What Should a Greenhouse Quote Include Before You Pay a Deposit?

Nobody's product page tells you who signs the bill of lading. Nobody's dealer listing says what a deposit forfeits if you cancel after the crate is already built. Every brand in this niche, from a $3,500 Palram kit to a $60,000 Alitex, sells you a structure and leaves the actual purchase terms, the deposit, the freight liability, the inspection window, to a sales conversation that happens after you have already picked a favorite.

We checked what the makers themselves publish, on August 22, 2026. The finding is not a list of hidden fees. It is a list of blanks. One maker in this comparison, Hartley Botanic, prints its deposit, balance, and cancellation terms in a numbered contract clause anyone can read before calling. Alitex, Exaco (which sells both Riga and Janssens), and Palram/Canopia publish none of it. That gap is not proof of bad faith, a bespoke or dealer-sold product is allowed to quote per order, but it does mean the schedule you are quoted is the only version that exists, and the only record of it is the one you get in writing.

We don't sell greenhouses. We save you from buying the wrong one. This is the checklist to run before the deposit leaves your account, built from the terms of sale, warranty documents, and freight policies the sellers themselves publish, not from a generic buying-guide template.

Quick Answer: Pass or Hold

How This Checklist Was Built

Checked August 22, 2026. We read the published terms of sale, warranty documents, and freight or shipping policy pages for the brands this site covers most, not a single generic e-commerce template. Where a manufacturer publishes nothing, the row says so and names what a specialist greenhouse retailer publishes instead, because that is the closest real-world analog a buyer can check today.

• Deposit and cancellation terms: Hartley Botanic's own Terms and Conditions of Sale, clauses 2.6, 2.8, 3.10, 5.2, 5.4, 5.9, and 5.15, the only fully numbered contract terms published by any maker in this comparison.
• Freight and damage-claim practice: the published shipping and return policies of two specialist greenhouse retailers, Greenhouse Megastore and The Greenhouse Company, plus the federal floor under the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 14706) and standard LTL freight practice.
• Warranty schedules: the manufacturer warranty documents already verified for Palram, Exaco Riga, and Janssens, and the guarantee terms published by Hartley Botanic and Alitex.
• Vent area, base, anchoring, and permit guidance: our own published planning material in ventilation and overheating, the foundation and base guide, wind and anchoring, and do I need a permit.

We have not requested or reviewed a private quote from any of these sellers for this page. Every figure below comes from a document the seller or a specialist retailer has published, and it is labeled as such. Reddit and forum searches for this specific topic, quote deposits and freight claims, were attempted and returned nothing usable this run, so the FAQ below uses sourced buyer questions rather than invented verbatims.

The Master Quote Checklist

Twenty-one lines. A seller who has done this before answers all of them without a follow-up call. Credit anything already in writing on the manufacturer's own site; do not credit a verbal "don't worry about that."

Rows 3, 16, 18, and 20 are the ones this niche's own product pages fail most often, which is exactly why a model or a buyer searching for "what should a greenhouse quote include" finds a retailer's generic template instead of brand-specific answers.

Deposit and Payment: What Is Actually Documented

This is the gap the rest of the industry has not closed. Checked August 22, 2026, across the five brands this site covers most closely.

Hartley's own clause is worth reading in full before you sign anything premium-tier: production begins only after the 50 percent deposit clears, and clause 2.8 draws a hard line at that point, cancel before production and you forfeit half your deposit, cancel after and the company can keep all of it. That is a real, binding number, and it is also the reason to ask exactly when "production" starts on your order, in writing, before you pay the deposit.

For the four brands that publish nothing, the honest read is not that the terms are hidden. Retail-direct manufacturers with no consumer deposit and dealer-sold kits both settle payment terms per order, which is normal for the industry. What is not normal is leaving that schedule verbal. Ask for the deposit percentage, the balance trigger, and the cancellation terms in the same email that confirms your model and price, and get the answer in writing before you pay anything.

Freight and Damage: Who Signs, Who Claims, How Long You Have

Every greenhouse in this niche above flat-pack size ships by LTL freight, a pallet or crate handed to a trucking company, not a parcel carrier. That single fact creates a liability chain most buyers have never navigated, and it is the line nobody's product page explains.

Title and risk pass at delivery, not at your door. Greenhouse Megastore's own return policy states it plainly: "Title to all goods pass to the buyer upon receipt of shipment by the buyer or buyer's agent," and from that moment, "it is the buyer's responsibility to file a freight claim with the carrier if the carrier fails to deliver the goods complete and in good condition." Hartley Botanic's own contract says the same thing in clause 5.9: "You are responsible for the Goods when delivery has taken place. The risk in the Goods passes to you when delivery of the Goods is made to you."

You have the right to inspect before you sign, and you should use it. The freight industry's own guidance is consistent: write "subject to inspection" or "pending further inspection" on the delivery receipt if the driver will not wait for you to check the crate, because that notation is what preserves your claim if damage turns up once you open it. Note any visible damage on the bill of lading itself; an unmarked signature is read as acceptance.

Concealed damage has a reporting window, and it is short. The Greenhouse Company's published terms require that "concealed or hidden damages must be reported to the shipping company within 5 days of delivery." Freight-industry guidance more broadly puts the window at five to fifteen days depending on the carrier, and some carriers cut it to 48 hours. Ask your seller which carrier they use and what that carrier's window actually is, because "shipping included" tells you nothing about it.

Federal law sets a floor, not a fast lane. Under the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 14706(e)(1)), a motor carrier cannot require a formal written claim to be filed in less than 9 months from delivery, and cannot require a lawsuit in less than 2 years from a written claim denial. That is a legal minimum for the formal claim, not a substitute for reporting damage immediately. Report it fast, document it well, and use the 9-month figure only as the outer legal boundary, not the plan.

Get this in writing before the crate ships, not after it arrives damaged:

• Which carrier delivers, and that carrier's specific concealed-damage window
• Whether delivery is liftgate, curbside, or placed, and who carries crates from the curb to the build site
• Who reorders a cracked pane or a bent frame section, and at what price, since none of Palram, Exaco Riga, or Janssens publishes a replacement-panel price today

Warranty by Component

Headline years hide the schedule. Read side by side, checked against the same documents used in our Palram vs Exaco Riga vs Janssens comparison and the Hartley and Alitex cost guides.

All five are non-transferable. If you sell the house, none of these warranties follows the greenhouse to the new owner, in every published document we checked.

Red Flags: One-Line Tests

Each of these is a reason to pause the order, not necessarily to cancel it. Ask the question, get it in writing, then decide.

• No documented wind or snow rating. If it is not written down with a psf or mph figure and a source document, it is not rated. See greenhouse snow load and wind and anchoring for how to check your own address against ASCE 7.
• No base spec in the quote. A quote for a structure with no base spec is a quote for a kite, not a greenhouse.
• The discount expires tonight. Real quotes do not need artificial urgency, and greenhouse promo cycles repeat.
• A verbal delivery promise with no lead time in writing. Hartley's own contract states a typical 13-week lead time and what happens if it slips past 30 days late (a refund or cancellation option). If a seller cannot say something similarly concrete, ask why.
• No named installer or assembly crew for a paid-assembly order. "We'll arrange someone" is not a name, a license, or a scope of work.
• Freight described only as "included," with no carrier named and no damage-claim language. That is the line most buyers lose money on, and it is nowhere on a brochure.
• A payment schedule given verbally, with nothing in the order confirmation. Hartley's own numbered clauses show what a real payment schedule looks like in writing; anything you get should be at least that specific.

The Pre-Deposit Checklist to Send

Copy this into an email to the seller before you pay a deposit. A credible seller answers all of it without deflecting.

1. What is the vent area as a percent of floor area, and what does an additional vent cost installed?
2. What is the exact base spec required for the warranty to remain valid?
3. Who owns the freight in transit, and what is the carrier's specific window for reporting concealed damage?
4. What is the delivery type: liftgate, curbside, or placed, and who carries the crates the rest of the way?
5. What is the assembly scope, and who is liable if a pane cracks during the build?
6. What is the warranty schedule by component: frame, glazing, and workmanship, prorated or not, and is it transferable?
7. What is the current replacement price and lead time for one panel or pane?
8. What is the payment schedule: deposit percent, balance trigger, and what does cancellation forfeit at each stage?
9. What is the lead time from order to delivery, in writing, and what happens if it slips?

If the answers come back solid, that is a pass. If half of them come back "don't worry about that," treat it as a hold, not a signature. For a second set of eyes on an actual quote in hand, our free quote review exists for exactly this moment, and the rest of the buying decision, budget, glazing, size, and site, is in the greenhouse buying guide.

What We Could Not Verify

Publishing the gaps is more useful than guessing past them. As of August 22, 2026:

• Deposit percentages for Alitex, Exaco (Riga and Janssens), and Palram/Canopia. None publishes one. Hartley Botanic is the only brand in this comparison with a numbered, public deposit and cancellation clause.
• Glass or pane breakage liability during professional assembly, for any brand. No published document we found addresses this directly; it belongs on the pre-deposit email, not assumed either way.
• A specific concealed-damage reporting window from Palram, Exaco, or Alitex directly. The 5-day figure in this guide comes from two specialist greenhouse retailers' own published terms, not from a manufacturer document, and carrier-specific windows can be shorter.
• Replacement panel or pane prices for Palram, Exaco Riga, or Janssens, consistent with what we found building the three-way comparison: none publishes one.
• A verbatim buyer question from Reddit or a gardening forum specific to deposits or freight claims. Searches for this topic returned nothing usable this run; the FAQ below is built from the sourced material above, not an invented quote.

We have not requested a private quote from any of these sellers, and this checklist is not a substitute for reading your own contract in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a complete greenhouse quote include before I pay a deposit?

At minimum: the exact structure and glazing spec with glazing thickness in mm, vent area as a percent of floor area, the base spec the warranty requires, who owns the freight and the carrier's damage-reporting window, the assembly scope, the warranty schedule broken out by component with proration and transferability stated, and the full payment schedule including what a deposit forfeits on cancellation. Checked August 22, 2026, only Hartley Botanic publishes all of the payment terms in writing; every other brand in this comparison quotes them per order, which makes getting them in writing your job, not theirs.

How much deposit does a greenhouse maker usually require?

There is no published industry standard. Hartley Botanic is the only brand here with a numbered public clause: 50 percent on order, the remaining 50 percent at least 48 hours before delivery, and the deposit is forfeit in part or in full if you cancel once production has started. Alitex, Exaco (for both Riga and Janssens), and Palram/Canopia publish no deposit percentage, so the number you are quoted is set per order and exists only in your written confirmation.

Who is responsible if my greenhouse arrives damaged on the freight truck?

You are, procedurally, even though the carrier or the maker ultimately pays. Title and risk typically pass to the buyer at delivery, both Hartley Botanic's own contract and Greenhouse Megastore's published return policy state this directly, so it is the buyer's job to inspect before signing, note any visible damage on the bill of lading, and report concealed damage within the carrier's stated window, commonly five to fifteen days per general freight-industry guidance, sometimes as little as 48 hours depending on the carrier. Federal law under the Carmack Amendment sets a 9-month minimum for filing a formal claim, but that is a legal floor, not a reason to wait.

What happens if I cancel my greenhouse order after paying a deposit?

It depends entirely on the brand, and only one publishes the answer. Hartley Botanic's contract states that canceling before production starts forfeits the 50 percent deposit, and canceling after production has started lets the company keep the entire deposit paid. No other brand in this comparison publishes a cancellation clause, so ask for the cancellation terms in writing at the same time you ask for the deposit percentage, before you pay anything.

Does a longer warranty always mean better coverage?

No. A 15-year frame warranty on an Exaco Riga and a 15-year frame warranty on a Janssens sound identical until you read the glazing line: Riga's twin-wall glazing is covered up to 10 years, prorated from year five, while Janssens excludes its own tempered glass from warranty on day one. Palram's 10-year warranty publishes the clearest proration ladder of the three, and it is also the least generous: a claim in year six costs 50 percent of the part's original price. The headline number is marketing. The component-by-component schedule is the actual coverage.

Sources

• Hartley Botanic Terms and Conditions of Sale: deposit, balance, cancellation, lead time, and risk-transfer clauses, checked August 22, 2026
• Greenhouse Megastore return policy: title and risk transfer, buyer's freight-claim responsibility
• The Greenhouse Company terms of service and refund policy: concealed-damage reporting window, restocking fee schedule
• Redwood Logistics: concealed damage freight claims: inspection and documentation practice, "subject to inspection" notation
• Freight claim time limits under the Carmack Amendment, 49 U.S.C. § 14706(e)(1): the 9-month minimum claim-filing window and 2-year suit window
• Alitex greenhouse pricing policy and Alitex guarantee terms
• Exaco and Canopia public sites (exaco.com, canopia.com), checked August 22, 2026, for the absence of published deposit or cancellation terms
• Our Palram vs Exaco Riga vs Janssens comparison: warranty and replacement-parts data underlying the component table above
• ASABE EP406.4: Heating, Ventilating and Cooling Greenhouses: the 15-20 percent vent area guideline