Big transparent perspex roof for garage?

[shockfire]

Hi all,

I have a rather large garage (7m x 3m) which had an old leaky corrugated asbestos cement roof. The asbestos roof has now been fully removed.

I plan on installing a new roof myself (with my Dad who is a bricklayer), but thought I'd come and ask you guys for advice.

I'm thinking of a transparent corrugated perspex roof to cover the whole lot. Perspex is nice and cheap, and i'm hoping it's strong enough.

What do you think of perspex? Is it long lasting? An adequate replacement for asbestos cement?

The only thing is, I don't really want the whole roof transparent. I was thinking of painting the underneath white to reflect sunlight. Again, do you think that's a good/bad idea?

The reason i'm looking at perspex is simply the price. Unfortunately, i'm a bit poor at the moment, but the garage roof definitely needs sorting

I've looked at corrugated steel, and it seems a bit expensive (not to mention everywhere I've found charge £80+ for delivery).

We have experience with corrugated bitumen (coroline/onduline) - a family member had a garage roof done with this, and within two years it pretty much fell down (the bad snow last year made the bitumen panels "sink" and warp out of shape), doesn't seem like very good stuff. Seems far to flexible to make a roof out of.

So is a 7m x 3m perspex roof a good idea? Or would you recommend something else?

Looking forward to you educating me

Thanks very much.
Shockfire.

 

[big-all]

will need support every 2 foot or so from top to bottom
how far apart are your supports

 

[shockfire]

Hi big-all,

The supports are all randomly placed (there is no standard width inbetween each one). I think the original was built as a bit of a "bodge" to be honest, probably about 30 - 40 years ago.

They range from some about a 50 cm gap, upto a big gap at the back about 120 cm.

Shouldn't be too much of a problem to add some more supports though.

The roof is slightly slanted along the 7 metre length.