Growing Spaces started out making 15′, 22′, and 33′ Growing Domes® by cutting glazing panels from a 4′ or 6′ wide sheet of polycarbonate with little or no waste. However, for several years customers wanted Growing Domes that were in between the 15′ and the 22′ or the 22′ and the 33′ sizes. In order to satisfy those requests, we created the 18′ and 26′ Growing Dome kits. On average, the 26′ Growing Dome is our best seller.
The downside of these two sizes is that we were faced with a choice of cutting the geodesic dome triangles from a 6′ sheet and thus creating a lot of waste, or cutting the triangles from a 4′ wide sheet and adding on a small triangular tip. We ended up choosing the latter option, as it enabled us to produce a greenhouse that was more affordable to the customer. Doing this also saved a large amount of glazing scrap from going to the recycle bin. The small triangular tip is attached with high quality aircraft tape and it is structurally sound as the tip is also screwed to the structure along with the glazing panel.
Overall, we feel this is the best solution for minimizing our impact to the environment while also keeping the Growing Dome as affordable as possible. Because we couldn’t optimize the 18′ or 26′ glazing, we decided to optimize the lumber cutting and achieved nearly zero waste. We did this by cutting the B and C struts of the 26′ dome out of a 10′ piece of lumber with no waste. The wall plates are also zero waste because they are cut from a 16′ piece of lumber. The 24″ Foundation Wall siding is cut from a 4′ x 8′, so the entire width is used. The scrap from the length of the sheet is used to make the undersoil fan box, further conserving resources.
Our warranty stands on all of the Growing Domes we build and, whether tip taped or not, all polycarbonate glazing triangles and wood struts are warranted for up to 10 years. We hope that you will share in our passion for the environment, and minimizing resources that end up in landfills. However, if you would like to have your 18′ or 26′ Growing Dome made from 6′ panels, without tip taped triangles, we would be happy to quote that for you.