[Ivah]

I'm well pleased with a flimsy polycarbonate greenhouse. Neighbour bought one. It blew apart several times so he fixed the panels with silicone. It blew away and bent the frame so he claimed on his insurance and bought a glass one. He gave me the twin wall polycarbonate sheets so I've made new lids for three cold frames and built two more!

[Lee1978]

We had a lot of bother with the flimsy poly tunnels bought from Ebay last year. One of the plot holders paid £50 for one only to find after he assembled on his plot the wind blew it into the neighbouring garden causing extensive damage to some expensive pots. this ended up costing the plot holder £200 in damages, so a very costly mistake indeed.
Lee

[Thrift]

Oh dear that was costly !

Well I have to report mine has just had the worst battering you could imagine and is still in place. I think my next job might be to reinforce the spindly frame though.

[mickeyboy]

Get all your tunnels tied down as there are gales forecast for this weekend.

the difference is these are not pollytunnels, they are low quality flimsy bits of half inch hollow pipping with low quality covering. I buried mine in the ground and reinforced it and it still collapesd on more than one occasion ruining everything inside

You are far better saving your money and either buying a greenhouse or a proper quaility pollytunnel...
Eveyone i know who has bought one similar to the ones that were advertised on here have had exactly the same problem...
No offence to anyone this is just my very humble opinion
Mickeyboy

[mumofstig]

That's what I've been saying for quite a while.............................

[mickeyboy]

sorry Mumofstig

Im slightly worried after reading above post as i have been saving for a greeenhouse can someone please advise me of the best option bearing in mind i have a 7 year old football lover.
Ive been saving for ages so the last thing i want is it to collapse or blow away

Cheers
Mickeyboy

[arugula]

Build yourself a good quality robust polytunnel mickeyboy! Cheaper and less breakable than glass.

[mumofstig]

lots of helpful DIY polytunnel sites here
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=30820.msg369608#msg369608

I particularly like the overthegardengate one

[arugula]

That's the plan we followed when we built ours.

[veggieman]

We got someone in to build a tunnel this year that would last as it needs to withstand the strong winds here that can easily top 100mph in our islands. It is on a patch of ground that we acquired on the continuation of the hill behind our house. The attached photo was taken when it was almost finished and gives a view of what is there.
It is about 10 metres in length and is constructed from recycled salmon feed pipes and the pipes are cemented into the ground. Over the pipes are strong polycarbonate sheets and they are bolted onto the pipes with timber at strategic points in the pipes to take the bolts. There is a lot of timber within the tunnel to give it strength and to allow for additional bracing. At each end are tall fences and these are designed to keep out the northerly and southerly winds. There is timber at each end connecting the fences to the tunnel and this gives additional strength. The strongest winds we have had since the tunnel has gone up were measured at 62mph but I am certain that there is far worse to come during the winter months.
The tunnel will allow me to grow many things up here that I took for granted down south ("doon sooth") which just wouldn't grow for me outside.
The building of the tunnel was not cheap but I intend to stick around here for some time and I hope that the tunnel will do likewise.

[Thrift]

Now that is a tunnel!! Hope you lots of lovely produce next year veggieman 

[veggieman]

Thanks, Thrift.

It was quite an investment as we had to first buy the patch of land behind the house and pay both ours and the seller's costs. We then had to have someone come along with a digger to give us the space to build the tunnel. We got the same guy to bring along loads of topsoil from a more fertile part of our island but, unfortunately, there were loads of big stones in it that we had to take out.
Crop-wise, I have managed to get a few things from it in the 5 months that it has been available for use this year but will hopefully get far more in the months and years to come. It is very much trial and error but I was pleased with the courgette crop which just won't grow outside in our climate here.
Some of the locals put up the plastic-covered polytunnels in the spring and take them down in the Autumn each year before the strong winds turn up. I couldn't be bothered with doing that each time hence the decision to have something that will hopefully stick around.

[evie2]

We saw an Aluminium greenhouse with Polycarbonate glazing at B&Q, is that any help mickeyboy