MissAgnes, I doubt that you will be able to locate specific statistics for snow or wind load for the HFGH (and I am very doubtful that Harbor Freight has this info, or will attempt to estimate it for you.) To be honest, their focus is not on long-term durability; it's on selling as many inexpensive kits as they can. The rest is up to us, as HFGH owners. I honestly have no idea how this might be calculated for the modified greenhouse; I can tell you that we estimate our modified greenhouse has handled wind gusts over 50mph on numerous occasions, and possibly a few 60mph gusts in the last six years, with no damage. However, our greenhouse is sheltered on the north side by our house, and we don't have any monitoring equipment, so this certainly isn't any kind of scientific evaluation. My guess is the wind resistance of the Harbor Freight greenhouse, built out of the kit, with no modifications, is ridiculously low (laughable.) In my opinion, it's almost certain to fail; it's just a matter of how much time before the event happens. There are many old posts here with sad tales of those who have watched their (unmodified) structure being permanently destroyed by wind. Also, many sad reviews on the Harbor Freight website, from folks who didn't know how critical the modifications were. Same story with snow load; I have no idea who would have exact figures, but I can tell you there are posts archived here of roof failures from snow. The weakest portion seems to be the center of the roof studs, so that's the area most folks focus on, when trying to build for snow load. I have gathered some links to older threads here regarding snow modifications, and they are posted in the Comments section of Part One of my blog (scroll down about 2/3 of the way through the comments at the page below, and look for the question posted by snwplwdrvr.) Part One, Building our 10x12 Harbor Freight Greenhouse Hope this helps!

I ALWAYS play nice (well, at least MOST of the time!!!) Okay, pictures have been taken - but not DL'd to computer yet (I'm surfing @ poolside via WiFi... Oh the SACRIFICES I have to make! ;-) I think I've been inspired to post an addendum to my "Garden Page" (you can get there from my webpage, linked below). I haven't done it yet, but I'll try to post my GH erection efforts "Step-By-Step." They won't be as good as conifers'/Dax's pictorial, but I'll do my best (Gotta "Give Back to the Community," right?!!) I think the wood-cutting is still a "hair" off, but the 'errors' will be put on the back-side (next to a fence, where no one will ever walk / have an opportunity to bend the aluminum base). Or maybe I'll add some skinny/lath/shim kinda material for the Too hot to dig up veggies right now, so I'll postpone that 'til early evening (or early tomorrow morning). I'll probably move my "boring observations" to the webpage (When I start it!). I'll just make note, on here, when I post updates - so I won't bore everyone with my long-winded commentary!!! Of course, I'm *sure* I'll have more questions as I go through this - and I *will* post those questions here! And I just thought of another Q: Should I paint the RW base before I assemble it? If so, white (for reflective qualities)? Or black (for heat-sinking)??? Or should I just hold off on that altogether (bearing in mind that it'll be easier to paint BEFORE I assemble it)??? Any thoughts...??? Thanks - AGAIN - for all the support, insight and advice! And thanks - in advance - for enduring my upcoming questions!!! You guys ROCK!!! -Nancy Here is a link that might be useful: IMQTPI's Garden Page (I'll update it soon!!!)

Yeah they are very sturdy, Dave! I'm very happy with it :-) Okay Riddle Me This, Garden-Webbers: I bought a roll of window screen so I can, well, keep the friggin' bugs out! How do you "screen" the upper vents? Seems to me that - even if you don't have a self-opener - you still need to be able to reach up-and-thru the vent from the inside of the GH. i.e. to use the vent-support-thingie to prop the window open. Even worse w/the self-opener since the unit is pretty cumbersome, size-wise. I'm kind of envisioning that the screen should fit along the 3 "sides" of the vent and be 'stuck-down' to the roof (/framing) of the GH in some fashion (it'd undoubtedly "pooch-out" around the sides when the vent is closed). But I haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna finagle that. Doorway screening shouldn't be a problem. I've seen those dangly doorway screens w/magnets @ Charley's (and other sources), so I'm not so worried about that. But I am definitely curious to know if anyone has screened the upper window-vents and how that was accomplished (Pictures, anyone??). Thanks, in advance, for any suggestions! -N

The 10x12 HFGH is not a very sturdy structure if you leave it like it comes to you. Some people prefer to pay a huge price and have all the designing already done for them. For a lot of people the HFGH would not be the right choice. If you are one who can figure out things or look at what others have done and follow some simple instructions then you can have a quality GH for a lot less money. people who pay $3000.00 or more think that they have a superior GH but after the modifications the HFGH is probably better than most of the expensive ones. This past spring we had a storm that blew over big trees and my daughter had a big overstuffed wicker chair on her front porch, the wind blew it over a waist high railing and it went about 50 feet through the air and hit their car. It did $2500.00 damage to the car. My cheap old HFGH had NO damage to it Put the Conner braces on it install the braces on the base it is all outlined in previous posts People can turn their nose up at my HFGH if they want but it will grow my flowers just as good as their overpriced GH will Whether you should buy one or pay the high price all depends on your ability to build things, but don't think that just because you paid a high price that it will be easy to assemble because all kits are a PITA !! I have never bought any thing in kit form regardless of price that I did not wind up modifying it in some way I'm sure that if I bought one of those high dollar greenhouse's I would make some modifications to it.