RIGA V Polycarbonate Commercial Greenhouse

Bought the Riga V a couple of months ago, and it's a really nice greenhouse. Bettergreenhouses was easy and prompt to deal with, and I would do business with them again. The service from the distributor (Exaco in Austin, TX) was beyond anything I've ever experienced. I got a call from them well prior to delivery, giving me a voicemail with all sorts of info about what to expect, how to handle any damage, etc. They asked me to call back, which I did, and they also gave me a rundown on assembly resources (including links to videos and a DVD), and the personal cell number of one of the owners for any assembly questions. I used this, and he was available on weekends at a moment's notice. When I was missing a few parts, they were shipped and received within a couple of days. Seriously stellar product support. One note on delivery: this comes in three pieces--one is about 17' long, and the other two are large cardboard and wooden crates, weighing in at about 300 pounds each. The truck company said they'd be sending a liftgate truck but did not, and only one man in the truck. I happened to have gardeners at the house when this arrived, but if I hadn't, I couldn't have accepted delivery (I have a bad back). So be warned--you'll need at least a couple strong people at home to help unload. As to the actual greenhouse, it is fantastic overall and I wouldn't change my choice of which house to buy. There are a few negatives, mostly pertaining to assembly, but the overall finished product is well worth it. It is a really nice and sturdy house. Pros-- --tons of headroom, nice looking exterior profile, 10/15 year warranty on panels/frame, incredible product support from within the US, modular assembly that doesn't take a ton of tools. Cons-- --probably the worst set of assembly instructions I've ever used--you will receive them in German, and also a really badly translated version in English. I happen to speak fluent German, and seriously would have been in trouble if I didn't. The video from Exaco is extremely helpful for the major assemblies, but it also doesn't cover all the fine points. I am a very skilled builder/wrencher, and I think this assembly would be confusing for an inexperienced DIY'er, though still possible. That said, I was able to assemble the main house by myself in about 8 hours, and then spent most of a second day adding windows, doors, and rear window, plus squaring and securing the house to my foundation. Take your time, refer often to the video, and you should be able to get it done. Having Andrew available is also extremely helpful. --Some parts in the kit are not matched to the assembly instructions --Hoklatherm (manufacturer) intentionally does not include enough tie downs for the house, and also not enough bolts for the longitudinal braces. Exaco sent them along, but this does not make sense to me. As an example, if memory serves, there are 12 possible locations to tie down the house, and they include 10 tie down straps. For the longitudinal braces, there are 6 possible attachment points, and Hoklatherm includes 5 bolts instead of 6. Bearing in mind, these same braces are the attachment points for the shelves, if you add those as an option. Again, Exaco sent what I asked for, but I consider this to be an oversight by Hoklatherm in their piece count. --If you want the upper windows to not leak, you must seal all around them with silicon, plus the points where the aluminum and black plastic meet. This is no big deal, but it's much easier to do while the windows are not installed all the way. After sealing and when installing, slide the window over halfway and access it by using an a-frame ladder to stand through the window opening, let it dry, then slide back into place. --Plastic parts are very strong once assembled, but it's possible to break them during assembly if you're not careful. --The shelves are referred to in older ads as being clear, and they're not--they're an opaque white plastic. So plants on the back of the bottom shelf are in shade. Again, don't let the negatives stop you--the house is my favorite space on my little homestead, I love just going in there and hanging out, in addition to gardening. This would easily be a 5-star house if the instructions were useable. 5 stars for the completed house, 5 stars for exaco, 2-3 stars for the instructions.

To put it simply, this greenhouse has major problems with wind -- any kind of wind. The door and window hinges are very flimsy and simply aren't designed to take any stress from wind at all. Even a slight breeze is enough to send the doors flying. Same for the automatic roof vents. In less than a year, we had a snapped hinge, a broken roof vent, and had to refrain from using the rear window because the window fastener simply isn't adequate to the size of the window panel (and therefore the wind stress it can experience in even a modest breeze). Basically, we spent the extra money on a greenhouse like this because we believed something with a metal frame and heavy-duty polycarbonate glazing would last and be sturdy. Now I'm wishing we hadn't. We've had to improvise, repair, and rig up fixes to this thing starting on day one. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. At one point I talked to someone who worked for the manufacturer -- probably after my third or fourth hinge snapped. "All greenhouses have problems with wind," is what he told me. This is simply not a satisfactory or realistic answer given that most people don't buy greenhouses only to have them literally tear apart months after assembly. Save your money and buy a high-tunnel, or if you have to buy an aluminum-framed greenhouse, make sure the door and window latches, hinges, and other fittings are sturdy and designed for a real-world environment. I'm sure this thing does very well standing inside a warehouse in Germany. Outdoors -- not so much.

I spent several months comparing and researching greenhouse kits. The decision came down to the Hoklartherm Riga V versus the Sunglow. I wanted a quality low maintenance product that was not made in China and could be used year round. The Riga is made in Germany. We are located in south central Texas so we don't get a lot of freezing temperatures. The Riga with it's aluminum locking panel design, 8 and 10mm double sided polycarbonate panels, and excellent warranty seemed to be the better choice. After reviewing the forums, talking and writing to various owners of these greenhouses the choice boiled down to customer service. Comments from Riga owners raved about the support provided by the US distributor. We got a great price via price matching on the Riga V kit, base foundation and upper and lower shelf kits. Since we were just a few miles up the road from the only US distributor for the Riga product we ordered online and arranged for local pickup to save on delivery and sales tax. The kit was well packed and we decided to store it for a couple of months and build in October as summer time temps here in Texas this year were in the triple digits. We did discover a few missing parts when we began to do the parts inventory. The distributor had those to us the next day. We purchased the base foundation as an option which meant we were going to need to dig down about 6 inches to secure the base. With no rain in Texas the ground was like concrete and I went through several shear pins on our tiller. The hand digging went very slow and it took us about 4 days to dig out, level and prep the site for the greenhouse. Once that was level and square we proceeded with the build. The kit was precision made with high quality parts. It went together easily using the supplied assembly video. The four automatic roof vents, two piece front door and rear window provide for great ventilation. The only complaint I have about the product is with the assembly guide. There is an English guide that was published in 2005 and a guide in German that was published in 2009. The manufacturer has made several revisions to the product over the course of several years but none of them were reflected in the English guide in the way of an addendum. The distributor supplies an assembly video with the kit which is a good thing because the documentation is below standards for a greenhouse of this caliber. It was difficult to tell if parts were missing or had just been changed out as part of the product revisions. We kept going back and forth between the English and German guides to try and determine next steps and the correct parts. Overall pleased with our selection and purchase. The customer support has been excellent as expected. Four stars due to poor documentation that consumed our time in trying to resolve build questions.