mudhouse - there was probably 10 inches of snow on the roof. I recognize that I should have gone out earlier and knocked it off but I'm a bit overwhelmed with life and business at the moment, and I simply didn't think about the risk of the weight on the roof. Actually, most of the snow we had received in the storm was very light and fluffy. The problem developed, I believe, after the storm broke and the snow began to accumulate moisture & weight as it started to melt. busy1 - I employed the same reinforcement of 3 lengths of EMD across the interior. That's nice for stiffening the walls but didn't make a difference in terms of this issue. ole_dawg - thanks for telling me about a guy on ebay. I'll have a look. If you happen to have the seller's name, I'd appreciate it. rosepedal - the 1x? material you have running from front to rear is sort of what I have in mind, but my thinking is that it needs to be centered between the ridge and the wall. Additionally, I would really want a minimum of one sturdy post, such as a 2x4, running vertically between those and the ground. This way there is some strength that prevents those boards themselves from bowing under the weight. As mudhouse mentions, the unsupported centers of the roof studs are the weak point. No question about it. Thanks for an occasional kick on this thread. It would be great if someone who has their remaining parts around might see this. I can be contacted directly at greg at greybearddesign dot com.

abruzzese There wasn't any duty on the greenhouse. We did pay point of sale taxes in the U.S. and GST and PST. I think it depends on your province whether you pay the provincial tax. My DH followed the advice on this forum on reinforcing the greenhouse plus a little extra. So far this winter we've had multiple snow falls and what is called here on the west coast hurricane force winds. In December we had a snowfall with accumulations of 18" in one day followed by rain. The rain makes that snow very heavy. Within a 24 hour time the snow was gone the crawl space under our house was flooded the greenhouse dry. So far the green house has survived winds, snow loads, and flooding situations. Will it survive the years we have what they call storms of the century probably not. We are pleased with what we have and I do like playing in the dirt year round when in Canada our seasons do tend to be short.

zengeos As I look out my window and see the deep snow piled out in the yard, I am glad that I built my hoophouse (Gothic arch style) out of a galvanized kit (from Ledgewood Farm in Moultonborough, N.H)rather than PVC. I built one out of PVC a few years back, and even though it was fun and cheap, it only took one wet heavy snow to snap the bows and create a real mess. I probably could have avoided that if I had installed a center support of some type to hold up the ridge purlin, but who wants to worry each time the forecast calls for snow and who wants to step around a bunch of posts in the greenhouse? Not me. I learned my lesson and went with iron, rather than plastic, and with all the snow we've had in Maine this year, I KNOW I made the right decision. Sure, there are plans out there where you can insert rebar into the PVC pipe, and that does make it stronger, but those designs aren't particulary attractive and don't provide enough headroom, IMHO. Good luck with your plans, but it seems like you'll have plenty of time to ponder them, as the snow doesn't seem to be disappearing as quickly as it should for Mid March!!

We are having a big wind storm and I'm worried about the greenhouse. This morning my husband drove down to see it and frankly I was expecting to hear it was destroyed but it is fine so far. The winds at our house which is about 20 mile away are very strong and luckily the greenhouse hasn't been hit as hard. The wind gusts last night are reported to have reached 51 mph. I was working late and felt the house shake as the gusts hit so you can see why I expected the worst for the the greenhouse. We did screw down all the panels with stainless screws including the roof vents. The corners are all firmed up using Gardenwantobe's brace system but the rear wall has some flex in it and it needs immediate help. I'm thinking of putting in the bench framing using the galvanized pipe - just not sure how to attach the pipes to the greenhouse frame. Lazerfan I looked at your photo of the cross beam you added to your greenhouse and I'm wondering how you attached it to the frame. I read that you welded L brackets on to some of the pipe and I'm trying to think of how to install the pipes (for both the cross brace and bench frame) without welding. I guess I could bolt an L bracket to the wall stud, drill the pipe and attach the pipe by bolt to the L bracket. If there is a better way please let me know. Our neighbor who is building the greenhouses is out of town until the 3rd and I want to be sure there is something left when he returns. It is so cold and windy out that it is hard to get myself motivated to deal with all this - for now I think the worst part of the storm is over. I live in Pacifca, CA (hence my name) and you may see us on the news as the surf here is very high and the local news stations keep coming down from San Francisco to film the waves. Mary