Has anyone tried polycarbonate roofing panels? I want to build a 12 by 12 stall to hold round rolls of hay and use as an extra stall during the summer. Polycarbonate is lightweight which means I can probably install it myself. Just wondering if it’s going to leak or have issues later on down the road.
Assuming you mean corrugated roofing panels, the quality of installation is the most critical component of preventing leaks down the road. Polycarbonate, fiberglass, and steel panels all are good if the fastener washers aren’t distorted by being heavy-handed. It is one of those cases where too much or too little rather than just right will come back to bite you. The worst leaking I ever saw was after steel panels were installed by a novice who knew no better flattened and crushed many of the washers.
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As a roof yes, I have it used as “skylights” on my metal barn and as ventilation “windows” on the exerciser.
Barn is 20 years old and they are still holding up well. But if anything hits them, tree limb…etc… they do get brittle and crack/break then leak.
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My husband found some stuff for the roof on his shop called Ondura (I think at Home Depot)
It wasn’t cheap but is lightweight and relatively easy to work with. Comes in a few different colors too.
It did great thru Hurricane Ian and Nicole…
(House roof not so lucky)
We have the clear polycarbonate as the roof peak in our barn. It certainly brightened things up when it replaced 30yr old fiberglass panels. Husband sealed the overlapping panels, plus fastening the long edges down firmly, but not crushing them. They have not come loose in the terrible winds these last two years, despite long side edges facing into the prevailing winds.
My thought with using it as the only roofing, is the clear might let in TOO MUCH light. A stall could get pretty hot on a horse without any shade under a summer sun! Light colored stalls/barns attract more flies to irritate the confined animal. We like our darker barn, flies don’t come into the darker area. As a hay storage roof, clear will let in all that light which is going to fade the hay terribly. Light color bale ends are not much loss, but entire bale sides could affect nutrition, loss, to make hay actually cost more when fed.
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I have polycarb skylights – love the look-- but I live in the Hudson Valley, NY ‘wind corridor’ and most of the slylights on the east side of my roof have had corners lift up = flapping, water leaks, cracking and replacement. West side no problems at all for years; something to do with weird updrafts or other wind issues that affect the east side only. Constant problem.
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I have only ever used them as skylights.
But a hijack: anyone ever try to cut them? Thinking of using them to cover the gap on the eaves of a shed we just built. Going all the way up with boards becomes a headache of patchwork and creativity. I was thinking of using tin, but polycarbonate might be easier to work with if I can cut it to the right shape. Google says it can be done.
I used polycarbonate for my trailer windows but luckily for me it came in the correct size so I didn’t need to cut them to shape. I used polycarbonate shelf liners and they just happened to match the windows.
Yes, super easy. I used a circular saw and had no issues.
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To cut polycarbonate sheets we use a battery operated grinder with a cutting wheel, works fine.
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I have worked many times with 1/4 inch sheets of polycarbonate. Just about any power tool will work - circular saw, band saw, table saw, oscillating saw, etc. The key is using the correct saw blade in the tool. Same with drilling holes in polycarbonate. Buy a set of special drill bits with 60 degree points and you will have no problem. Drill bits for wood are 120 degrees.
I did my whole barn with Ondura, it was easy to work with. They have translucent panels also.
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I used polycarbonate panels for the roofs of my compost bins. They were just slightly too long and I ended up never trimming the end so I can’t speak to ease of cutting them. They’ve held up well for 5+ years though and look pretty tidy.
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