Corrugated Polycarbonate Sheets Benefits, Applications and Maintenance Tips

Roofing 18 Jan, 2025 49 Views

Polycarbonate materials are useful due to their longer-lasting capabilities, immense durability, and thermal resistivity. Unlike glass, they don't break easily, and their appearance remains unaffected for a longer duration. These all features help them to tolerate harsh weather conditions like excessive heat or cold, rain, and even snowfall.

There is a special type of player in the polycarbonate segment known as corrugated polycarbonate sheet. These corrugated sheets are also polycarbonate but possess additional qualities like flexibility and light transmission ability. These particular types of sheets are used mostly in roofing. Today, we will explore this special class of polycarbonates in detail.

Introduction to Corrugated sheets:

Corrugated polycarbonate sheets are special players in the field of polycarbonate sheets that can be identified by their distinct wavy pattern. These sheets also have outstanding strength and high tolerance to heat and sunlight, just like polycarbonate materials. Also, these special sheets are lightweight, due to which they can be transported easily without gaining any scratches. These corrugated sheets are widely preferred by experienced architects for industrial and residential building construction projects where long-lasting roofing is required along with better light transmission.

Major benefits of using Corrugated Polycarbonate Sheets

Corrugated sheets have many good qualities that make them beneficial for the construction of industrial and commercial buildings. Some of their major qualities are mentioned below:

Flexible: Generally, people prefer Polycarbonates for their durability but these corrugated sheets also offer good flexibility, which allow them to reduce the pressure applied on them
Durable and lightweight: We all know that corrugated sheets are highly durable and lightweight. But what is the benefit of being lighter? This lightweight ability is a masterclass quality, which allows them to be easily transported anywhere without facing any cracks.
Thermally resistant: Corrugated polycarbonates are very good thermally resistive materials. Due to which, they can tolerate harsh weather conditions such as high summer, cold winter, rainfall, and even snowfall.
Non-corrosive: Corrugated sheets are very qualitative materials and don't corrode easily. This feature allows them a preferable option to be used for outdoor construction works.
Light transmission: Corrugated sheets allow the transmission of enough natural light by blocking the UV rays from escaping through them.

Applications of corrugated sheets: where are they used?

Corrugated sheets have uncountable applications in industrial and commercial construction projects due to their enormous qualities like durability, flexibility, and light transmission ability.

Let's explore some of the major applications of these special sheets:

Roofing: Polycarbonates have immense durability and thermal resistivity. These qualities allow them to tolerate a certain amount of bulk and thermal pressure. Due to this ability of corrugated sheets, they are preferred for roofing of residential and commercial buildings.
Greenhouse: Corrugated sheets have a very good heat-tolerating ability. Also, they don't allow UV light to escape through them. All these features make polycarbonates a better option for greenhouses.
Skylight: Corrugated sheets are very good insulators of heat, and due to their thermal insulation properly, they are treated as a good option for making skylights. Polycarbonates possess good light transmission by blocking the UV rays from escaping through them. Due to this, people can enjoy comfortably under the polycarbonate-made skylights.
Outdoor shelters: polycarbonate can tolerate excessive heat and can maintain the uniform passing of natural light through them. Due to this property of polycarbonates, they are used in making outdoor shelters.
Garden sheds: Polycarbonates don’t allow heavy light to escape through them, so they are good for garden sheds as the light passing through the sheets won't make the plants and people feel uncomfortable inside them.

How are they different from other materials?

The enormous and vast abilities of corrugated polycarbonate sheets make them different from almost all of their competitors. Let's compare some materials with this special kind of polycarbonate.

Glass: Initially, when there were very few options in the market, architects used to go with glass due to it's better shine. When polycarbonate sheets arrived in the market, people started preferring it over glass due to it's better durability.
Fibreglass: Fibreglass is an alternative, cheaper option for polycarbonate materials. Fewer people who have a low budget and can't purchase PVC and polycarbonates prefer to buy these fibreglass materials. As these glasses are incapable of tolerating the high heat of the sun and their appearance degrades easily over some time, good architects never recommend these sheets to their customers who have a better budget for their projects.
PVC: PVC also has a good fan base due to it's cheaper rate. Many people who have a lower budget always opt for PVC materials for their house construction purposes. But the polycarbonate sheets are always preferred by people having a good budget, as they provide better features than PVC at a slightly higher budget.
Acrylic: if we compare acrylic sheets with polycarbonate, then they get defeated in terms of durability and thermal resistivity but win in terms of providing better clarity. But due to the higher cost of acrylic, good architects always prefer polycarbonates.

Cost and price factors for corrugated sheets: What affects more?

The cost of corrugated sheets is not decided by a single factor. There are many factors that affect the prices of corrugated polycarbonates individually. Some of the major factors are given below:

Thickness: Thickness plays a vital role in deciding the price of polycarbonate materials. For example, a less thicker sheet is always less expensive than the sheets belonging to a higher thickness.
Quantity: Quantity is a major factor in the business segment, and hence it affects the cost in a significant way, but if we play cleverly, then we should always go for bulk orders instead of fewer orders, as prices of bulk orders are decided differently than low quantity orders. Low-quantity orders are slightly costlier than bulk orders, as they are decided on the basis of cost per piece.
Size: Size is the second heaviest factory after the thickness. Bigger-sized sheets are more expensive than smaller ones.
Customised sheets: If you demand the custom manufacturing of sheets, like increasing the UV protection or durability, then it can also increase the cost.
Quality is always a game-changing factory in every field. Quality is always preferred over quantity, so always try to go for qualitative corrugated sheets, although they are a bit more expensive than those of lower quality. For example, the material belonging to a popular brand always tends to be costlier than those who belong to a less popular brand. Also, a newly manufactured sheet has more demand and cost than those of older sheets in godowns.
Labour cost: labour costs during installing the corrugated sheets also affect their pricing. For example, an experienced labourer will ask for more money as compared to the less experienced one.

Installation tips for corrugated sheets

To provide a longer-lasting edge to your corrugated sheets, you have to be attentive during their installation. Here is some expert advice that needs to be followed during installation time:

Before installation, check if the roof structure is properly levelled and securely fastened.
While cutting the corrugated sheets for placement, measure the size of both sheet and roof and check if they are accurate.
While fastening the sheets, always try to use a reliable material like stainless steel or aluminium, and never use those materials that can react to the polycarbonate sheets.
Always try to space the fastening materials regularly to prevent the accumulation of water.
After placing the sheets on the roof, seal the sheets’ edges with a suitable material like silicone to prevent water leakage.

Maintenance tips for corrugated sheets

If you follow some maintenance tips after the installation of corrugated sheets, then it can aid in their life expansion. Overall, these corrugated sheets can easily survive for 2 or 3 decades if taken proper care of. Here are some possible tips from our side that you can follow:

Dust and debris can damage the corrugated sheets, so always try to keep an eye upon them. If you detect any possible dust on the sheets, immediately clean them to prevent the further accumulation of dust. It will help in maintaining the durability of the polycarbonate sheets.
At a certain period, keep detecting any possible scratches or damages on your sheets. If you find any probable damage to the sheet, immediately call an agent to repair it.
It's your prior duty to keep a regular check on the fasteners and ensure if they are in proper condition. In case of any loose appearance, tighten them to avoid any further complications.
Certain chemicals can destroy the appearance of your corrugated sheets, so never use any unknown or heavy chemical over your sheets for washing and cleaning purposes. Always seek expert advice before using any cleansing agent.
If sealant is not in proper condition, then it can lead to water penetration, so always be attentive to the sealant conditions around the edges of sheets to prevent water penetration.

How do you choose the right one, and from where can you buy these?

Choosing the right corrugated sheets depends on many factors like thickness, size, and budget. You can consult your architect for better accuracy.

For buying corrugated sheets, you can explore home improvement stores, local hardware stores, and online retailers. You can consult with your architect experts for better and more precise information.

Conclusion

These special polycarbonates are always preferred over other materials due to their higher durability and flexibility. Architect experts always choose these sheets for roofing in industrial and commercial areas where proper natural light transmission and higher durability are required. These polycarbonate sheets have heavily affected the glass industry as glass breaks easily and their appearance vanishes over some time, but using polycarbonate sheets removes these limitations as these sheets are very powerful and thermal resistant.

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