Palram - Canopia 4x8 Lean-To Greenhouse for Outdoors, Hobby Walk-In UV Polycarbonate Panels Heavy Duty Aluminum Frame, Lockable Door, Adjustable Roof Vent, Rain Gutters, Galvanized Steel Base, Hybrid

The media could not be loaded. Here are my first impressions and setup tips.1. Installation: While some reviews found the assembly challenging, I thought it was pretty simple, just need to be patient and follow directions in order. The directions are similar to IKEA’s, where it’s mostly graphical, with a few notes scattered throughout where more detail is necessary. It’s recommended to have two people working together during installation. I only had 1 issue with the roof bracket instructions. The part number placement did not match the placement depicted by the image. This only cost me about 30 minutes extra since I had to remove 2 roof panels to move the window placement. It was no big deal and was an easy fix.2. Sturdiness: So far, it does seem very sturdy. I placed the green house on 4x6 wood frame surrounded by gravel. Using lag bolts to secure the base frame to the wood. At first, it did not feel sturdy and I started to have doubts, but by the time everything was secured, it actually feels really sturdy. It’s only been up for a couple weeks and we have had a few storms, with high winds; there was no issues what so ever.3. Panels: Panels are very clear and provide plenty of sunlight to come in. The hybrid model has different panels for the roof which also helps trap heat and apparently blocks UV rays. Other reviews say they fly out with high wind. I haven’t experience this yet, and they do feel like the windows are locked in pretty well. However, I will take some extra precautions and use some caulk to try and secure them down, just in case.Tips and recommendations:1. Panels: The corner wall panels were a bit hard to put in, and we got one stuck as we were sliding it in. We found it was way easier to take the corner post out, slide the panels into the corner post, then put the corner back in like it was one piece. While you are building this, walls are not secured and constantly moving, causing some misalignment, which makes it hard to slide the panels in. Putting the corners together as one piece helped tremendously.2. Parts: One major recommendation is to count all parts, separate them and place them in clearly marked bags. We did not have any parts missing. All small parts went into bags and big parts were organized, so all like parts were together. You will have extra parts left over, review directions, it’s marked which parts have extra pieces. As mentioned earlier, we did not have issues with directions, but we followed one page at a time and only got parts that we needed for that page.3. Take your time: It took about 3-4 days to put together, working on it a little bit at a time. It gets very hot in the green house when you get towards the end, so have plenty of water handy if you’re working in the sun.Update: After one season.Well, I now see why other users complained about losing panels. After 1 very strong wind storm, roughly 30+ mile an hour winds, one roof panel came half way off. However, the solution was simple. I made kinda of a net with covered steel cable and clamps. See video, and pic of the final solution. I also added some more caulking near the top of the roof, since that is where the panel came out. Pretty sure this will solve the problem.

This is a good kit. I added some more stiffening to the frame using aluminum angles in places where I thought it could use stiffening. Now it’s rock solid. I am making this beyond a normal greenhouse by adding the auto roof vent along with a temperature controlled exhaust fan and heater along with a fully automatic water system with a 4 channel moisture controlled water valve controller, micro water controls, automatic grow lights and a bottom floor drain system, Palram shelves, grow trays, large floor grow beds etc. Total investment with green house and all components is around $3000.00. The goal is to have it as automated as possible for 365 growing of vegetables/flowers/herbs with access from a set of patio doors we seldom used. If successful, the Palram 12 x 12 ft green house will be purchased for a larger scale setup using many of the same components and systems in the near future.

Hard to assemble but fairly Saturday when complete.

I purchased this in the 6x10x7 size greenhouse then I built a 8x12 skid-able deck in my shop and the erected the greenhouse on the deck where I could work out of the weather here in early march. Then I screwed the frame down securely to the deck.So far I'm really happy with the purchase. The little bugger looks pretty awesome. All the parts were there and in good shape. I like the overall design of it and the finish looks great. The plastic panels are nice and clear but are super thin, we'll see how they hold up; they were nice and tough through the construction. Roof panels are nice and I like the vent. Instructions were complete and fairly easy to follow, yes the complaints in the reviews are legit there is very little actual instruction just pics but I figured everything out easily enough.My one and only real complaint is the cross braces in the corners of the greenhouse are absurdly thin and really aren't worth a darn as braces. I scrapped the originals and used 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" galvanized angle iron and built my own. They bolted on directly in the oem location with the oem hardwear, took some fabrication but they stiffened the greenhouse up properly.Yes these are really light, they could have been made better and heavier but they are relatively cheap and easy to build, I knew exactly what I was buying and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I've only just gotten it built and started using it so time will tell more how it handles weather and age. I don't see much of anything to complain about, they are a pretty slick little rig...kudos to Palram. I'd certainly buy another one at this point and recommend them highly for a small, inexpensive greenhouse. I would recommend working out sturdier cross braces, there are 8 of them...two running down from each of the top corners to the side and end wall base plate. I wouldn't trust the OEM braces for a second. If nothing else I would at least zip tie thread all or something to the OEM aluminum cross brace strips to strengthen them. Not a big deal just something people should know about. It'd be nice if the company improved that one issue.Overall a really good product from what I have seen.

I saved up for 18 months to buy this stupid greenhouse. I decided to buy one in like new condition to save a little money. BIG MISTAKE ! Apparently the used ones are not sold by palram. There sold by a 3rd party. God help you if you buy from 3rd party!So I get this home. Unfortunately I didn’t know it was supposed to be in two boxes.If you don’t know you can’t just assemble this and throw it out in your yard. You have to site prep and pour a foundation.I’m in Las Vegas in June. It was 120 degrees outside with hurricane force winds (80mph). The weather was too bad to build this right away. So it sat in my entryway for two months,until it finally cooled down enough to be outside.I had a lot of trouble getting the cement to pour the foundation with. I don’t have a car so I had to find someone who would deliver it. When I finally got the concrete I decided to assemble the base of the greenhouse to make sure everything was in the right place to pour the concrete.When I opened the box, I was horrified to find out that I only had the polycarbonate. There’s nothing in box one besides the polycarbonate. No frame, no bolts, no nuts, no instructions. Nothing but polycarbonate and I have no way of knowing if that’s all the polycarbonate or not because there’s no paperwork of any kind in the box.Unfortunately this happened on a Sunday, so there’s nothing I can do because no one answered the phone on Sunday. I contact amazon. There’s no way to contact palram through amazon. So I tried calling palram ram but no one answered because it was Sunday. On Monday I contacted amazon who told me to call palram. So I called palram for the second time. At least someone answered the second time. They said that they were the wrong department and I needed to palram’s amazon department. So I called there amazon department and I get a recording that says “if you’re missing one of your boxes press one “. Which is a huge red flag. So I press one and they say “sorry you bought from 3rd party so it’s not are problem. Call amazon “. So I contacted amazon. The said that I could have a refund if I returned the package. I don’t have a car and this thing weighs 69 pounds. So they said no problem will have it picked up from your place.So pick up day one comes and goes. NO ONE EVER SHOWED UP !I contacted amazon AGAIN and they say no problem will reschedule.Pick up day 2 comes and goes. NO ONE EVER SHOWED UP !So I tried contacting UPS and there website said “your package is to heavy . We won’t take it “. But then I found thats not even true.So now I’m waiting on a 3rd pick up. Which may or may not show up.Also this polycarbonate seems very thin and poor quality. Don’t buy.