind loads.

Step one will be to securely mount your bender to a surface that allows you space to work around it. We recommend starting by mounting the bender to a board as a "mounting plate". After this you can attach the mounted bender horizontally or vertically to any sturdy surface such as a work bench or existing fence.

Keep in mind if you go vertical you will need sufficient space, around 4 1/2 feet, beneath to pull the hoop downward.
The benders available on our website come with mounting hardware. All you need to supply is the board for your mounting plate and the space to hang it.

Step Two in this process involves marking each of your hoops at the point you will begin your bend. Using a permanent marker and a tape measure, mark each section of top rail 9 inches from the swagged/male end. Because these ends will be placed into your ground posts you want that bottom 9 inches to be straight.

Step Three begins the actual bending. Insert your top rail, or EMT, into the bender until the marked end sticks out beyond the bender. Bend by pulling down on the long end of the pole.
Continue bending by inserting the pole an additional 18 inches and pulling downward until you reach the opposite end. Once you get close to the end you will use the extender pole included with your bender to provide leverage to complete the bend. The bend is complete when there are around 9 inches remaining on the non swagged/female end.

Step four in this process is to attach the two bent top rail poles together to create your complete arch.
Insert the swagged/male end of one of the poles into the open/female end of another. Use a self tapping screw about an inch towards the female side of the seam where the two join to connect them. This step is a little easier if you drill a guide hole first.
Make sure that your screw is on what will be the side of the hoop and not the top to avoid snagging your plastic.

When placing the hoops into the correct width ground posts, the hoops should be about 12” wider than the ground posts. After you place one side of the hoop in one side of the ground posts a partner pushes in and sets the hoop in the other ground post.

This "spring loading" of the hoops give them their strength and stiffen up the arch. Don’t push the hoops in as far as you can, you will adjust the height before you install the hoop to ground post bolts.

When all of the hoops are installed it is very common for them to need initial leveling and plumbing. At this point it is best to have the keenest eye among you on a step ladder with eyes level with the top of the hoop.

“Eyeballing” the hoops all the way down by pushing hoops in or side to side will get you close but do not expect them to be perfect. They all straighten up when you begin installing the hip boards, baseboards, and ridge poles.

The following statement is true for the entire build but mostly comes into play at this stage. Because all farms, skill levels, and tolerances are variable, hoop houses are designed to have some play in them.

These are not Swiss watches that are precise engineering marvels. Hoop houses are rarely perfectly square, plumb or level. Do the very best you can, occasionally re-do mistakes when your gut tells you.

Once the plastic is on tight all small miscalculations go away. This isn't permission to cut corners or skip steps. It's more of an "you'll be ok if you are off a tad".

Learning to take farming tasks in stride now will do wonders for your agricultural career long term.