What is Plastic Roofing?

Corrugated plastic roofing is a great way to protect your patios, decks and green houses, while still allowing a lot of sunlight to get through. A major advantage of plastic roofing is that it is light weight and very durable. In addition plastic roofs are easy to maintain and to clean. When properly installed a taken car of they can outlast most other types of roofs out their on the market.

The major disadvantage to plastic roofing is that because they are light weight they need to be carefully installed to prevent wind damage and they need to be cleaned regularly to prevent excess weight from building up on them.

Installation Instructions for Corrugated Plastic Roofs

Most Plastic Roofs come with special manufacturing installation instructions. This is a god place to start with the manufacture’s instructions and they could vary with different types of plastic roofing.

***Ridges are better vertical rather then horizontal which are in picture

General Roofing installation instructions are as follows:

1. Make sure that the pillar post are installed into a hole with a depth of 14 inches and a width of 12. Set pillars in the ground using cement. (May also be substituted with brackets.)
2. Make sure the roofing slates at a minimum descending incline of 1 inch per foot. Roofing beams can be enhance by connecting the with alternating bridge brace underneath.
3. Before installing screws, be sure to pre-drill the holes in the plastic so as to prevent the screws from cracking the plastic or from going in to deeply. One inch screws should be enough to hold the plastic roofs in place. Be careful not to walk on the plastic roofs because they are not designed to hold your weight.
4. For ideal resistance to wind, corrugated closure strips should be installed to all supporting crossbeams that hold the corrugated plastic roofing material in place and vertical round molding should be installed on major cross beams. (a lot of time this molding can be order at the same time as the roof and from the same supplier.)
5. Ideally the screws holes should be made in the valley of the ridges, thus allow maximum penetration into the beam under neath.
6. When installing one panel next to another, make sure that the two panels overlap. When installing the panels in on the rafters, it is a good ideal to install them from bottom to top. To allow for overlap and proper drainage. Be sure to caulk all the joint to prevent water from becoming trapped in the place that the plastic paneling overlap and creating more problems for you in the future.
7. Be sure to install wall end flashing on end that is connected to the house.

Tips for installing Plastic Greenhouses : When you are constructing plastic greenhouses, Build the frame work first. Then attach the paneling to the frame. Walls can also be constructed of the corrugated plastic material so as to allow the most amount of light into your green house as possible. Try and construct them in areas that are less susceptible to gusts of wind. Also be sure to provide proper ventilation at the top of the green houses to keep them from getting to hot in the summer time.

Plastic Roof Maintenance and Cleaning Instructions

The easiest way I have found to clean plastic roofing panels is by using a pressure washer. On larger roofs, with out a wand attachment it can be very difficult to clean a roof this way. For these type of roofs, it may be bests to use a mild cleaner, a hose, a pole brush and an extension pole. The manufactures listed as a reference at the end of this article states that it is best to use a 10% solution of acetic acid. This should be mixed wild cold water and rinsed thoroughly. If needed, scrub with a brush and a pole to get rid of mold or mildew. This solution should be a able to get rid of mold and mildew build up and allow the roofs to look as good as possible. When you are cleaning a Plastic Green house, special care should be taken not to get cleaning chemicals into the plants or soil.

References Used

Kremlite Company (http://www.kemlite.com/pdf/2517_seq_lit.pdf)  retrieved November 15, 2010