I have had my PVC tunnels for three years now. They are still as good as the day they were put up. I have included a link to presentations I have done and to other PVC tunnels that people have built. Mine are a combo of PVC and wood. The Alaskan Berries are only PVC.

Mine are built with White PVC, a Friends is built with grey, both are holding up the same.

Check them out and ask any questions.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: PVC High tunnel plans

the pvc will last 5 to 7 years due to the way it is loaded structurally. the gray will last longer but not really that much. good bracing is very important as is anchoring.

i would give such a structure a useful life of 6 years .

the other problem is that the pvc reacts with the greenhouse film and darkens it and weakens it, though I have never seen the film fail.

it is a good structure if u understand what it is.

I built a Hanley-style hoophouse, but used 20 foot PVC where the Hanleys had used 24 foot steel square tubes.

You can see my cheap imitation here.

You can see the Hanley version here.

My house is only in its second year, so I can't speak for the longevity of the PVC pipes. There is one problem with it though, and that is wind. Since the sides are designed to be slid up for ventilation, they can also slide up in heavy wind and if the wind gets them up far enough the hoophouse turns into a large kite. It's happened to me twice, both times when the wind was gusting up over 35 mph. Maybe a lot higher. I was sleeping both times.

Yesterday morning I looked out to see just the bare poles left, with 60 feet of plastic stretched across the field. All of the rebars on the east side had been ripped out of the ground and were flung to the limits of the ropes on the west side.

Luckily, the plastic is torn mostly at its ends so I can reuse it by shortening the house a couple of feet. I need to change this design a little, but haven't figured out exactly how yet.

Good luck with yours.