Corrugated Fibreglass Roof Panels?

[BakedBeans]

Hello all,

I'm thinking about converting a small barn for use as a greenhouse. Right now it's built with galvanized/metal corrugated roofing panels and my first thought was instead of installing lights, just replace the roof. I've been trying to research fibreglass panels to replace the metal, but I'm unsure of the light-transmitting properties. I have seen figures of 50% light transmission through white panels, but 70+% transmission through clear. Security is definitely a concern. What can you see through from the air and what can you not?

Also, how do you insulate the building around the corrugated channels? I'll have to go look at the construction of the present structure more when I can get out there again, but I wanted to see if anyone had done anything like this.

Also, this will be built in the south, where half of our year is in the 80's 90's and 100's. Our lowest temps are in the 20's but that's only for a brief period of time usually. It never snows or frosts much. I'm in Zone 8b.

I think our building is 30-feet by 30-feet by 25 feet or something like that. It's not huge, but not small either.

Does anyone have any tips? We are going to try for a full Aquaponic setup. This is out in the country, and my buddy wants to raise fish for food. I've been researching Aqua for a long time now.


Thanks!

BB

 

[trybud]

make sure your roof is southern-exposure oriented and you'll be good to go with either the clear or the white.I have used clear with no problems of being able to see in and ive used clear with 15%-20% shade cloth over it. it looked like a tar roof when we went over my place in a hot air ballon (i was in napa at the time)

 

[LORD BENIS]

Polycarbonate roofing would be awesome on a place like that! Not sure if it's the same as the fiberglass you're talking about. They sell little wavey/corragted wooden fittings that just slide in to weather seal it. You can pick everything you'd need at Home Depot. I'd pick up a few cans of white paint and give the walls a nice coating while you're at it. I've always wanted to do something like this. I don't think you could see much from the air, especially with a light shade cloth on top. As for heat issues, you may want to leave a few corner panels unsecured so you can prop them up a little and let heat escape during those scorchers. BTW, any pics?

Keep us posted man, sounds like a really cool set up.

 

[Tom Hill]

Hey BakedBeans,

Check out Tuftex SeaCoaster panels in transclucent white. It lets though a wopping amount of light- around 80% if memory serves. I can say that it's certainly proved itself too. Problem is it only last about two years before it needs replacing.

Another alternative is to use the thinnest clear fiberglass panels you can find. Not the "greenhouse grade", its to thick & starts out not letting enough light through for what you'll do next...

Next,

Buy some of that silver roof patch made by Henrys & rent a paint sprayer. Remove tip from sprayer & lightly coat the panels. Without the tip on it should shoot silver pokadots on the panels, try to coat evenly. You only need to have about 15-20% paint coverage max.
Mount these paint side down & you will end up with ample of light penetration, around 70%. From the air or even pretty damn close this will look enough like the metal roof you replaced.

I'm not sure i understand your insulation question, but i believe what your looking for might be called wigwag.

Tips? Yes, With that kind of heat you'll probably want to think about vent fans. Second, put the aqua idea on the back burner & use soil for at least one go round till you learn the ins & outs of your new building.

Tom

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you are planning on doing the same as me? These are a few pics of how my first grow in my metal shed with corrugated fiberglass turned out.

If your GH is in direct sunn all day you will have no problems growing some monsters in it.

GCG

 

[LaShY]

howdosligt ge i there garlic city gro? looks like its all metal!?

 

[BakedBeans]

Glad to see the bump. I'm still in the planning phases but my work has been going slowly. It is really hard to find light-penetration information on panels. I don't want to use a clear panel, but I might have to in order to insure adequate lighting. I was thinking of devising a shade cloth underneath the panels. If it could be hung properly, I could replace it with a 100% shade cloth for 12/12 and force flowering early in the summer. I'm in the south, so I should be able to pull off 3 crops a year, but I'm wondering if I could stagger growth to achieve better.

I dunno yet.

I went looking at Home Depot and they didn't have anything interesting. I'll check out Lowes later on. I like the Tuftex site, but the information is incomplete. There are links to Ondura, but that is more for commercial roofing.


Here is the tuftex site:

http://www.tuftexpanel.com/


Watchout, the Ondura link breaks Firefox.


bb

 

[Hindu Killer]

Kick ass grow Bro!!! I read in a old grow book about useing a shade cloth. And makeing it look like tar paper. From the air it looks like a solid roof, but the cloth allows light in.

 

[jaykush]

do you want this to look less like a greenhouse as possible. i would get clear panels and cover the roof then on top of the panels get shade cloth a low percentage like 30%. you could even go with clear plastic covered with shade cloth like so http://www.gothicarchgreenhouses.com/aluminet2.jpg this lets more than enough light in if you get the right shade cloth and the sun is on the right path. and dont get too thin of plastic, its gotta be semi thick the shade cloth with protect it a lot.

i agree with tom too grow in there once to see how it performs and what needs to be fixed before bringing in the big guns.

 

[BakedBeans]

Yeah, I will definitely be going with a soil grow the first time around. I have to pop seeds and that will make it easier. I like organics but will probably stick with a soilless coco/perlite mix and liquid tea or PBP.


I don't know how this will all shape up. I'm welcome to any ideas you guys may have. I'll try and get a Visio or Autocad drawing done at some point. Anyone have suggestions for modeling software?

bb

 

[Guest]

to deal with short and long days, think about setting up a retractable blackout cloth/tarp/sheet on wires that you can slide over the plants. then just have maybe one low wattage cfl per plant or whatever ends up being enough to make sure each plant gets full light coverage. the cfls can be used to extend the days to keep the plants from switching to veg and the blackout tarp is used to legthen days whenever the cfls are on (to keep light from shooting out the roof and glowing) and to shorten days keeping the plants covered but the cfls off.

 

[LaShY]

Starting to come together, definitely a top idea! If done properly could produce bountiful harvests without the cost of lighting!

 

[pumpkin2006]

I like the panels that were on top of that metal shed shown above, You cant see threw them and its obvious that they work.

Jay, sorry but that picture still looks like a greenhouse.

 

[jaykush]

lol obviously its a greenhouse. i was pointing to the use of plastic covered with screen. keep things from being identified from the sky and let more than enough light in.

 

[pumpkin2006]

lol obviously its a greenhouse. i was pointing to the use of plastic covered with screen. keep things from being identified from the sky and let more than enough light in.

Gotcha

 

[Guest]

I know this thread is old..........but for you greenhouse growers, do a lot of you run CO2 in the summer to deal with heat/increase production and just have a large greenhouse style vent fan either set on a timer or on a temp control that flips on at intervals or when the temp gets too high?
i'm thinkin within the next yeat of doing a small barn, maybe 20X40, long side goin east west(facing north south) with single downslope angle south (high on north end, low on south end) probably 15 ft tall on low end, 20 ft tall on high end to make sure plants dont reach the top. The roof would be angled to catch the straightest shot of light when its noon according to my lattitude to minimize deflection.

anybody have suggestions on the roof height? I want to make it high enough that i can grow monsters (which in this area is prolly only 9-10 feet) but low enough that i get the longest amount of direct light (not being blocked by the walls on the east and west sides) as possible.

 

[BakedBeans]

Thanks for the bump! We have been beset by rain this year. Well, that and life keeps getting in the way. We're still planning almost that exact same project!

We want to build an A/C cooled, CO2 greenhouse made with lumber and corrugated polycarbonate paneling. Our temps are in the 100's and super-humid in the summer but we have a long growing season (or several, I suppose) and hardly any winter with only one slight freeze per year on average.

We're going to be planting late outside in the next week. I've got some bagseed we're going to go through. Hopefully it will dry out and we can start construction!

bb

 

[BakedBeans]

Oh, and we're still planning on doing the barn too, but it's currently in use! We had to move on to plan B which is just construct something out of 2x4's or whatever.

I wish I knew how tall to build something for monsters. If you went wide you could always train your plants to grow bushes instead of soaring monsters. It may be too much work to keep the plants from breaking branches if they get too tall, especially if you aren't planting in the ground. We'll probably go with 10-12 feet at the edges and maybe 14 at the center. I'm not really sure yet.

bb

 

[jaykush]

for huuge monsters a normal type roof high in the middle and sloped on both sides to let the most light in. 15ft on the low and 20ft, this should be at least 10ft wide, that is more than enough to have some BIG trees with a few lb yields per plant if grown right.

if you use shade cloth in the summer it will let air through and keep temps down and plastic/glass/other in the winter to keep heat in. fans help a lot as well.

 

[Guest]

so maybe doing something shorther, say 7 feet tall on the short side, 10 feet tall on the tall side might be better......

pretty much, i can't have people being able to get a good viewing angle on the opaque/?translucent? panels.

like i said, this project is at least a season off still, probably not until fall 2008 will i begin construction and hope to have it ready to run in april as soon as the outside weather isn't dropping too far below freezing at night