Greenhouse glass

I had a similar dilemma, I found a commercial place selling up and paid £1 per sheet for my glass, admittedly I bought 60 sheets, I was most surprised the amount of people trying to buy it off me when I got home !

I also bought mine from a commercial glazier close to me -I paid about £1.50 per pane but they also delivered. It's worth looking on free cycle - they often have loads of offers.

I love free cycle,

Don't just look, actively advertise. I've been lucky enough to source glass from there

Thanks for the replies, I will try freecycle as a first stop and have a look to see if there are any commercial glaziers nearby too, did they cut to size? I thought glass would be more expensive than that I must admit. I was also wondering if it would be cheaper to replace with plastic or perspex or something like that?

Glass seems to be cheaper. Companies try and say plastic is cheaper but I have found it is around £4-5 a pane. I am after plastic on account of little ones.

Unlike plastic which discolours and can even go brittle and break after a few years, glass will effectively 'last for ever' (not allowing for hail, birds, neighbours' children and careless greenhouse users). Even the most mossy, dirty and neglected glass can be brought back to a shining clarity and transparency by a little elbow grease and a good detergent.

Somebody said they managed to buy greenhouse glass at £1 a sheet. That sounds so cheap. Here we can't seem to find anybody who sells ordinary greenhouse glass so we have to pay a fortune for normal window glass to repair a crack or broken pane. I've taken to going to tips and to second hand places where you can often pick up an old French door with large glass panels for a few euros, and with a little bit of cutting it is a cheaper option.

When we first arrived here we brought an old aluminium greenhouse and all the glass, but several sheets were broken. I therefore went off to a local hardware shop to try to buy some.

"Est-ce que vous avez quelque verre pour une serre?" I asked in my best schoolboy French.

"Oui, " replied the shop keeper, "mais c'est tres, tres chere!"

I asked him how much and was astounded when he replied that it would cost 200 euros a square metre.
Not knowing what to do, I added:

"Peut etre vous avez quelque chose en plastique que je peux utiliser au lieu de verre?" (Have you got something in plastic I can use instead of glass!)

He looked at me as if he thought me totally barmy, and added, "Mais la chaleur! Ca peut fondre!" (But the heat! It would melt.)

Now I know it can get quite sunny over here, but here was this idiot telling me I couldn't use plastic in my greenhouse as it would melt in the sun! He was the one who was barmy!

Finally, I'm not sure how, we realised we were entirely on cross purposes. I told him again I needed the glass for a SERRE or greenhouse.

Oh! he said. I thought you said you needed glass for an INSERT. (Pronounced AN SER)

Now I should explain that an 'insert' is the name they give to the closed fireplaces for wood or solid fuel which have a glass panel in front. He thought this was what I wanted, and of course it comes highly expensive to resist the heat, and indeed if you used plastic the consequences would be unthinkable.

The problems of communication!

Sorry to ramble on, I just felt like sharing that anecdote on a wet Tuesday afternoon.