Essence 8 ft. x 12 ft. Silver Polycarbonate Greenhouse

Not something a person can easily construct without help. Polycarbonate panels were thin. Metal framework too lightweight. Bolt connections not sturdy. Does NOT handle winds well. Very poor. Have had no problems since discarding the metal frame and constructing a wooden frame using the polycarbonate panels. Have had it for 1 1/2 years now.

Realtively easy assembly compared to some other greenhouses. Seems sturdy, My wife loves the extra height and swinging doors as compared to the HF 6*8 she had before we moved.

Trying to get in contact with Palram or home depot on this greenhouse. Not only did it take 4 days to assemble this pain in the butt, but the first windstorm we got decimated it. I am a union carpenter so I know what I am doing, but this structure failed in multiple places. Aluminum bent, windows popped out of place, and plastic cracked. Hoping someone contacts me back on possibly remedying this situation but had I known this would be such a headache, I wouldve never purchased it. Not worth it.

Installation was a bit tricky but with patience it came together nicely. My husband built a tile floor that gives it a nice finish and allows for water penetration but keeps my feet off the mud. I put up some old plastic shelves and have already started to bring in tender plants. I plan to use it to start seedlings and a nursery. I love it and recommend it.

It took my wife and I 8.5 hours to assemble this greenhouse, and I'm a licensed handyman. We spent the first hour or so sorting all of the pieces in numerical order- There are essentially three groups of part numbers: up to 1,000/ 7,000s/ 8,000s, and small hardware. We didn't find numbers on 4 groups of parts, but after checking everything else it was obvious that we had it all, and we could sort those. We installed on concrete that was fortunately 2" wider than the greenhouse, the bottom frame is basically purlins with holes about every foot- to get anchoring fasteners in we had to angle our holes outward from the inside. The instructions are very good, quite easy to follow, though at times it is difficult to know which side of a metal piece faces out. Just remember that all outside surfaces are gently curved. Palram could make a big improvement to this kit by including another brace to hold up the rear panels- we kept having trouble with the wind blowing the rear vertical frames and side pieces down while we were working elsewhere. You may want to save the assembly of the rear until after you do the vertical sides. If you do follow the instructions, we used one of the packing boxes to hold the back panels together by impaling it with the angled frame tops. We had troubles getting the vertical sides to fit all the way. Instructions suggest you place the vertical frames and the support brace, then slide panels down. We had tremendous difficulty with that. So we decided to assemble panel/frame/panel/frame, etc. We found it was still so difficult to get the frame pieces to line up with the support bracket, we cut ourselves trying to get them to line up. In the end, we trimmed 3 of the panels on each side back by 1/4", and that worked fantastically. I don't understand why they provided magnets on the bottoms of the doors- the threshold seemed to be aluminum, the interior brackets- the last step- were fastened with bolts that were too big to fully twist into the frame channel slots- perhaps that was intentional but I wish they would have just had us put in extra square bolts in earlier steps like they do in the door assembly. Also, the plastic window stands are fastened with twist-in bolts, I wish they would have used the square head bolts again there- it's too easy for the window risers to come loose of the track and fall out. Final assembly was sturdy, the doorway is about 6'6" which is nice for a 6'3" guy like me. This won't be completely water proof, but it'll keep 99% out. Also, the frame that secures the bottom of the roof to the short wall is a gutter, and the end caps have small round downspouts to make water collection easy. Great idea!

This was a Very big project to put together. You will have to (look at) all of the instruction carefully before starting to install. Pretty clear instructions but it took 2 of us 10 hours to install. Ounce installed it seems to be a pretty good green house.

This product was a great value. A couple of minor corrections to the instructions, but fairly straightforward assembly. Recommend having a great foundation first, assemble some parts such as doors, and then two people can construct in one day. Purchased a month ago and fits our needs.

Very happy with this greenhouse. It’s much better then I imagined it would be. You definitely need 2 people to put this together and make sure it’s on a calm day just to make it easier.

My wife and I assembled this greenhouse in about a day and a half. The directions were adequate but not stellar. In many places you have to pay close attention to drawings for proper orientation of parts. Unfortunately there were a few minor errors in depiction. Also it pays to read ahead as sometimes combining multiple steps makes assembly easier. Caulking after assembly in my opinion is not just desirable it is mandatory. The day after we finished assembly and caulking it poured. There were only two minor, easily fixable leaks, a testament to the adequate design of the product. All in all we ended up with a greenhouse that seems very solid, well designed and met our expectations.

My wife has always wanted a greenhouse and this year I bought her the Palram 8' x 12' Silver Essence. It took a couple of days to build (ok maybe more) but it was well worth it. I began in the living room inventorying all the pieces and marking those that were not marked. This is important and will speed up your build. I'm not sure why there would be any negative reviews on this product. It is extremely well engineered and fits perfectly together. It is important to have a square and level base. It took a little longer to build then I had expected but it was a lot of fun especially after such a difficult winter. I built the greenhouse on a 4" x 6" beam foundation. I didn't want to use any treated lumber inside the greenhouse so I used plain 2" x 4" that were 92" long and didn't need trimming. The kids bought my wife the shelving and the automatic vent openers. From the pictures you can see that I built a 12" H x 28" D" x 140" L planting bed and filled it with potting mix. I figured this was better for lettuces then using big pots. The planting bed is lined with plastic except for a 2" wide slit that runs down the middle for drainage. There is screening material that covers the slit to prevent the dirt from falling out. I'm in the process of running electricity out to the greenhouse to recharge a 12volt battery that will operate a temperature controlled automobile radiator fan that will be attached to the underside of one of the vents. I highly recommend this greenhouse. It's very well made with all parts fitting together smoothly. To date we've had some strong storms and high winds blow through and the plants are as snug as a bug in a rug.