[Bigfatsi]

Hi,

I'm looking to build a net-tunnel for the garden in a similar way to the polytunnel designs you can find on the Internet.

Unfortunately, I'm on a tight (very tight) budget. To date I've bought a 50m x 3m debris net in preparation.

My idea is to buy 50m of 20mm water pipe to make 6x8m ribs spaced 2.6m apart giving me a width of 5m, length of 13m and apex (if you can call a dome an apex) of around 2.5m.

This will be held up with 12x3 foot lengths of rebar, sunk 2 feet in.

Does this make sense? Can I go to 2.6m between ribs? Will 20mm pipe be strong enough?

Constructive criticism is happily received. I don't want to spend money on a chocolate fire guard!

TIA

Simon

[Bigfatsi]

Went with 25mm pipe. No good. Nowhere near rigid enough. £30 lesson learned.

S

[mumofstig]

oh dear 

[smud6ie]

Went with 25mm pipe. No good. Nowhere near rigid enough. £30 lesson learned.

S

With all due respect,you hardy gave anyone time to reply!! Question posted at 11:02pm and you had bought and tried the 25mm by 4:38pm,still lets hope you find some use or a good home for whats left.
smud6ie

[Bigfatsi]

Needed to make hay (or net tunnel in this case) while sun shines! Lol

Just thought I'd update to let anyone else who was interested know it was a no go. Collective experience and all that guff!

S

[angelavdavis]

Went with 25mm pipe. No good. Nowhere near rigid enough. £30 lesson learned.

S

Hopefully you haven't completely wasted your money as you can always reuse it to make smaller versions.

From my experience, 25mm is strong enough for a 1200mm span.

[jrko]

if you bought enough you could triple or quadruple it with duct tape.  That should be tougher than the equivalent single pipe due to the increased outside circumference. 

[Bigfatsi]

Hmmm, that's a though Jrko (scratches chin).

I might give that a go tonight.

Will feedback later ;-)

S

[crh75]

I built a similar tunnel for my Brassicas.  It is 3m x 7m.  I made 5 lengths of the 25mm blue pipe each 5m long.  Using 3’ metal stakes I fixed these just over 1.5m apart in parallel down the edge of the bed.  The pipe was bent over between the two opposite stakes.  Down the centre of the bed I used longer stakes to hold the centre of the pipe in place using duct tape to hold it.  The using more stakes I made a ridge along the top like a backbone, again held in place with duct tape.  This has survived the recent high winds.
Unfortunately I do not have a clear picture of it, but you can just see it in the background of the attached picture.

[andtiggertoo]

Perhaps try bendy tent poles if you know someone with an unwanted broken tent.

[surbie100]

Perhaps try bendy tent poles if you know someone with an unwanted broken tent.

Any festivals near you this summer? Each one has a huge amount of abandoned tents at the end that they have to dispose of...