My Greenhouse Plastic Gets Destroyed
Today is certainly a sad day. After much work in building my A-frame greenhouse and covering it with plastic, a gusty afternoon storm has ripped my plastic in pieces. I’m afraid the six mil. plastic simply wasn’t strong enough. As the wind pushed against the plastic, the plastic simply stretched to the breaking point.
Eventually, one of the holes along the northwest corner tore right off, and the wind ripped the plastic right down the middle of the north side.
So I’m a little disappointed. Even if I could patch it back together, the plastic is just too thin to withstand the winds. So I may be greenhouseless this year.
But perhaps you can help. If this blog has been a benefit to you, would you consider sending a donation to help cover the cost of new greenhouse plastic? The long-lasting woven poly that I would like to put on my greenhouse will cost about $500. If I can raise that much money in the next two weeks, I’ll be able to order it and hopefully get it up before the hail season begins. If more than $500 comes in, all extra money will go towards a local kids camp. Just click the flower below to help keep my greenhouse growing!
With your donations, you can keep my greenhouse growing.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Have you considered covering it with cor-plast? I’m not sure if it would be cheaper, but it would likely be more durable than anything on a roll, even a woven poly.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I haven’t ever really considered it, but the idea may have merit. Do you know of anywhere that sells large sheets of coroplast? The best I’ve found would cost me about $700 plus whatever shipping would be - lots I imagine.
The 11 mil woven poly I’ve been looking at has a 3 year warranty and is said to have a life of about 7-10 years.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Hi Dave,
I see that u used finishing nails on your batten boards and the hole seems to have originated at the nail. The nail might be the problem with your plastic woes.
I have a small green house (9′x6′x8′) attached to the side of my garage. It is stickframed and wrapped in thick poly. I secured the batten with 1/2″ staples using a heavy duty hammer tacker spaced somewhat randomly (aim) at 1/2″. It has done great in the strong winds we have been having lately. Maybe give that a try.
Mike in e-town
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
one more thing, I ripped 1/4′ stripps of cedar as my batten. thin enough for the staples to go through.
Mike
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
On an earlier greenhouse I have tried staples, though without the batten - those pulled through. But I suppose if the staples were heavy duty enough to go through both the batten and the plastic, that may work.
I think part of the issue is the sheer size of the surface area - with so much for the wind to push on, it really pulls on the plastic.
Hmmmm, now you’ve got me curious. I’m tempted to give that a try. My plastic is pretty torn up, but perhaps I could patch a few pieces together large enough to do a test run on away. I’ll let you know what I find out…
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Yeah, i tried without the batten also. No worky….lol
have you considered moving the cross members of your framing to be between your rafter pieces? This would give you another contact point for the plastic/batten/staple and thus dissipate the wind forces better.
Mike
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
My original thoughts were that I only wanted to fasten the plastic at the edges so that I could easily tighten the plastic as it sagged over time, but I guess I won’t be needing to do that, now will I…
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hi Dave,
Sorry to read able the covering of your hoop green house. I’m considering builting a similiar model and covering it with woven plastic from the Northern Green House. Based on the published price list the covering should cost around $300. Here’s a link to thier website.
http://www.northerngreenhouse.com
Dave
June 4th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I am familiar with Northern Green House. If I do replace my plastic, it will be from them. My brother has an Aframe greenhouse very similar to mine and he had it covered with their plastic. I’ve only seen it on day one this spring when he put it up, so I’m not sure how it’s holding up. But guessing from the thickness and strength of the woven poly, I would think all is well.