Greenhouse - Jr Victorian

Can I Use My Greenhouse as an Additional Living Space?

These structures are designed to be a greenhouse first and foremost. As packaged, the greenhouse is not designed to be water/air tight. Greenhouse plants do benefit from a turn of air. You may need to do some extra sealing with silicone on the roof around the glass to achieve watertightness.
The glass is single pane, so there is a good chance for condensation on the inside that might drip. We recommend any furniture be indoor/outdoor and that fine wood furniture/electronics be avoided or sufficiently protected.
The roof windows do have auto openers, so there is always a chance with a summer rainstorm (with the temp above 70) that the windows could be open and it could rain in. You can switch to all manual openers if preferred.
On sunny days, glass greenhouses can get warm very quickly. Depending on your climate, you will likely be fighting the heat in the summer (late spring/early fall).
It has been done, but you will need to make customized adjustments such as extra sealing, climate control, window tinting and heating.

Jr Victorian Greenhouse Reviews

Model: Jr Victorian

We are finished with our greenhouse except for hooking up the electricity and installing the lights. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with my purchase. I think my greenhouse looks “magical” the delivery and the instructions were easy for my son to put it together. I will send a picture when it is completed. Very, very happy with my purchase!

Mary LaRoux | 9/21/23

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Model: Jr Victorian

Great kit, looks beautiful and is well made. Love the communication I received from the company and the attention to detail. Thanks!

Jennifer Hampton | 3/26/23

Model: Jr Victorian

I absolutely LOVE my greenhouse from Exaco. It is beautiful and very well made. Now I wish I would have gotten a bigger one! The customer service at Exaco is the best I have ever experienced. They are super friendly, have excellent communication, and their response time is impressive. I also purchased two rain barrels from them, which I LOVE. I highly recommend working with and buying any outdoor/gardening products from Exaco; you will not be disappointed. 5 star!

Chrystal Huth | 11/22/21

"...a very robust greenhouse, was quick and fairly easy to build, and had some great customer support when needed..."

Bought a Jr Vic 24 it was very easy to build. Took me 2 weeks only working 2 to 3 hours a day with like 5 days of no work due to being rained out. Everyone at Exaco that I talked to over the phone or in emails were very nice and were able to either answer my questions or get me to someone who could.

Couple delivery problems but eventually got all the items. First problem wasn\'t even Exaco fault the freight company that delivered it to me didn\'t notice that it was 3 boxes and only gave me the glass at first but I got the other 2 boxes a few days later. Second I was missing the seed tray but Claudia sent that out right away after I told her it was missing.

The instructions are just pictures so sometimes it was a bit hard to see what to do. Even the video online was just a few animated slides again no narration not even a little bit of ambient music. Sometimes thought the video was buffering cause it lingered on a shot for so long and there was no sound. This is where I\'m removing 1 star. Although I made it through the build it would have been much more helpful to have instructions with both pictures and worded instructions on what you\'re supposed to do.

Few hard points of the build. First was where the roof brace next to the wind supports there is no room so the support has to either be on top of the wind braces or below either way getting your fingers in there to try and put on a nut was difficult. Second the sliding glass door has a few self tapping screws in the bag but the head on them is huge making it so the sliding glass door couldn\'t be put on with them there. I just went to my tool box and found some flat head self tappers and put those in place and it worked really well. Finally the clips they provide in with the shade cloth kinda suck. They are good for the top of the greenhouse but not the sides, they are just a bit to long and will catch on the screws holding the center supports and then pop out of the plastic loops holding them. I just replaced them with some zip ties and now the shade cloth opens and closes much easier and without the shade cloth coming undone. I also ran out of the crescent shaped rubber seal but again I was offered more of it which is pretty cool that the people at Exaco would offer that.

Amazingly the part I thought would be hard, and was a little worried about when I decided to build it myself, was really easy. Putting the glass on was easier then building the frame. I was worried I\'d be breaking glass and having to order more but the tool they give you made moving the glass around and setting it in place rather quick and painless.

All in all it feels like a very robust greenhouse, was quick and fairly easy to build, and had some great customer support when needed and because of that I\'ll add back in the star I removed before because their service is just that helpful. 5/5 stars from me. Big thanks to David, Claudia, Lorraine, and Alan over at Exaco.

Fantastic!

I have owned this for almost 5 years and love it. I live at 8,200 feet so growing is always a challenge. With this greenhouse I can grow anything including hot peppers. The self opening windows work perfectly and really help regulate temperature. It is well built and I have had zero problem. Punch line is that I love it

Yes! I recommend this product.

Craig | 11/18/2016

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Jr Victorian Greenhouse Questions

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I have the Exaco JP2 Junior Victorian. It is too hot reaching temps of 112C I don't have electricity on the site and a solar fan is not sufficient. I leave the door open at all times when it is hot. I mistakenly put both windows on one side. Can I buy and retrofit 1 or more windows? to get cross breeze?

Louanne Christian | 5/22/24

Hi Louanne,

Thank you for your purchase of one of our greenhouses. The glass greenhouses are very good for the colder months as they heat up very quickly on sunny days – which is what they are designed to do. But indeed, once the weather warms up it can be a challenge to keep the greenhouse to even the ambient outdoor temperature when the sun is beating in. Even with ventilation, this can be tough.

A few things that may help:

Adding a sidewall window or two to the greenhouse – a louvered window is most effective as it gives a wide opening to catch breezes – but can also act as an additional intake for your solar fan. This can be added after the greenhouse is built.
Add a misting system – if you are in a dry climate, having the misting system kick on during the hottest part of the day can help cool the air up to 15 degrees.
Creating additional shade for the greenhouse – a few ways:

Aluminet style exterior shade cloths are metallic – when mounted on the exterior of the greenhouse, they not only shade the interior, but will reflect a lot of the sun’s hot rays before they get inside the greenhouse. I know it is hard to cover up the pretty greenhouse – this is a purely practical solution.
Add an aftermarket tint to the glass – there are some heat block films available from a variety of sellers on Amazon, Home Depot, etc.
Use a greenhouse whitewash paint – something like Kool Ray Liquid Shade. This is painted on the greenhouse and wears off over the spring/summer with weather.

Depending on your climate, the greenhouse might not be usable for plants during the summertime if you are getting these high temperatures – it might be best suited for extending your season and winter protection and growing.

Please let me know if I can assist with any other questions you may have.

Thanks,
Claudia
Customer Service

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Is there a door drop extension kit for the Junior Victorian greenhouses or is it only available in the larger models?

Lisa K | 5/31/21

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for reaching out. The doorway on the Junior greenhouses is constructed slightly differently and unfortunately the door extension does not work with that model. The door extension is only for the Royal Victorians.

Please let me know if I can assist with any other questions you may have.

Thanks,
Claudia
Customer Service

I’m wondering if you could advise on a size (BTU) heater I would need for my size greenhouse in my climate?

Tristan Throgmorton | 8/4/2020

Sorry – the answer is not that simple. For one thing I do not know your climate. You will have to tell me. And next: how warm do you want to keep it in side: over wintering outdoor plants requires less heat than, orchids or growing form seeds during the winter.

Secondly, it greatly depends on what you are doing with your greenhouse – for example the more plants the fuller it is the more natural heat is retained and generated. There is a big different between half full and full: can make 10-15º difference. Large raised beds are a great heat generator.

Another option is: to use 1 or 2 large open troughs – 70 gal. + (full with water) (from say Tractor Supply) – these to can add 10-15º at night. And at the same time they offer additional humidity during the cold winter months.

One of our major customers offers the following calculator: http://igctest.commercev3.com/greenhouse_btu_calculator

Generally you will need to experiment.

Hello, I am considering a junior greenhouse. What is the best way you suggest to anchor into ground for this type greenhouse?

Pamela | 10/15/2016

Hello, The Junior Victorian is versatile enough that it can be placed directly on the ground or on a perimeter concrete slab. The Junior Victorian comes with ground stakes at each corner that get inserted either into the soil or into the concrete to secure the greenhouse. If you have any more questions please feel free to give us a call at 1.877.760.8500 Thanks Customer Support