My Shiny New Greenhouse (Norfolk Greenhouse Ultimate Popular 6)

Member Name: thecatsnose

Product:	Norfolk Greenhouse Ultimate Popular 6
Date:	25/05/09 (464 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice size, good price

Disadvantages: Poor self assembly instructions

I took delivery of my shiny new Ultimate Greenhouse, from Norfolk Greenhouses earlier this year. I ordered it on the internet via their website www.norfolk-greenhouses.co.uk, which caught my eye after seeing an advert in a gardening magazine for their Budget Greenhouse at £69.00.

After some deliberation between the Budget, Standard and Ultimate greenhouse options, I plumped for the Ultimate Greenhouse at £179, which is more expensive than the one that got me interested, but due to the Ultimate having rigid plastic windows, as opposed to the plastic on a roll type that comes with the Budget version I thought it would be easier to assemble and much stronger.

I placed my order online, and was pleasantly surprised when it was delivered 2 days later, well packaged in 3 boxes. I am pleased to say that all of the listed parts were there, along with a set of instructions. All the pieces were numbered and coded which made it nice and easy to see what we had.

I found that the instructions were really unclear. Although there were written instructions and real photo's to show you what to do, the instruction sheet looked like it was a photocopy of a photocopy, which made it difficult to read and work out what went where. It took my husband and I about an hour to decide where to start, then about another hour to get the first two pieces screwed together. Once we got going it all seemed to slot into place quite easily and we got the frame up in one day, and were very pleased with ourselves, but we found out the next day that we had been too smug!

The next day, we had to fit the plastic glazing, which is where it got really difficult for us. The instructions are not very good at all for this part of the assembly, and we really struggled. It was difficult to see from the instructions and diagrams what went where and in what order, and we had to dis-assemble some of the frame we so carefully constructed. It took us around 8 hours to get all the glazing into place, and I am pretty sure even now that we put the doors on upside down, and I know that the window has been fitted wrong :)

The quality of the assembled greenhouse is quite good, but during some strong winds a few weeks ago, we lost one of the doors, which allowed the wind to rip through, pulling out 2 side panels and the window. A few modifications later and it is as good as new, and stronger than ever. I would recommend putting extra screws than provided in, as there are some spare screw holes available, this made it a lot stronger and I am confident that it will not blow apart again.

I am really pleased with my Norfolk Ultimate Greenhouse, it looks good (I chose the green version) and has double sliding doors to enable easy access. It does not come with a base, and I did not see one on their website for separate purchase, but we put flags down to stand it on. I would recommend this greenhouse if you are patient and quite handy with flat pack assembly, it took us a full weekend to put it up.

All in, a recommended greenhouse for the price, but a bit of a pain to assemble, thankfully no marriage guidance was necessary for us, but we did get a bit snappy with each other, so I can see how it can cause arguments!

Summary: Good greenhouse for the price, need good flat pack skills