Greenhouse plastic

[mandikl0721]

Last year, my husband built me a greenhouse to go up against the South wall of our house. He'd done a bit of reading on it and made a good sturdy frame out of 2x4s with a painted particle board back. It's got a nice wide door, as well as a window that can be blocked open.
The only problem is the deterioration of the plastic. He wanted to cover it with plexiglass, but that wasn't in the budget, so we went with plastic sheeting, held down with lathe stripes. Obviously thicker plastic will hold up better to UV rays, but we thought than thinner plastic doubled over might be sufficient, as it was 1/4 of the cost. The plastic only held up for about 6 months before it started deteriorating.
Any ideas about the best covering? For the cost of the thicker plastic, we're thinking it may be better to just go ahead and get plexiglass if we re-cover it, as that would stand up a lot longer than any plastic sheeting.

 

[Jed]

I built a poly tunnel 25 years ago using UV proof plastic. I covered the tunnel in a light coloured shade cloth which has preserved the plastic to this day. The light colour allows the correct light spectrum colours through for growing.
This is the colour, photo from the internet.

 

[mandikl0721]

How much was the UV proof plastic and the shade cloth? While it sounds good (and not quite as hot), it also sounds comparable price-wise with plexiglass. 25 years for plastic and cloth is not a bad lifespan, though.

 

[Jed]

How much was the UV proof plastic and the shade cloth? While it sounds good (and not quite as hot), it also sounds comparable price-wise with plexiglass. 25 years for plastic and cloth is not a bad lifespan, though.

I can't remember the prices it was so long ago. I know at the time when I built a sun room on the house the sheets of poly carbonate were $60 Au for a 12ft/ 3.6 metre sheet. They only lasted 7 years. When I bought the new improved sheets with a 20 year life span the price had come down a bit.
My poly tunnel does get considerably warm and works a treat. I live in a cool climate in Australia.

 

[mandikl0721]

Thanks. I don't know if we'll retry the lean-to greenhouse again or just wait and do it completely right adding a sunspace to the house so we can collect solar heat for the winter.