Where can I find 20 MIL Polypropylene (plastic sheeting)?
New to the board, been lurking for a while. I hope you guys can help, not really a landscaping question but you my have idea on where to find the plastic that I need.
I'm looking for something in the area of 20 mil plastic sheeting. Something similar I've seen used in drainage ditches or pond liners. It does not need to be fish safe, I'm going to try and fab a elevated deck drainage system so the area below stays dry. Anyway kinda at a loss on where in town to look. Any ideas? Lowes, Home Depot of no help, I just get blank looks. What kind of business might carry something like this?
Basically I plan to lay my membrane (what ever it turns out to be) across the joists letting it droop or sag between joists. I'll create the required pitch by letting the end away from the house sag more than the part that's against the house. Actually to make it work I'll have to cut the membrane into strips that are wider on on end than the other (the strips will be about 8' long, the strips will also need to be cut wider than the joist spacing, IE - for 16" joists cut one end say 20" wide and the other end 26" wide), I'll then attach the two long edges to the top of the joists. Making the two long sides parallel to each other, this will in turn make the 26" end droop more than the 20" wide end. Will also install a gutter to divert the run off to the side. Not sure I explained my idea too well but I do have a good picture in my mind of how it will work.
I get what you're trying to do, but I'm wondering about the long term durability of the connection of the material to the deck, given the stress of it hanging by whatever it's hanging by (nails? screws?).
Does the deck already have a slight pitch? That might eliminate the need to the have the sagging membrane. I'm not quite sure I understood how you'd drain each of these droopy membranes into a gutter. Unless it's a sizeable trough, I'm thinking there will be issues with water going where you don't want it.
Where in zone 7 is "in town"? If you're in Northern VA I may have a couple recommendations.
Don't know if you're aware, but there's a commercially available dry-deck system that sounds like exactly what you're proposing. It goes on before the decking, but you basically lay down a bead of adhesive on the joist, attach your plastic with staples, and attach your decking. Seen from underneath it's seriously fugly, so you need to factor in a ceiling- either T&G Azek could work, or even vinyl porch ceiling.
Yes near NoVa, I know of a couple systems (DrySnap is one, DryLock? is the other)that are designed to do what i need. However they are expensive, about $500+ for my deck size. I hope to keep my cost to the $200 range, but we'll see. I do plan on attaching in the manner you discribe. I also plan to cover all the fugly mess with T&G.
Why not just do it the right way and save the T&G for later when you have more cash.
Wait a minute I see a future thread coming (dream sequence music) :
Hi, I was wondering if you guys could help me out. Here's my sitiation. I just attached 20 mil polypropylene under my deck to prevent water from draining onto the patio below. I covered up the bellyside with tongue and groove lumber to dress it up and boy did it look good. Well wouldn't you know it, it rained pretty hard last night and I guess the poly separated from the joists and somehow leaked onto the T&G which apparently can hold quite a bit of water itself. When the ceiling came down, it shattered the picnic table, lounge chairs and my brandy new Weber Grill. Hell, it damn near killed the cat. That $300 I was trying to save certainly cost me a bundle.
Anybody know a good dumpster company and divorce attorney.
Jody- I don't know what you mean. My wife would be totally mellow about that!
missin- There's a product called RainEscape that's pretty much exactly what you're proposing to do, but I believe it's even heavier. Smitty's sells it- they have lumber yards all over NoVA. They'd probably also have the 20 mil sheeting.
Just FYI, I've seen underdeck systems where people have used aluminum or AZEK ceilings alone to catch and funnel the water. The biggest concern I would think is standing the ceiling off the joists enough to get proper fall, while making sure it's securely anchored. And obviously, if you have intermediate posts and/or beams, you're going to get water coming through in those areas. So indoor/outdoor ping pong table=okay; 19th century Chinese chest-on-chest, not so much.
Jody- I don't know what you mean. My wife would be totally mellow about that!
missin- There's a product called RainEscape that's pretty much exactly what you're proposing to do, but I believe it's even heavier. Smitty's sells it- they have lumber yards all over NoVA. They'd probably also have the 20 mil sheeting.
Just FYI, I've seen underdeck systems where people have used aluminum or AZEK ceilings alone to catch and funnel the water. The biggest concern I would think is standing the ceiling off the joists enough to get proper fall, while making sure it's securely anchored. And obviously, if you have intermediate posts and/or beams, you're going to get water coming through in those areas. So indoor/outdoor ping pong table=okay; 19th century Chinese chest-on-chest, not so much.
Papercutter - You're right, RainEscape is for the most part exactly what i plan to do. They even use 20 mil plastic in thier system. Will check out Smitty's, thanks. Once I'm done I'll let you know how it worked out. Just checked on the price of RainEscape, about $850
You were asking where you can find 20 mil polyethylene...I don't know of any stores that carry it, but you can order it on line. Try Global Plastic Sheeting. Their webstite is their name. They carry all kinds of plastic sheeting for just about any application you can think of. I hope this helps.
Never liked that cat anyhow.
