The stick doors that chine with the kit work fine for me in my climate. We have rare freezes. I use silicone often to keep them rolling freely . On occasion, i clamp it closed on the outside ex , in high wind. But i don't think they would ever just blow open on their own. I used rubber stick on weatherstripping for a tight seal. I love the wiiiiide opening.

As long as you can add new doors at a later time as Ric did, personally with your climate @Lucky, I'd save some cash and test out the doors that came with the kit. You might find you like them.

@ShadyGreenThumb
Is the opening that wide? Can you tell me the size of the opening when both sliding doors are open?

We do have rare freezing temps. My main concern is rain. My doors face the south and all our rain comes from the South-West off the S.F Bay.
I know it's a green house and water is expected but from what I researched a lot of water that enters the GH is from the doors

I will let folks who have gone with the HF greenhouse answer those questions, Lucky. I have none of the problems you worry about.

Door opening was about 6'. They did ice up a bit and lost a lot of heat. I added a bolt at the outside ends of the track to prevent them coming off the track. I also used a large pinch clamp to ensure they would stay closed. I also added weather strips inside the door and the foam strips down the middle between the doors to reduce heat loss. With my sliding door I can still get a construction wheelbarrow through the door.

"They did ice up a bit and lost a lot of heat."

LOL, that's why we replaced the slider in our house with French doors!

The weather stripping works great on the ends where the two doors meet. Has anyone figured out a way to weatherstrip the outside edges of the doors? That's where there is obvious heat loss.

I had vinyl door stop strips Tech-screwed to the door frame, and when fully closed they and clamped formed a pretty good seal. I could not find any pics of it though.

@Lucky. I only had a ruler to measure on hand but I measured 44" opening when the HFGH doors are fully open.

@Ric Did you install that before putting the doors on? I will look for them and be ready for next winter. What is "Tech-screwed"?

self-tapping screws

@ShadyGreenThumb
@Eric4home

Ok, Cheryl says 44 inches and Ric says 6 feet. That a difference of 2' 4''
Which one is it? Is the 6 feet the opening when the doors are fully off the GH?

I went back and remeasured for you@Lucky. Here is what i measured. 36 + roughly 9"= 45" . I used a yardstick and my ruler. My tape measure is no where to be found! Maybe Ric was measuring the entire opening as the doors do take up about 18" of door space on either side.

Thank you Cheryl. Okay, I get it now.
So, if I install the sliding doors the HFGH comes with, I'm only gaining 10 inches to where as if I installed a 36 inch storm door. Plus, the storm door I want to install comes with a screen that you can slide down while also sliding up the bottom window. Adding a little extra ventilation coming from the bottom.
This was important to me as I would have not wanted to put the sliding doors together if I were getting a storm door.

Now if I can just get @shadytrake to give me some details on how her swamp cooler has held up, I think I'll have all the modifications I need.

Eric4home said:Door opening was about 6'. They did ice up a bit and lost a lot of heat. I added a bolt at the outside ends of the track to prevent them coming off the track. I also used a large pinch clamp to ensure they would stay closed. I also added weather strips inside the door and the foam strips down the middle between the doors to reduce heat loss. With my sliding door I can still get a construction wheelbarrow through the door.

@Eric4home Did you have to cut your bottom steel frame to install your sliding doors?
My hopes of a storm door went down the drain as they are all 81 inches in height except for one. I saw a video of someone that installed a storm door and they cut the bottom steel frame out for the storm door to fit the 81 inches in height.

I don't have the steel frame, my GH frame itself sits on a composite deck 1x3, and the whole thing is bolted to the concrete slab. But to answer your question, yes I did cut out everything down to the slab to frame in the door.

@Eric4home I am just now starting toput my hfgh 10x12 on to my wood base and use composite deck instead of the steel base. I didn't want to step over it each time. Did you have any trouble squaring it up with out the steel base?

Not at all, I just did a chalk outline on the concrete, using a2+b2=c2 or 3x4x5 triangle.

I started my gable vents, I got this done today.





I'll post the rest of the details later.

Ric -- or anyone else, for that matter -- what is the best (or even a good) method of cutting the twinwall poly panels? I need to replace a couple of pieces on my Rion GH, which has the same type of panels, and haven't been the most successful at cutting them to size in the past!

On 2 wall, I just use a retractable safety knife and drywall square, when scored deeply they will snap when bent backwards, then just hold at 90 degrees and cut the other face. Don't cut them too tightly, you need a wiggle room.

Thanks, Ric -- that type of knife actually is what I used the last time I tried, I think I just need to press harder! (or get DH to do it for me, LOL)