Greenhouse Glass

McRazz

Morning All,

Apologies if this is in the wrong Category.

I rather smugly fitted a large 200l+ water butt to my old aluminium greenhouse this summer with a DIY 'Heath Robinson' style arrangement of leftover waste pipes I had lying around. Despite looking like the fabrication of a troubled mind it has worked fantastically well in collecting rainwater. 

All was good until recently when my butt overflowed (excuse me) and washed away some of the earth beneath. The result of which destabilised the foundation and caused the butt to ever-so-slightly tip, smashing some of my greenhouse panes (now less smug about fitting it).

Anyway, I've searched the net and can't seem to find any bog standard glass panes for an affordable price. Can anybody recommend a cost effective supplier of glass panes? I seem to remember these being dirt cheap, in fact I've even seen my local tip giving them away at one time! 

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Razz. 

wild edges

There will be a glazing supplier working out of a small industrial unit somewhere near you. It's a Yellow Pages job.

McRazz

wild edges said:

There will be a glazing supplier working out of a small industrial unit somewhere near you. It's a Yellow Pages job.

Hi Wild Edges,

If you've emerged from 1999 can you please take me back with you?

Appreciate the response, that's not bad advice - I'll see if there's a local firm who can knock some up for me. 

JennyJ

Google works too - for example I just put in "glass supplier Doncaster" and found 4. The headlines on their web pages are all about double glazing but when I dig down they do single window glass, greenhouse glass, mirrors etc cut to size.

McRazz

I guess its my ignorance on price that has surprised me the most.

We were fortunate that there were a number of spare panes left with the greenhouse when we moved into our place so repairs have required very little planning and could be done ad hoc from our stockpile. However based on what i've seen online my 5 panes would be worth over £200!!!

I was certain that back in the day B&Q had panes for a couple of £...

philippasmith2

When a similar thing happened with my Aluminium GH, I Bought some clear Acrylic sheets - cut to size - from an online supplier.  It worked well and looked good.

McRazz

@wild edges @JennyJ - I've emailed a local supplier. Curious to see what they come back with price wise. 

@philippasmith2 yes i have done this when i built a solar fan/vent during lockdown. I bought a sheet of perspex which i cut and fitted a solar powered computer cooling fan to! I'd rather keep it mostly glass if possible but appreciate this is an option. 

Pete.8

I put in a little 6x2 greenhouse in 2012 and managed to break a pane.
I found a company not far from me and they cut one to size - it was about £10.
That was for horticultural glass though, not toughened

JennyJ

I've paid a few quid per pane for horticultural glass for a cold frame (it was 2mm thick I think, quite fragile, but the thicker stuff wouldn't fit in the frame), but it was quite a few years ago and everything garden related seems to have increased a lot in price. Tends to happen when something gets popular, sadly.

wild edges

McRazz said:

wild edges said:

There will be a glazing supplier working out of a small industrial unit somewhere near you. It's a Yellow Pages job.

Hi Wild Edges,

If you've emerged from 1999 can you please take me back with you?

Appreciate the response, that's not bad advice - I'll see if there's a local firm who can knock some up for me. 

I'd be interested to know what prices are like at the moment. I had to replace a lot of glass after the storms in March 2021 and paid £85 for about 10 panes, including some special shapes. The word on the building sites is that glass is hard to get hold of right now and prices for double glazing have risen quite a bit.

JennyJ

Apparently all building supplies have gone up a lot over the last couple of years, so I wouldn't be surprised if glass has too (what hasn't?).