Alternative greenhouse building materials?

Question

Is there any other material that will let the sun in and retain the heat in. like a plastic tarp or something. If you have any solutions for this problem please specify means of acquiring this material also.

Answer 1

Ok here you go......

My landlord is a genius when it comes to recycling materials that people discard. He just built an outdoor storage that could double as a greenhouse. Its one of those plastic pipe "rib" structures that it took many man hours to make. The beauty of the plastic pcv piping is that its light and malable.

Contact a local well drilling company and let them know you want them to deliver old pipe to your backyard. You see they often have to remove old pipe in existing wells and replace it with new pipe cause that stuff has a life of about 25-35 years. They usually have to pay a junk yard to take it. The method he uses for bending the pipe is heat applied by a simple plumber's solderiing torch.

He goes to the local lumber yard to get the mesh plastic that they use to cover skids of materials delivered to the lumber yard and they throw it in the garbage and use this as the main covering material on the storage unit. You could cover the bottom half or so of the green house with this material. Its usually a white color plastic and could eventually be painted on the outside it you wanted to. You will have to use a clear plastic marterial  for the top half of the unit to allow sunlight in.  You won't need a lot but you can do the bottom half with the mesh plastic and for the top you should use a clear heavy plastic. He recycled a metal storm door as the main entrance and he build a crude frame window on each side to allow air to circulate. You could also recycle old fans from computers to use as air circulating units.

Answer 2

...alternative to glass?

Commercial greenhouse film.  Clear polyethylene lasts 3 yrs if UV stabilized.  Use two layers and a small inflation fan to blow ambient air between the layers for insulation.

Lexan or other brand of double-walled polycarbonate.  Any greenhouse supply company or maybe lumberyards have it.

I have bought grommeted clear poly woven tarp material.  I have forgotten where I got it but found it online a few years ago.  It has been useful for covering plants under a frame on frosty nights -- but I have had just as good a result with light-weight frost covers that just lay on the plants and much easier to take on and off.

if you don't use the airtight two layers, there is not much insulation.  Plants under single-layer clear material will cook in the day and freeze at night -- it is why nursery growers overwinter in cold frames covered with single layer white poly.  The white reflects some of the daytime solar gain, and the cover still retains enough heat to raise nighttime temps by a degree or several compared to outside.

In any case you need to figure out how to get the heat out as well as hold it in!

Answer 3

Try going to a building salvage yard and using windows, sliding glass doors or glass shower enclosures- you can tint them with glass paint to reduce the harshness but it will work. Good Luck!