I insulated my north wall with some of that polyisocyanurate foam sheathing...foil faced. I have read that most of the heat is lost through the roof, but I started with the north wall since I didn't get much light through it anyway (close to our house) and I figured any improvement in holding in heat was worth doing...and I'd deal with the roof later. It's permanent and stays up all year. Some folks have insulated the bottom half of the north roof too, and I may do that this year (I now know I have TONS of light in there so I'm no longer worried about adding a bit more opaque material.) The polyisocyanurate foam insulation I bought (from Lowes) is foil on one side and had big ugly blue and white lettering on the other side. I did not want that ugliness showing on the outside of the greenhouse (like you) so I just rolled on a coat of flat white paint over the advertising, and now the north wall looks white from outside the GH. (The foil side should not be painted.) I have pics of how I installed it about 1/3 of the way down this page, if it helps. You're in a bit cooler climate than I am, but I had also considered blocking off the peak in the winter to reduce heat needs. After going through my first winter, I've abandoned that idea, because (here) it would get way too hot on sunny winter days to do that. I need to have that extra room for hot air to gather up there, and I also need to be able to let my exhaust fan run on the sunny days. Your mileage may vary, though! I may also add bubble wrap to the whole interior roof for next winter...I think the roof is probably the place I'm losing the most heat, now that I have the gaps all sealed and the north wall insulated. I am totally clueless about misting set ups!

I think the worst part of the construction is the lack of Instructions. The manual really SUCKS. When I got mine their was no one to ask because no one here had one. Be prepared for a test of your patience. Last week we went from the upper 50's down to 5 degrees over night and they recorded 81-mph wind here and 106 mph just south of me. This was straight line wind it up rooted tress over turned 18 wheelers and ripped the roof off of several homes but my GH suffered NO damage. I was glad that I did my pool cover like I did it stayed on and had no damage either. I have lived in this home for 38 years and I don't think we ever had winds that strong. Today we plan on starting up the GH and start growing our flowers for next summer.

johnnyq, I'm not much help, since I've been shamelessly kicking the can down the road for years now. Made it through the last two winters with a layer of 6 mil greenhouse plastic sheeting over my own badly damaged polycarbonate roof. We've replaced the roof panels once already, and I only get about three years in the HFGH panels before small holes start showing up in the outside layer of the roof poly panels (even with shadecloth in place all year.) I'm lucky we didn't have a wet heavy snow this winter, or we would have been out there rigging up emergency interior bracing! All of my wall panels are still original, and are now about ten years old. They've finally yellowed and developed small holes too, so I'm looking at a sizeable investment to replace all the roof and wall panels. To be honest I'm doing some soul searching about keeping the greenhouse, but I probably will go ahead with the replacement, since all is fine except for the panels. And I'm not sure I want to give up the hobby quite yet. My plan is to buy 4mm twinwall poly elsewhere (not Harbor Freight, as I'm just getting too old to deal with the work of replacing the roof so often.) Last time I checked, FarmTek seemed to be my best source price wise. Did you mean that HF is offering 6mm panels with a warranty now? One (potential?) heads up is there might be a slight glitch with getting 6mm thick panels to slip into the aluminum framing at the roof peak - as you know the panels slide into a channel up there - and there has been past discussion that anything thicker than 4mm might not slide into the channel easily. I don't know if this is a problem with the kits that are newer than mine, though, and it might not be an insurmountable problem. Maybe others will chime in with panel replacement updates.

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!!!)