Hi Fezziwig and welcome to GoY, personally I'd go for an aluminium one. We have two, one free standing and the other attached to our very large potting shed. They both survive fine in spite of windy conditions at times and are - so far as I know - cheaper than the wooden ones.

Greenhouses are like window frames. When I reconstructed my house, I had a choice between traditional wood or obvious aluminium. I thought wood looks real and upkeep cann't be that bad and it is less expensive. The first couple of years, it wasn't too bad. But now it takes several coats of varnish every year to seal the wood that is scoured by wind and water. People who choose to paint have to repaint every couple of years. Wood looks much better, but aluminium is a lot less work.

Moon grower would know about the price. I have a 1-1/2 story stone shed that used to be for pressing grapes (Vin do Altares- still worth a dollar a bottle). I put steel beams in and mixed fiber glass panels with cement ones. It provides strenghth in the wind (yesterday we had gusts to 75 mph and the storm is headed your way) along with a lot of light. There is a floor for the 1/2 and my plants go up there until I can plant them in the ground.

I love the look of the tradional wooden greenhouses but would buy aluminium every time. They just have to be cheaper and I would not want all the regular painting. We can have very strong gales up here and it is very unusual to see a greenhouse blown out.

Wylie I would use wood or aluminium for house window frames. We had our windows replaced with new double glazing by a very well known firm in February. Our original thought had been wood but we also wanted a single huge pane of glass in the middle of 4 metre + wide sitting room window. The only way we could do this was with uPVC. Having looked at the sample the guy had we decided to go for. The clincher for Mr MB was no painting every!

I agree with the others aluminium every time, I've had mine for at least 35yrs with no damage at all.
By the way welcome to our friendly GOY site.

~ all the others have covered the downsides of wooden ones which are usually more expensive for a good one the same size~ but would just add in favour of aluminium that the new green painted ones look really nice~ just bought a small one hoping to erect it in the next few days~does anyone know how well does the finish last?Had my existing one since 1975 still going strong!

Hi fezziwig bought my first greenhouse this year sept,its aluminium.what i would say is make sure you screw the base down to the concrete or flagstones.I didnt and the first strong winds we had it moved and cost me for several new panes of glass.The one i bought has a sliding door and i also found that it kept blowing off.I think i have solved this problem by fitting a bracket to the inside of the door wich latches over the frame of the greenhouse. Good luck with what ever type you choose,i am enjoying mine even this time of year. welcome to G.O.Y.

thanks for all your help and your friendly welcome

i would look out in the free adds as green houses are nearly given away when people dont want them anymore .definatly aluminium and if i was going to paint the ally i would do it before the glass goes in with green hamerite .green house glass is a lot cheaper than normal glass if you need to replace any broken ones .take care and happy new year .

hamerite is just the thing for iron or steel ,but aluminum is a different kettle of fish,first you have to etch it or nothing will stick for long,you just paint it on , then you need zinc chromate,this will addear to the aluminum, and last a life time.

Agree not to use Hamerite on aluminium, and zinc chromate was always the correct etching primer, but has since been withdrawn in recent years because of the environmental issues regarding the product. Not too sure the alternatives are anywhere near as good.

Anyway, it would proably be cheaper, and certaily easier, to buy a green one to start with.

~ you are right Bulbaholic ~ it was!~I don't think you will get the same finish with DIY?

Wouldn't have thought so... anyway would you fancy painting all those aluminium struts?

Aluminium 8' x 6' greenhouse disassembled, glass and spare glass, buyer to collect, £35.
So I did, 3 years ago and never regreted it.
Quite difficult to put a 8 x 6 greenhouse into a Peurgeot 306 hatchback with the help of a 6' 4" pal who also need a lift home with me.
My pal driving and me, nose pressed against the inside of the windscreen by a greenhouse door for 8 miles.
Such fun!

~no I wouldn't~very fiddly and time consuming!~there are some really good bargains on ebay if you are prepared to go and collect and dissasemble~good for you Stjohntongue!

We've never considered e-Bay for things like that because of where we live...

hear we go agine, I don't know why I bother,zinc chromate ,some one said on hear that it had been taken off the market,there is a firm in China, that must not have been told, the firm shijiazhuang yijinhanuang chemicals co ltd, who export to 60 countries and regions including america, eu, arab, australia, africa ect, they also produce zinc oxide zinc carbonate and zinc sulfate ,and you can get it on line from amazon,com sales rank, tomorrow I will ring a paint firm that I had an account with for meny years,and see what they have to say,

The problem with some chemicals and legislation is that the legislation is specific to our country Cliffo. Just because it is for sale on line doesnt mean it is leagal here. Amazon got a lot of bad press recently as you could by pepper spray and combat knives: both transactions illegal. So you may find that it is not available for the private customer but available to business customers. I know hubby had a problem trying to get some for a classic car project he was doing. It will be the chromate aspect of the zinc compound that causes the environmental problems.

No need to bother Cliffo, I'll take your word for it.

I wonder if the painted products are whats called 'powder coated'. I have a reproduction set of garden seats in aluminium that are powder coated. it is how they 'do' alot of motorbike frames too. great until you get a chip in it.

SBGthere is a load of truth in what you say, and I will take her word BS, but I am intrested as I still do a bit,and I would like to know if I am out of date, I have not had it mentioned to me and people I tought still ring me for advice on what paint to use in situations that they have not come across befor '

I dont know if it is still available, I know that you can still get galvanising paint which is a zinc compound but I dont know what it is actually made of. I dread the rover panels geting damaged as they are aluminium and will cost an arm and a leg to get them done.

SBG most paints to day are now water based, and if you need a spray job on your car it will be dun in water basted paint celoloyd has finished but if your panels are alum inium, untill the are etched I think the gurage will have a problem and I would advise to you let the gurage know befor they start or you will wate a longe time befor you get it back, this is sumthing Nosie would agree with ,they made a mettle for cars with a memory a few years ago if you got a bump you just pored hot water on it and it would go back to its aridgenal shape, but that would cost the big body repaires a good income, the powder paint I belive is put in to an oven and is good and hard wereing ,industreal enamel or merchine paint is better.

OUCH sorry i didnt realise you needed a key but it makes sense .isnt a second hand green house cheeper than a new one . i know a few people who have been given them as it goes .aluminium colour is quite alright . it was just a bad sugestion and a thaught . lets put that lid back on that perticuler can of worms and cheer up its spring in a few months YIPPEE and a happy new year everyone.

just want to point out that weatherd aluminium will have been etched by the weather, and you cano't apply galvanis paint to new galve that also needs to weather,

when we renovated the triumph spitfire we went for a 2 pack acryllic paint job, expensive but well worth it when you saw the finished article. hubby still uses cellulose based paints on the classic bikes as he is 'talented' enough to do a good job. or should that be fussy enough to do a good job.
powder coating gives a hard high shine finish and is brilliant. my outside chairs just get a wash down with warm soapy water and come up like new.

2 pack the second one is a hardner and is fine stuff that last and will take a lot of knocks, but I don't know how he gets hold of cellulose because any respray shop I know ,and I know a few , have not been able to get it for a few years now,the waterbased paint they get seems to be the same but, it takes longer to dry, much longer and then it is coverd with a glaze to put the shine on it,check to see what he is realy useing, and if it is still cellulose, I would like to know were he gets it as I spray myself, and I do not like the water basted stuff,

perhaps east yorks is just a bigger back water than I realised. :o) It is def cellulose based paint as he has a new 5 gallon drum of cellulose so he can 'thin' it prior to spraying it. And as for that smell...........

He has had the newer paint for one bike, that used a different thinners, we both got stinking headaches from it despite spraying in the open air.

you be carefull with that seaburn xx

will be np. hated it so much he has decided to do it in another colour with cellulose based paint. We are both 'solvent sensitive' and are careful. Nailvarnish remover is bad for him and petrol is the worst for me. how people can like it amazes me.

cheers xx

me either but people never fail to amaze me seaburn happy new year xx

SBG as you know I PMed you, as I did not wish this to be a point scoring issue, but even in your answer, you atempted to straten me out, so I will now put this topic to bed, on the net a chap has written a guide to doing up clasic cars , which you use as you aurgement, if you wish to look it up it is citroen ds restoration, he has aperantly dun up a number of cars, so QUOTE, july2008 up date,( this at the end of his lecture ) the government has recently introduced new legislation regarding the sale of cellulose,avilable for clasic cars but it's a lot harder to get hold of, if you find somewere reliable to get it let me know, the alternative to cellulose is water based, unquote, as a foot note the only reason I do not like it is the time each coat takes to dry, I hope you do not want to go on with this because it is within my profesional field,

This question has stayed a long way from what Fezziwig asked. Which was purely and simply was a wooden or an aluminium greenhouse best. PErhaps those who wish to have long discussions on solvents, cellulose etc. should remember that each time you post Fezziwig gets told... he/she only joined GoY the day they posted this question. If my first question to GoY had resulted in something like this I'd have left never to return.

all I did was point sumthing out to NP, it is within my profesional field, as is hand painting fire engins with a brush ,in the past when they were dun that way, and being employed by dulux to paint there exabition pices,yet as soon as I say something it's lets knock clifo down, my advice would be dont pick my field,

So it might be Cliffo but it does not help the person who asked the question... And I was pointing out that the question had gone off topic - not knocking you!

lots of questions do go of the topic but as cliffo said he was putting me right so your bothe right .peace man lol spring soon .

Thank you Cliffo i was thinking the very same thing myself i only asked a simple question. I may well ask more in the future as i dont know a lot about gardening even though i love it so will most likely need help but got to get my green house 1st that will be some time in Feb i think but thanks any how.

oops i meant thank you moon grower not cliffo sorry!!!!!! By the way im a she fezziwig is my husbands nick name

Hi Fezziwig, glad to know you have coped with this nonsense... I'll try to remember you are female but make no promises. Oh and have you decided aluminium or wood for the greenhouse?

NP the point is this question went way off topic and if you guys wanted to discuss paint formulas etc this was not the place.

Yes think i will go with aluminium dare i ask should i have glass or polycarb?
have been looking on websites and it looks to me like polycarb is a lot stronger so may stand up to the wind better any thoughts on this?

Well it can be pretty windy here and both our greenhouses are glass. Polycarb, if I remember correctly, blocks some of the uv light. In part it depends what you want to grow in the greenhouse and in part on your preference. I'd find somewhere that sells both that you can go an look at. Work out what the largest size greenhouse you can site is and armed with that info ask lots of questions. Ours are primarily for alpine plants and bulbs.
We also have a very small one with the new veggie garden and this will be for starting veggie seedlings in.

it is the place if it is relevent which it was to the question moon grower .if all you want is the last word then go for it .i dont need browny points and theres know need to get heated . i think painting your green house correctly or not is very relevent on this site .im trying to leave it alone but you wont have it.id go look at all the questions on here and see what actualy does stay on track.speaking like that a picture of your cat is hardley relevent just like my orangutan isnt .as for fezziwig the glass does let more of the spectrums through than polycarb .green house glass is cheep and doesnt scratch .the other thing is polycarb tends to taint and get brittle over time .so personaly id get glass .the only plus of poly is it doesnt break so easy .its not even cheaper than green house quality glass. i do glass painting excuse me for going of the subject so i dont start a petty argument and i get green house grade glass and it costs £4 for 24" x 24" and about 3-4 mil thick.please lets bury the hatchet .all of us on here talk about everything and anything eg i always ask docbob how he is as hes a very nice man who wasnt so well before xmas .not a garden question.i put my art on here the same thing not about gardening . we could just go round and round in circles here for no point .there is a very apt saying here people in greenhouses shouldnt through stones .if this site cant be a friendly and bring up many subjects even if they go of the origional question and be friendly etc then we mite asswell all go on google for our answers and im sure no one wants that .i found cliffo and moon grower most interesting in the past its suppost to be a new year and get of on the right foot surley .im sorry if i upset anyone ok take care everyone bye for now xx

If you can afford toughened glass then go for it as all plastic/polycarbonate etc will eventually become brittle with age and particularly if outside in minus degrees~ glass will last!

good thinking arlene i hope your well .i should think depending on wear your green house is and your own cercomstances there mite be some that are more importent to be toughened glass as it is expensive and you have to order it to size as you cant cut it .changing the subject ,hope you all had a great xmas,new year bye the way any luck with the picture of the orang and monkey world arlene ? anyway take care bye for now xx
great minds think alike bye the way lol

if everyone scrolls up and im not trying to start an argument more just trying to end one before it gets silly you will see arlene quite inocently mentioned colour .i said the wrong thing then cliffo put me strate.all relevent i believe so happy new year time to move on i believe take care and may you all have a great 2010 .

can I have the last word please, glass glass glass, every time glass

I agree Cliffo we would not use polycarbon :-)

at last no you cant cliffo lol GGGGGGGGGGgggggGGGGGGGggggGGGGGGLLLLLLLLllLLLLLLLllllllllllllllllllllllLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLllLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaasssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LOL we all agree how brilliant is that .

Well, in spite of all the techno speak, this answer was useful to me, because at the end of it all I found out why glass is better than polycarbonate! Thanks everyone....and if I ever need to repaint...well, perhaps I can revisit this question! Phew!