glas roof for beergarden

[billi]

Hi
I  was asked, to  improve  the  appearance of that little sittingarea in the back of an old Pub

One part of it is  to replace the existing corregated plastic roof with glas or Polycarbonate 6 mm solid  ( i can get in  to  about  2m x 3 m sheets ) the glass only in 700 mm width (or thats the recomended rafter distance )
I guess i could get the glass iin   1.4 m and have  the rafters in 700 mm  distance to avoid  expensive glasing bars to seal the gap ?

I kind of like the polycarbonate idea , not only cause its slightly cheaper,   but a lot lighter  , can be drilled throu and  there are  cheaper roofingbars  ...

What do you think ?

Thanks
billi

 

[biff]

Hi Billi,
        B n Q do a triple glaze 12mm sheet that is quite strong. They sell the matching white roofing bars which would only take moments to fix on to the top of your wood.
  I don,t know how near your B n Q store is to you but they do free delivery to us on goods over £50.00 and we are a 90min drive away,,3 hours min return journey .
 You could look up their web site and see what they have. You don,t need much off a fall maybe "3 in 10ft.
                                                         Biff.

[djh]

Polycarb is good and you can get bronze or haze if you want to avoid overheating, instead of clear. It won't last as long as glass but that's a trade off. Both will collect green growth on top.

I presume you're talking about solid polycarbonate rather than the multiwall stuff? If multiwall, I'd go for something thicker than 6 mm, that's pretty floppy.

For glass, you'd need to get toughened I suppose for overhead use, which would mean pre-drilled fixing holes or just edge clamping?

[billi]

Hi biff   ,  it's more single solid polycarbonate, I want to use  or glass  , it's a beautiful sky and light there in the evening,  so  need good transparency    ,  it seems there are  a good selection of shops here in Ireland
 
Djh, thanks yes I expect some dirt appearing  on such a small fall  and regular cleaning is required

[dhaslam]

Polycarbonate does become opaque after a few years.    Glass looks better but some way of cleaning it would be needed.

[todthedog]

Did similar on a lean to, used glass with glazing bead from a DIY store. Glass may get dirty but does not fade

[djh]

I was wrong. Apparently toughened glass isn't recommended for overhead. It should be laminated.

See e.g. http://uk.saint-gobain-glass.com/trade-customers/protection  Pilkington say the same.

[billi]

thanks ,  yeah i found that out too with the laminated glass  its about 50 euro per m 2  and 6.3 mm thick ... , if it breakes it does not fall down

[Ted]

I had a wooden framed conservatory that had laminated glass which I had fun demolishing some years ago once the timber had got rotten beyond repair. The glass can certainly fall down when broken, small slivers of glass can come off. The large pieces do stay more or less connected in one piece but the small bits do not.

If I had the choice between being showered in pieces of toughened or laminated glass I would chose toughened every time.