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Coating to waterproof inside of flood & drain table?
- Thread starter _Dude
- Start date
Bozo
Active member
Hi pete FRP(fiberglass reinforce plastic) is a product used in locker rooms industral kitchens ect you have seen it it is 4x8 sheets and has plastic strips at seems to seal the joints
FRP is more like fiber glass than the Plas-Tec which is more flexible and much easyer to cut they both use the same addhessive just read sticker on sheet smooth side is treated to accept addhessive \
I use 1/2 plywood for base, 2x6 perrimeter for sides and i screw the dog shit outa it (water is powerfull dont use 1x6 for flood table 2x6 much stronger just get very dry light boards)
I build the frame then cut the bottom peice and glue it in I then cut 5 1/2 inch strips for side cut them to length and glue them in
Then i caulk the seems (been usin Dap kwik seal plus kitchen and bath adhesive/caulk with microban gloss white never a problem) Take care to glue it well and caulk is must important dont hurry do a good job caulking is its gonna leak it will be from bad caulking
Table is done pick spots you want flood drain fittings to be .I use a unibit for almost all my hole making needs, nice clean holes in plastic .I also caulk these fittings in
I make my own flood drain fittings so I dont know it store bought ones fit 1/2 inch thick table you should check
Dont mean to hyjack yer thread Dude I know you wanted a good coating not a liner
Wish I could reccomend one I am afraid any of them could be toxic to plants and I have no experience with any of them .
FRP is more like fiber glass than the Plas-Tec which is more flexible and much easyer to cut they both use the same addhessive just read sticker on sheet smooth side is treated to accept addhessive \
I use 1/2 plywood for base, 2x6 perrimeter for sides and i screw the dog shit outa it (water is powerfull dont use 1x6 for flood table 2x6 much stronger just get very dry light boards)
I build the frame then cut the bottom peice and glue it in I then cut 5 1/2 inch strips for side cut them to length and glue them in
Then i caulk the seems (been usin Dap kwik seal plus kitchen and bath adhesive/caulk with microban gloss white never a problem) Take care to glue it well and caulk is must important dont hurry do a good job caulking is its gonna leak it will be from bad caulking
Table is done pick spots you want flood drain fittings to be .I use a unibit for almost all my hole making needs, nice clean holes in plastic .I also caulk these fittings in
I make my own flood drain fittings so I dont know it store bought ones fit 1/2 inch thick table you should check
Dont mean to hyjack yer thread Dude I know you wanted a good coating not a liner
Wish I could reccomend one I am afraid any of them could be toxic to plants and I have no experience with any of them .
Reg Dunlop
Member
I actually bought a 5 gallon pail of that blue maxx liquid rubber,and after the first coat,it seems to be pretty good stuff! It's a tad tacky and I can still see the wood grain through the blue,but you can tell that water wont penatrate the wood.I'm going to throw on two coats and that should do it!I'm really impressed with their products,and the guy I talked to was really friendly aswell! Once I'm all done I can post some pics and you can decide for your self if it can work for your application aswell.
You might find that truck bed liner coating the cheapest way to go. It will be hard to beat how it performs for this application. Easily found at any walmart etc...
If it says microban/antifungal it contains arsenic that will leach into your nute solution over time. This is why fish hobbyists never use it to seal fish tanks. Instead just use something that says 100% silicone like Ge Silicone 1 standard waterproof caulk-window/door/attic/basement/trim. It says "not for aquariums" but thats part of their non-compete agreement w/ the company (DAP?) that sells their sealant (for alot more $$$) for aquarium use.Bozo said:
Straight from the waterproofing professionals
Straight from the waterproofing professionals
Here's what works in all applications. You should be able to find a distributor near you.
http://www.neogard.com/Waterproofing.htm
Works on wood too. I know this because I used the pedi-gaurd system on my deck four years ago and still looks good. The sand adds traction.
Straight from the waterproofing professionals
Here's what works in all applications. You should be able to find a distributor near you.
http://www.neogard.com/Waterproofing.htm
Works on wood too. I know this because I used the pedi-gaurd system on my deck four years ago and still looks good. The sand adds traction.
Reg Dunlop
Member
Hey blind date, I actually called Ames about Blue max cuz I was getting it to make a horse trough,and he said it was fine for horses so.... But they sell it with another product to seal up larger cracks,which I suggest getting cuz when I used it I ended up with a few leaks which I had to seal up with some plumbers goop. But on a whole it was a pretty good product and the shipping was fast too.
DIY fiberglass reinforced E&F build
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=2066984&postcount=1
hope this helps. enjoy your garden!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=2066984&postcount=1
hope this helps. enjoy your garden!
Pond liners are great, you can put drains through them pretty easily. That being said, if you want a fairly cheap way of waterproofing wood use polyester resin. No wait geo, polyester resin won't waterpoof wood!
Yes it will, but only if you cut it with acetone or a similar solvent to allow it to soak into the wood. I started with a 10-1 ratio for the first soak, then went all the way down to 1-1 (I did progressive dips in stronger and stronger ratios). This was to rebuild a boat transom. It worked, was 1/4 the price of the other compounds that were available, and has lasted a good 8 years so far.
That being said, just use a pond liner. It's way cheaper, simpler, and we're not building boat bits here.
Yes it will, but only if you cut it with acetone or a similar solvent to allow it to soak into the wood. I started with a 10-1 ratio for the first soak, then went all the way down to 1-1 (I did progressive dips in stronger and stronger ratios). This was to rebuild a boat transom. It worked, was 1/4 the price of the other compounds that were available, and has lasted a good 8 years so far.
That being said, just use a pond liner. It's way cheaper, simpler, and we're not building boat bits here.
care to expand on this? I am building me dwc tubs using pond liner and would like a bottom drain. I was thinking about using a shower drain, but have been thinking some kind of bulk head. Looking for ideas???
I have made NFT tables for years, since my second ever grow, and have had liners of all flavours screw up, Pond, Membrane, "Very thick plastic" etc.. in actual practical use, they tend to get holes in or mess up. More than once I have had a crop lost to contamination from wood glues in MDF, that is why I stick to Fibreglass resin. Having read some of the links earlier in this thread I will use some glassfibre in with the resin next time for strength. In use a fibreglass resin is totally hard and leak free for years, the material is simply way better in terms of practical use and deployment, I promise you.
I think geopolitical is totally right about painting on a couple of layers with solvent reduced strengths, it goes into the wood and keys so much better. Once done it is even better than pure Fiberglass as it is so much stronger.
Like most/many UK growers I started with a Sunlight Systems [Nutriculture] "Coffin" tank NFT system, made with just glassfibre and resin. They work great, but have limitations [changing the res, remote res, sizes] and, as just fibre and resin, they are not strong enough to "fall on"... I like everything in the growroom as overengineered as possible, you never know when you will need to grab things as you overbalance......
Again, spend a few quid/euro/dollars on Molyneux's book "A Practical guide to NFT"... learn how to build cheap strong reliable systems of all types the right way....the money it can save you, that book will pay for itself so many times over. If it was not ripping off the Copyright laws and Molyneux's work, I would post the section on "Materials you can and cannot use" up here, it is so important, just to stop people using the PVC garden hoses alone would be good.....
dachieftan
Active member
That stuff sounds fantastic but my concern is that it's color is white. Wouldn't that make it vulnerable to algae propagation?
Hydro stores sell cheap bulkhead fittings as "ebb and flow" or "flood and drain" fittings. I've used three brands and Botanicare's are the only ones that weren't POS.
Dude, honestly, spank $20 on Molyneux's book, rather than me repeat anything and get it wrong, also, just for the ideas it will give you...
My first ever table was 240x120cm... 8'x4' Chipboard, 1" x 2" baton along 3 sides [2 long, 1 short..] slapped with just one, undiluted layer of fibreglass resin, drains into a house [uPVC or ABS] gutter, that goes into a Plasterers Bath [fibreglass bath 120x60x50 ish, 4'x2.5'x2'] Rena C40 Turbo pump.
3 lengths of half circle dowelling laid out longways on the table separates the flow into 4 channels, spreader mat [fibreglass "tissue"] is run off the end of the table and cut just above the bottom of the gutter, this way, your film of water ends up in the gutter, res not floor, neighbours ceiling.... with NFT systems, you need 101% care to make sure the flow stays flowing where you intend, otherwise, it rapidly flows elsewhere..... Overengineer as I said earlier.
You can make tables out of anything, a group of buddies I inspired ended up using Bakers trays, lashed to a stack of Milk Crates,draining into a dustbin, one of tehm used to pull 25 Oz from 1x600W regularly with one 2'x1' "borrowed" Bakers Tray, a £25 pump, £3 hose and tap and an £8 Dustbin. In my Gallery you can see a 1x off White Rhino lashup NFT setup run in Rockwool trays, gutter, Plasterers Bath ... a one off ghetto lashup, setup for pennies, 1GPW straight out of the starting blocks.
Okay Chaos thanks.
I think you hint at another great reason to look at sealants over liners. You can engineer sealed wood way more than you can engineer lined wood. For example, the way I build my tubs I have to do a tricky bit of cutting. First I build the tub. Then I take my bigger holesaw (slightly bigger than the fitting at its widest diameter) and cut down into the bottom of the tub, to about 3/8" deep. Then I switch out to my smaller holesaw (slightly bigger than the part of the fitting that has to go all the way through) and using the pilot hole from the first cut, I go all the way through the tub bottom. This way I can seat the fitting flush with the bottom of the tub so it drains better. The problem with this is it's kinda dicey and weakens the tub bottom around the fitting.
With a sealed tub I could do this a couple different ways. One way would be to just cut a square a couple inches bigger than I need for all my fittings, then screw a piece of ply to the bottom of the tub, over the square, and put my fittings through that. This way, if the screwed on piece rots, or gets damaged, or if for some reason I want to change the way my fittings are configured, I could just remove it and replace it with another without a lot of hassle.
Another good idea would be to put thin ply on top of the tub bottom to make gutters. This would be a lot harder with a liner because liners never just lie flat. They always wrinkle a bit. You could do all this stuff with liners but it would be much easier with sealants.
I think you hint at another great reason to look at sealants over liners. You can engineer sealed wood way more than you can engineer lined wood. For example, the way I build my tubs I have to do a tricky bit of cutting. First I build the tub. Then I take my bigger holesaw (slightly bigger than the fitting at its widest diameter) and cut down into the bottom of the tub, to about 3/8" deep. Then I switch out to my smaller holesaw (slightly bigger than the part of the fitting that has to go all the way through) and using the pilot hole from the first cut, I go all the way through the tub bottom. This way I can seat the fitting flush with the bottom of the tub so it drains better. The problem with this is it's kinda dicey and weakens the tub bottom around the fitting.
With a sealed tub I could do this a couple different ways. One way would be to just cut a square a couple inches bigger than I need for all my fittings, then screw a piece of ply to the bottom of the tub, over the square, and put my fittings through that. This way, if the screwed on piece rots, or gets damaged, or if for some reason I want to change the way my fittings are configured, I could just remove it and replace it with another without a lot of hassle.
Another good idea would be to put thin ply on top of the tub bottom to make gutters. This would be a lot harder with a liner because liners never just lie flat. They always wrinkle a bit. You could do all this stuff with liners but it would be much easier with sealants.
