Elite Belmont

I assembled the greenhouse with all supplied bolts and bracing, but was unable to bolt to the base for a few days while waiting on parts to arrive. One windy night, the bracing (poor 1.2mm thick right-angle lengths) simply folded up like foil and the whole frame collapsed in on itself which caused a lot of damage - luckily this was before I had fitted the glazing - as I realised that fitted the glass before bolting to the base would have been a bad mistake.

I contacted Elite, and they denied there was a problem with the design and said I should have bolted it down on the same day it was assembled - a challenge for anyone, I would say.

The other problem I had was with the bolts supplied - they are aluminium and several of them failed using a short 10mm spanner. Again, this point was not accepted by the manufacturer.

Just purchased an Elite Belmont greenhouse. It's actually relatively easy to put together, but the instructions are so badly written an illustrated that it took us twice as long because we had to spend so much time puzzling out what we were supposed to do. The people at Elite were very helpful sending emails, photos and videos when I had questions (though most of the photos and videos didn't show what I needed either) and also sending on the few parts they forgot to include in the order. However, I'd rather not have had to spend so much time asking for help!

If you're putting it together yourself, read through everything first, noting that sometimes the information isn't in the right order--they'll tell you to put two things together, THEN say you need to put in the neoprene beading first. It may take you some time to be able to recognise the parts from the drawings and also to understand the names for some of the parts.

Finally decided to get a 'proper' greenhouse and bought an Elite Belmont 8ft x 12ft with double door, a louvre vent, shelving and toughened glass - not cheap at over £1200 with the integral base, but you pay for what you get.

Building it was a challenge, creating sections over one weekend then setting them up the next onto a concrete base. Every part fitted exactly as it should, with more than enough screws and fixings included.

The instructions were rather old fashioned - they could do with the Ikea touch to make them a little simpler but were eventually understandable.

I was really impressed with the quality - and relieved when it withstood 50mph+ gales the week after going up without any problems.

The size is excellent, with lots of headroom, the rubber beading on each pane of glass, while being slow to put together means a very well insulated greenhouse for winter months.

We spend much time in there now (it is big enough to have a table and chairs as well as the usual tomato plants etc) so has become a quiet refuge from the kids!

We purchased the 8 x 4 Belmont with toughened glass as it fitted into our limited space perfectly.We preferred the orientation as other slimmer greenhouses had the door on the end.The headroom is excellent even in the eaves.My whole family are 6 footers and there is no need to stoop through the door and nothing to trip over(we have two kids with disabilities) as the doorcill is flush to the floor.Instructions were clear and parts were clearly marked.Elite couldn't have been more helpful.The result is a really sturdy,well made item which the whole family will enjoy using.We are pleased we spent a little bit more to get such an excellent greenhouse.