Five checks before you choose a greenhouse

Five things worth checking on any greenhouse you're weighing up — ours included. If a seller can't answer these five plainly, that tells you something.

1. How are the panels actually held on?

Ask whether the glazing is screw-fixed or held by spring clips. Clips are quicker to assemble and cheaper to make, but they're the part people come back complaining about after a gale — a popped panel is a hole in your greenhouse and a panel somewhere in the hedge.

Ours: screw-fixed at every edge. No clips.

2. What is the frame, and what is protecting it?

For steel, ask what the coating is — not just "galvanised". For timber, ask the treatment class, whether you're expected to re-treat it, and how often. Untreated or lightly treated softwood in a wet British garden is a maintenance job you inherit on day one.

Ours: galvanised steel with a ZAM coating (zinc-aluminium-magnesium) on the SteelRoot range; 45 x 45 mm FSC Swedish pine, factory-treated, on the NORDIC range.

3. Is anchoring included, or extra?

Two questions, and both matter. Does the kit come with ground anchors? And is anchoring a condition of the warranty? Plenty of warranties quietly require it while the product page never mentions it.

Ours: ground anchors are included as standard. And yes — anchoring it down is a warranty condition. We'd rather say that here than in the small print.

4. What will the base really cost?

The price on the page almost never includes groundwork. Ask directly whether a concrete base is required. If it is, that's typically a few hundred pounds and a day's work you haven't budgeted for — and it's the single most common surprise in this category.

Ours: no concrete needed. It sits on any firm, level base — slabs, a timber frame, or compacted gravel. Level matters far more than material.

5. Read the warranty wording, not the headline number.

"10-year warranty" means nothing until you know what is covered and what voids it. Ask for the wording in writing before you buy, not after.

Ours, in full: 2-year warranty on the twin-wall polycarbonate panels + 10-year anti-corrosion warranty on the galvanised steel frame.

That's the lot. No pitch attached — use them wherever you end up looking.

If you'd like a straight answer on something specific — your site, your space, whether steel or timber suits you better — email support@waldenhaus.uk. A real person reads it.