Joanna, there is no way in the World that I am going to be able to offer you advice that you might want to hear! Lets face facts: You are in Maine (love Maine, love every 'Maniac" I ever met, worked there for two of the best summers in my college era life a zillion years ago), but your climate is identical to ours here in Nova Scotia. It can and usually is hell through the Winter, and a plastic cover over plastic pipes will simply not withstand our conditions! It just won't! With all due respect, you are throwing good money after bad? The weight of the snow alone will break every load-bearing PVC pipe in the structure, not even a basic physics question. And we haven't even mentioned ice accumulation yet, or severe winds, and then there is the cat issue? My suggestions: If you want to try and save it, (not my preferred suggestion), the next time you have to make repairs in the PVC piping, you can insert wooden dowels/cut off broom handles, whatever fits the lumen of the PVC pipes, and then tape it, to distribute the load throughout the piping in an attempt to keep it together! You can also look for a rigid polycarbonate pane structure with aluminum frame greenhouse-not that expensive, and I am on the 19th. year of mine, just had to make new ventilating frames for roof vents several times, once I found the panes! LOL. My final respectfully submitted advice, is to save all the piping and structure of the unit you have now, whenever and if ever (giving you a chance there) you decide you may want to try something else, because that piping can be used in a variety of ways, case in point: Tomato /Pepper covering structures on the ground, (already preformed with the arch) and on and on. It can also be incorporated into fish ponds, rainwater accumulation, watering inside a different greenhouse, and on and on! Don't shoot the messenger!! Cheers!
