is this any good please?

Getting ready to make the big decision. We have room for 12 x 16 ft and although this is a foot shorter the price seems good.

https://www.firsttunnels.co.uk/PolytunnelUpshell/3632

Thoughts please?

PH

 

That link https://www.firsttunnels.co.uk/PolytunnelUpshell/3632 is for a 12 x 10 ft tunnel, 6 foot shorter.

It also appears to be for only 3 hoops (5 foot centres) as the illustration in bottom LH corner.

And the total cost is £454 for a 120 square foot tunnel, £3.78 per square foot.



An alternative:

A 6 x 3m/19 foot 8 inches x 9 foot 10 inches tunnel, with 25mm dia galvanised steel hoops at 1m centres costs £98.99 delivered New Greenhouse Fully Galvanised Steel Frame Polytunnel Pollytunnel Poly Tunnel | eBay

Sell the cover supplied on ebay. That supplier sells covers only of that size for £59.90 delivered, so maybe some £30 to be recouped? That would get the frame only down to around £70.

Then buy a 'proper' polytunnel cover, such as Polytunnel Polythene Greenhouse Cover - Thermal Anti Drip - 7.3m and 9.2m wide | eBay for about £90, total so far £160. With a DIY door it should work out at sub £200, less than half the price, and for a larger tunnel.

That alternative 19 foot 8 inches x 9 foot 10 inches tunnel would be a bigger 193 square foot tunnel, and only cost £1.04/square foot, compared to £3.78/square foot from First Tunnels.

EDIT: The tunnels in my link have all been sold, but are available here for £104.90, an extra £5.91 POLYTUNNEL 6M X 3M 6 SECTION GREENHOUSE FULLY GALVANISED STEEL FRAME POLY TUNNEL | eBay

 

I see your logic but unfortunately I cannot accommodate 19ft it has to be 16 at the most.

Thanks for your input.

PH

 

@Poly Hive If changing the cover (although I reckon the mesh side vents would might make gathering a shortened supplied cover around an end door frame a little tricky but doable), it can easily be reduced in length by 990mm (checked this afternoon) by omitting one penultimate hoop together with the associated ferruled horizontal tubes for that penultimate section, thus converting it into a 16 foot 5 inch long tunnel:



If that extra 5 inches is really critical, double leaf side hung (or sliding) doors in lieu of single side hung might overcome the problem, as would reducing the end panel horizontal tubes by 5" (or 2.5" at each end might be more elegant, but that would mean drilling some new bolt holes to replace those in the pieces removed at one end).

Having said that, I'm not entirely sure those tunnels are actually 6m long, I'll stick a tape along one later today or tomorrow.

P.S. I've just noticed the supplier in the link above no longer sells the basic 3 x 6m tunnel, only the new model with an integral door that commits one to using their replacement covers, or suffering an unwanted extra cost, plus the extra work involved in replacing it with a timber door so a clear cover can be fitted. Edited to include an alternative for less than £5 extra. Seriously thinking about getting another one of these non-door versions whilst they're still available.

And whilst others have felt the height inadequate, I'm 6 foot 1 inch and don't have a problem with them.

 

Tip: Add a sticky label to the side of your tape measure and write on that to avoid keep losing scraps of paper with dimensions on before you get home.

Overall length of '6 metre' long tunnel is 5950mm and removing a single intermediate section would reduce it by 990mm, reducing the overall length to 4960mm/16 feet 3 1/4 inches. Removing an entire intermediate section doesn't muck up the fitting of low level end diagonal bracing, nor does it mess up the ferrules/plain ends arrangements.

However, that second supplier has now also sold out of non-door 6 x 3m tunnels, and I can't find any other suppliers with any remaining stock, but luckily I have one set aside to erect in my garden.

Removing a section to reduce the length will leave me with 6 x 990mm long horizontal poles, 2 short straight 550mm sections from ends of hoop, some curved ones from higher up the hoop, plus if removing the bottom rail at each end (it's redundant if fixing the corners to the ground) a further 6 poles (4 of each having ferruled ends).

That will leave me with 12 ferruled end poles, 550mm minimum length which is sufficient to cut to say 300mm effective length and use to increase the height of the reduced length tunnel by using the at the ends of the remaining 6 hoops. That'll be a lot easier and cheaper than using scaffold boards all around the perimeter to increase the height.

The supplied cover will be just one more replacement for a plot tunnel, so some time before I need a tunnel polythene cover there (already have a replacement cover for this year), which might be a good thing as those ventilation panels are far more useful there than in the garden where I can more easily adjust vents or install vents with expensive automatic openers.



P.S. I'll know around March/April whether I'll be erecting that garden polytunnel this year or next, and when starting I'll start a new thread on adapting that type of tunnel frames as there doesn't appear to be anything I can find ATM on that subject.

P.P.S. And I've already promised Mrs Scrungee that it'll have at least one washing line inside for use during inclement weather, which together with a reduced length that'll make it a much better fit has clinched my proposal for a garden tunnel.