Thursday, May 20, 2010

Which felt?

Felipe wrote:

"Hi Matt , My name is Felipe , i'am form Chile and i'm going to star my own green wall, but I have a question because i don't know what kind of felt i need, if i can use the felt used for hydroponics that i can get in many stores or have to be an special felt? please please try to answer. I'll be very grateful

Big Hug
Felipe."


The felt I use (MRM) is made for greenroof installations. A hydroponic felt may be similar but I'm not sure. Click here for a data sheet on the felt I used. That should help with comparisons. Here's the basic information cut and pasted from the sheet:

Moisture Retention Mat is composed of high-quality, recycled, non-rotting, poly-propylene fibers.

Moisture Retention Mat is used in the Hydrotech Garden Roof Assembly to retain moisture and nutrients for use by the vegetation layer.

THICKNESS: 3/16 in. (≈200 mils)
SIZE: 7.5 ft. X 100 ft. (2.3m X 30.5m) - in rolls
(715 sq.ft. effective coverage)
WEIGHT: 16 oz./yd2 (542 g/m2) 0.11 lb./sq.ft. (0.54 kg./sq.m.) - dry;
1.2 lb./sq.ft. (5.9 kg./sq.m.) - wet
WATER RETENTION CAP.: ≈0.13 gal./sq.ft. (5.3 l./sq.m.)

TENSILE STRENGTH: 380 lb (1.69 kN) ELONGATION: 50%
(ASTM D4632) (ASTM D4632)
TRAPEZOIDAL TEAR: 145 lb/in2 (0.644 kN) PUNCTURE STRENGTH: 240 lb (1.07 kN)
(ASTM D4533) (ASTM D4833)


Good Luck,

Matt

3 comments:

  1. Hi, where did you purchase the moisture retention mat that you spec out here?

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  2. Hi Matt,
    Great Blog, lots of instructions and very clear.
    I´m about to start making my own green wall, and I have found some www suggesting to use Rockwool as an easier/cheaper substitute for the felt. Have you ever tried with it. Any idea about advantages or disadvantages. Thank you very much.
    Alex from Argentina.
    alexschicht@gmail.com

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  3. Hey Matt, we are a group of people planning a vertical garden including an Aquaponics system on a building made out of Pallet Racks. It's hard to find the same Materials here in India that you have in the west. Do you know if theres a list of felt products ever used for vertical gardens or can you post some of these or send a mail ( contact sheet at http://www.fabsn.com/theblog/contact-2/ )? Would be awesome.

    You can follow the process over the next months on the blog: http://jaaga.in/category/tags/blogs

    Thanks
    Fabian

    ReplyDelete