WynterRye
- 15
- 3
The wind here blows like crazy at 6200 ft, dry hot.And you're at quite some altitude, too, yes? Where UV radiation and weather extremes are more... extreme.
I put Solexx up on my endwalls a year and a half ago. For 20 something year prior to that, the endwalls were just single layer poly. While the Solexx is a much stronger material which I appreciate, there are some definite considerations to take into effect. First, it expands and contracts like crazy making it virtually impossible to seal completely. With poly, while it might have slight expansion/contraction, the wire lock keeps it sealed tightly all around the perimeter so no openings for pests or varmints(mice, frogs, snakes, lizards to name a few that have gotten in since I put the Solexx up!) The cost is considerably higher than poly. While it lasts much longer and is not damaged by high winds and flying debris, you can replace poly many times over for less money. Solexx is considerably darker than clear poly. I see a big difference in transmitted light on my South endwall. Don't really care on the North side but I keep my lettuce and basil starts on a table at the South end and they definitely grow slower now with the Solexx up than they did with clear poly.
I have built over an acre of commercial greenhouse space in SW Washington over the last 25 years and I can absolutely tell you that I would never use Solexx as a cover. I can deal with problems it causes on the endwalls but there is no way in hell you would ever get the seams to stay together as a main cover. I can only imagine all the leaks as well as bug problems it would create. While I would love to find a longer lasting, more durable cover than poly, it still provides the best ROI and suitability in this part of the country.
I don't have water leaks as it's overlapped to prevent that. What leaks is air from the gaps it creates when it expands in the heat. With those gaps being large enough to let in any type of insect and even rodents. It's screwed down at half the recommended distance(twice as many screws as called for) and it still buckles. The material expands and contracts like any other plastic does when exposed to heat and cold. The ends are sealed as well but that doesn't do anything for keeping pests out of the greenhouse itself. It simply keeps them from getting in between the top and bottom of the material. And yes, I'm sure of what material I used and that it was "installed properly". This wasn't my first go around putting up sidewalls or entire greenhouse structures for that matter.[/quote
Wow strange I have never had any expansion.....
Mine is a lot wider and that may be the problem. It's screwed into treated 2x4's and 2x6's as well as the steel greenhouse frame. I will get some images of it showing the problems in the next week and post them. It looked perfect at the time I installed it but that was during the Winter. First hot days and it buckled. It shrinks back during the cold but the problem is that when it expands, it breaks the silicone seals at the overlaps.15 by 40, 6800 feet elevation. Full on summer high hot dry windy as fuck desert
If you look at pics, we screwed into the 1 by 4s lengthwise overlapping around 4 inches, rolls were 5 feet wide I think, so maybe longer run on that wood has prevented any gaps, Not knoxking your install, sorry, just trying to figure out why you got gaps, hope you can figure it out cause it has really served us well....time now for coffee and pax vape.....would be nice to see it work for you as well as it works for us....
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