Advice sought on polythene covering and metal base rail

[Caithness Gardener]

1. Having got ground tubes in and the superstructure up I an putting the metal base rail in place. At the corners I have cut the aluminium at 45 degrees. The metal appears sharp and could pierce the polythene. Any suggestions? I thought of using some of the polythene to construct "washers" but assume somebody has already been through this and got a better suggestion.

2. I am also looking for advice on screwing the base rail around the wooden door frame. I am planning to drill a 3mm hole and then use a countersink bit and stainless steel screws. As the frame is Aluminium I can't use plain iron screws. Will stainless steel do?

[burnie]

Your stainless screws will be fine with aluminium. Try making your "washers" with old inner tube as its thick and quite durable.

[millie]

hi yes when i put my poly up i used the water pipe insulation to cover any sharp bits of metal ,worked very well good luck .

[JennieAtkinson]

You can buy foam sticky tape from First Tunnels which protects the plastic from the metal. I did use this and it has been very successful, although have added an old bicycle inner tube in another area. Water pipe insulation would be good too, but you would need to try and hold it in place.

Word of warning, make sure you work out all the areas which need protection before putting the plastic on! Heck of a difficult to go back and do it afterwards. I know I tried !