Repairing a greenhouse

[News]

We have a fairly substantial, and ancient, greenhouse in our garden. Base size is twelve feet by ten, but the apex roof is twelve feet by eight, because the two long sides slope inwards twelve inches each side from floor level. Construction is fairly solid galvanised metal (steel?).

The problem is that it is in the corner of the garden, and the local scrotes love nothing more than chucking apples over the wall, and breaking the glass.

It occurred to me to replace the glass in the roof (2 by 2 panes) with sheets of ply, cut into two ft. squares. To be honest, it is used as a shed rather than a greenhouse, so the loss of light would not be a problem. I'm not sure about the additional weight, though. We are in NE Scotland, and there is often a foot or more of snow on the roof, so

9mm ply, or 12mm? Is this practical?

Thanks.

[Bob Minchin]

The density of glass is 2.5 and that of plywood is in the region of 0.8. So you can have plywood 3x the thickness of the glass and they will weigh about the same. Be aware that plywood when wet will be heavier so even if you seal the wood now, this will degrade and the winter weight of the wood will be greater in time.

Bob

[The Medway Handyman]

A 2' x 2' piece of 3mm ply is going to be a hell of a lot more difficult to break than glass.

[Adam Aglionby]

Twinwall polycarb is popular greenhouse glazing pre sliced for easy mail order, try ebay

Cheers Adam

[Adam Aglionby]

Google groups will update sometime next Thursday, but here you go 10 off 2*2` 8 4mm twinwall for 24 quid plus Citylink

Adam

[News]

In message , Adam Aglionby writes

of the twinwall poly above, and not dissimilar in price to sheets of ply.

I did have vague thoughts about replacing all of the glass, including the sides and ends, with ply, to convert it almost into a shed, given that it is used for pots, garden tools, bags of compost etc., rather than as a proper greenhouse, but I reckon the twinwall stuff is the way to go. Thanks.

[chris]

Consider a cheap bird netting (not readily visible) fitted above the glass to catch said apples and get the best of both worlds - free apples and no broken glass Otherwise poly is clearly best chris

[News]

In message , chris writes

They're *my* apples! :-)

The trees grow against the wall, and kids can reach over and grab 'em.

[Geo]

We bought a pack of 10 sheets from ebay (£40 - seems to £45 now) but used 4'x2' so that no overlaps required. Did not fail last winter with about 18" of snow but certainly bowed so we cleared the roof with a broom.