The base needs to be stiffened by attaching a 1x6 around the interior side. Also if you are laying a floor in the interior the walls will lack enough height without the base. See the blog by user Mudhouse. Critical for success of this unit. If you do not follow her instructions the unit WILL fail in winds. Mine has withstood 50 MPH gusting winds with no problem ONLY because I followed all of her advice.

Hi veggievicki, I'm very sorry for not finding your thread sooner. I've known a few folks who opted not to use the steel base that comes with the kit (they thought it might rust prematurely in their climate, but 6 years later mine still looks pristine...in my dry climate...for what it's worth.)

It's possible they have changed the base material, but ours appears to be powder-coated steel, not aluminum. The rest of the kit is aluminum (and much softer than the base.)

You can eliminate the base, but you'll also have to re-engineer a way to attach the vertical wall studs. The C-shaped base in the kit has a lip that catches the hold-down clips to attach the studs, so you'll lose that way to attach the studs. I know folks have come up with alternative solutions, but I don't have photos or helpful info, unfortunately.

Thanks treed1304. Glad your greenhouse is doing well!

Here is a link that might be useful: Building our Harbor Freight 10x12 Greenhouse

After 40 years in the greenhouse trade I would definitely argue that a gravel floor is the worst possible. Why not consider a living floor? Use pavers and mulch where you won't be walking.

Thank you. We decided to use the base. As we needed those few inches of height in order to clear the door into the house. We set the greenhouse on a 2x6 floor with advantex decking just off of our kitchen. We used self tapping sheet metal screws with washers to attach the base to the floor system. We left the end with the door off and attached two by sixes to the brick wall using anchors and then attached the greenhouse to that. We plan to replace to of the side panels with a storm door. The way that our back yard is we really need to go out the side of the greenhouse rather than the end. I'll post pics when we get done.

Sounds good veggievicki. I think one of the strong points about this kit is it does lend itself to creative adaptations. I am looking forward to seeing your pics!

Regarding gravel, I use it under my benches (drains fast and no splashing of dirt when I water.) But I would hate walking on it, and sometimes small pots are tippy when set on the gravel. If I'm doing a bunch of small pots on the ground under a bench, I use a plastic tray to give them a level surface. I have concrete pavers in the pathways where I walk, love those.

Does anyone know what the snow load and wind load tolerances are for the 10x12 HF greenhouse (out of the box)? IâÂÂve tried contacting HF but havenâÂÂt heard back from them. Alsoâ¦this is a long shot but do you know what the tolerances are for the mudhouse modified version?

MissAgnes, I doubt that you will be able to locate specific statistics for snow or wind load for the HFGH (and I am very doubtful that Harbor Freight has this info, or will attempt to estimate it for you.) To be honest, their focus is not on long-term durability; it's on selling as many inexpensive kits as they can. The rest is up to us, as HFGH owners.

I honestly have no idea how this might be calculated for the modified greenhouse; I can tell you that we estimate our modified greenhouse has handled wind gusts over 50mph on numerous occasions, and possibly a few 60mph gusts in the last six years, with no damage. However, our greenhouse is sheltered on the north side by our house, and we don't have any monitoring equipment, so this certainly isn't any kind of scientific evaluation.

My guess is the wind resistance of the Harbor Freight greenhouse, built out of the kit, with no modifications, is ridiculously low (laughable.) In my opinion, it's almost certain to fail; it's just a matter of how much time before the event happens. There are many old posts here with sad tales of those who have watched their (unmodified) structure being permanently destroyed by wind. Also, many sad reviews on the Harbor Freight website, from folks who didn't know how critical the modifications were.

Same story with snow load; I have no idea who would have exact figures, but I can tell you there are posts archived here of roof failures from snow. The weakest portion seems to be the center of the roof studs, so that's the area most folks focus on, when trying to build for snow load.

I have gathered some links to older threads here regarding snow modifications, and they are posted in the Comments section of Part One of my blog (scroll down about 2/3 of the way through the comments at the page below, and look for the question posted by snwplwdrvr.)
Part One, Building our 10x12 Harbor Freight Greenhouse

Hope this helps!