Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

[We normally do not write reviews until we have owned a product for a decent period of time. This is an exception as we are only a month out from receiving our greenhouse kit. However, cold days near and some of you may need to make a time-pressured decision. We discuss, below, some aspects of winter use based on prior ownership of a greenhouse that was used during the cold months. See added feedback at end of this review.] We owned a greenhouse, bought at Harbor Freight, that cost substantially less then the one I'm reviewing here. That greenhouse had several problems: high winds sometimes "ripped" panels out, air leaks, sliding door that frequently jammed, vent window that did not shut snugly, replacing door gasket was a many hour job, and so on. Thus, we were looking for a replacement that could stand up to the winds and cold weather that are native to Albuquerque. We read the reviews here and other places and finally ordered the 6x8 to replace our other greenhouse. We did so in fear and trembling given the numerous bad reviews with descriptions of structural issues. The reviews that reported success were convincing, however. Now here is where we parted ways with most of you: We did not try to build it ourselves though we have done many complex projects successfully. We know an extremely talented builder, also a very handy man, who wanted our old green house so a deal was struck - the old greenhouse for his installing the new one. (We paid for additional supplies.) Let me be more specific about the talents of this builder: he built and lives in a 9,000 sq ft plus home that he did almost all the construction; his job now and in the past has always involved building and assembling both indoors and out. And he isn't afraid to read instructions until understood. I'm harping on the talents brought to the job because many people with "tool" hobbies believe they can throw this project together easily. Many can't and they provide bad reviews in frustration. My advise is simply that if you are not comfortable with messy constructions that require a lot of patients and the stamina to backup and do it the other way, get some professional help to put this puppy together. Also note that the instructions are just pages and pages of pictures - no descriptions - so you must figure out what is meant. Puzzle solving is fun but hours and hours a day for several days? Now I am going to list what is good about this kit and the resulting greenhouse: * We followed the initial instructions and went through all of the parts and compared shapes, part numbers, and amounts to those shown in the instructions. On our first call to the manufacturer, we left a message. They called back and we discussed discrepancies between our count and the instructions'. Several days later, the replacement and/or additional parts showed up at our house. We called after completing construction to order more parts to help us hang things from the ceiling and mount a thermostat. We were charged a reasonable amount and those parts showed up a few days later. So all of our interactions with service were positive! * The transparent plastic pieces that comprise the sides and doors are substantial and are locked in place so I believe that our occasional 50+ MPH winds will have little effect. Locked in place means fit in groves on all sides and those grove areas covered by additional hardware. We have had a recent blow near 40 MPH with no problems. * There are a large number of "truing" gadgets that force edges, walls, and roof into appropriate inter angles and strengthen the joints. * We had a 6x8 wood border secured to concrete from our old greenhouse. You MUST install same if you will experience high winds. This is not optional. This kit comes with proper skirts and what-nots so this doesn't look bad. Some care is needed here - it is important that connecting walls make right angles and non-adjacent walls be parallel. This must be done before installing most of the truing gadgets. It is also necessary that you make sure the screws through the wood into the concrete can coexist with the screws through the bottom of the greenhouse into the same wood. * The door swings open; it does not slide. It is a two-part Dutch door and the parts can open independently. There is a mechanism that holds the door open so that it will not slam around in the wind and latches to tightly lock either or both parts. * The long sides of the roof, where the roof meets the sides, have little gutters. On the front and back side of each gutter are places to attach tubes to lead the water away. This is a thoughtful extra that might be really important if your green house is in a place that easily accumulates deep water. * One of the top plastic covers contains a vent mechanism with proper hardware to seal it shut or hold it rigidly open. * A lot of covering mechanisms are supplied to hide the various crufty joints where multiple pieces come together in weird ways. In other words almost all the joins look quite professional. * Because of several things mentioned above, this greenhouse feels really solid and we expect none of the problems we experienced with our former one. Before signing off, I want to mention a few perhaps atypical things that we are doing with our new greenhouse. We called the manufacturer and ask about winter use. The reply was "This is a three season greenhouse." So like our former one, this one will be insulated. Pieces of insulation are cut to fit between the vertical supports that form the walls and each piece will extend from the floor to the beginning of the roof. We have also brought electricity to it to support a light bulb, a control thermostat, and an electric heater. This is the same arrangement as in our former greenhouse. We also put insulation in the floor cavity and covered it with fake wood boards across the whole floor area. In addition, all bottom metal parts of the green house (those touching the bottom wood frame) have been sprayed with some sort of rubbery substance that should inhibit oxidation where the rubber meets the water or snow. I must say the whole thing looks totally wonderful and I'm expecting it to have a long life and survive whatever nature throws at it. ADDED 1/29/2017: Our greenhouse has been operational for the first several months of winter so I can comment on it through experience and also note a slight change in the anticipated winter-proofing. I should note that our winter goal is merely to allow plants to survive the cold weather. We are not trying to grow tomatoes or tropical orchids in winter. So the goal of insulation and heater is just to prevent temperatures below 40 degrees F. Change in insulation: We did not cut up insulation sheets and lay along the walls as anticipated above. Rather, we followed a suggestion from someone at the manufacturer. We took bubble wrap (fairly large bubbles), cut it to size to fit the panes (about half of a panel) of the plastic siding, moistened the bubble side, then pressed it on the inside of the plastic panes, bubbles facing the outside. This almost worked but some of the wrap loosened so we got little velcro buttons with sticky outsides. We put buttons on the four corners of each plastic pane and the corresponding points on the bubble wrap pieces. This arrangement has worked better than we expected and recommend it to you. Experience: This winter has had some unusually cold nights and high speed winds. The combination of floor insulation (see above), bubble wrap, and heater have maintained desired temperatures despite some nights in the low teens! I'm impressed. We have also experienced winds that were reported at 35-50mph and were knocking parts out of the trees. The greenhouse has been solid as a rock; but, note ours is attached to a wood frame on the bottom and that frame is screwed into the concrete. The only wind-related problem was when we left the door open, held by a hold-the-door-open gizmo that is part of the kit. That gizmo, a plastic strap, was snapped by the high wind. Note that it was idiotic of us to leave the door open in such windy conditions. The good news is that the manufacturer sent us a replacement at no charge. ADDED 5/20/2017: In response to a request via a comment attached to this review, I've added three photos. One shows the bubble wrap insulation from inside the greenhouse, the second shows various electric gizmos including the heater and control thermostat, and the third shows some of the fake wood floor which covers a layer of insulation. It's fairly hot now days so there are no plants on the inside.