harbor frieght green house

I was so pleased to get an affordable green house from harbor freight. That's were my excitement stopped!
To start with, they need more support, they barely stay together. It leaks at every joint of the lexan glass. I sealed every joint with silicon, but it still leaked a lot. They need to be put together with much care to make the door work correctly and the door needs a diagonal support to keep it whole. To get it stable and to raise the short height, I added a 4x4 frame on the bottom and RR ties below the 4X4.
The glass is very bad, even after sealing it, I had to add a support through every lexan piece in the entire greenhouse because the wind kept blowing them out. Some destroyed.
There are no provisions for shelves. I added supports and shelving to make it work. a lot of effort to do so. One window opener worked one year, after that I installed thermostat controlled openers that have worked for 10 years or more.
Last year I added a 2x2 wood to each corner on the out side and up the sides of the roof, around the window and on the bottom. To these wood pieces I installed a wiggle wire and one layer of plastic. this year I added a second layer and an inflation fan to separate the two layers. You can not believe the difference it has made, this is the first time it has ever been sealed well and the insulaton has worked! It is so much better now!
Next year I am removing all the lexan and just using the aluminum framework of the original green house.
This is the first time that I can really control the temperature inside to any consistent degree without spending a lot on electricity.
I wish I never would have bought it, but I did. It has been so much work that if I would have put that much work into a framed greenhouse it would be like a palace!
If you already have one, this is what made mine usable, if you don't have one and are thinking of getting one, seriously consider just building one out of wood framing and cover it with plastic or even a plastic hoop house type, or just spend the money to get one that works well,(money that I did not have at the time) I should have done it the day I started running into all the problems. Ps I'm a pretty handy guy and have the tools to be able to make all these modification.

Greenhouses are always flimsy things, the big bad wolf breathing at it and blowing it down type of flimsy. Ogden. I don't remember any really bad high winds there, but greenhouses you would need.
I believe they are that way because it takes very little to have plants catch a disease that is hard to remove without taking the GH down and destroying everything in it. Aphids love a GH as well, it provides a perfect atmosphere for them. No, I cannot use a Gh because of our heat and heavy humidity down here near Houston. Luck with your plants!

Thanks for your reply Kittriana.
As for your comments about high winds, we don't get in Utah what you get in Texas. Our winds could get to 35-45 MPH with 50 as a bad wind. which is well enough to rip the panels out of the green house. Not the hurricane and tornado type winds that you might get.
That is why I feel the FH green house is so under constructed. The glass is only held in with a couple of small clips on each side, The rest is free to flap around. Even with securing with silicon down the edges of the panel to the aluminum frame, the panels would flap until they eventually popped out. That would then really start a domino effect ripping the greenhouse to pieces. I have a friend that also has one and he has lost his panels more than a few times. Some of the panels bend, crease, or break as the come out, other just blow into the neighbors yard. This panel lexan is only two thin layers and the total thickness is 1/4 inches. it's very weak.

reading your post makes me so glad that I decided against buying a ready made greenhouse kit and opted to have a carpenter frame it out for me. I am sorry you had such difficulty, but think about it. If you hadn't purchased that greenhouse when you did, you might never have gotten one and begun your love of greenhouse gardening. I just started my greenhouse project and cannot wait to be done with the digging out part of it. It will be my first. Last year I started my plants early, outside (in Massachusetts) and put a makeshift frame and plastic covering over everthing that was tall enough to go into it and check my plants. That started me on the path I am now on.

I too have purchased a 10' x 12' harbor freight green house kit and plan on starting construction this week. Hopefully I will not regret having purchased and built it anytime soon. I plan to use 10' and 12' long respectively 4" x 4" treated posts to secure the perimeter base to and fill the inside with either pea gravel or decomposed granite 2"- 3" deep over a good weed barrier. I would appreciate any comments post haste about my project and if there is someone in the Austin, Tx area whom might have time to speak directly please feel free to reply here so I can contact you to set a time.
Thank you for any comments

This message was edited Jan 15, 2023 7:26 PM