Green Roofs
The green roof is the one building element that improves with age!
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium planted over a waterproofing membrane. Often times, it also includes additional layers such as a root barrier, drainage and irrigation system.
Green roofs can be:
Extensive - typically less than 6 inches of growing medium, making them lighter in weight and often times requiring less maintenance,
Intensive - typically more than 6 inches of growing medium, allowing them to support a wider variety of plants but are in turn heavier and require more maintenance,
Modular trays - individual trays typically pre-planted with green roof growing media and vegetation and placed atop waterproof and drainage layers.
While each system is different and every project is unique, green roofs always help achieve a variety of environmental and cost-saving goals.
Benefits
Also known as eco-roofs, vegetated roofs and living roofs, green roofs provide many ecological and aesthetic benefits, including:
- Controlling storm water runoff, erosion and pollution
- Improving water quality
- Mitigating urban heat-island effects, cooling and cleaning the air
- Conserving energy
- Reducing sound reflection and transmission
- Reducing heating and cooling energy costs
- Creating wildlife habitats
- Improving the aesthetic environment in both work and home settings
Another significant benefit of green roofs is extended life expectancy of a roof. Based on 35 plus years German experience, a green roof can be expected to double or triple the life of the underlying conventional roof by protecting it from wind-blown debris, shielding from UV radiation, and buffering temperature extremes, thereby minimizing damage from daily expansion and contraction. This in turn minimizes construction waste in our landfills.
Applications
The first thing to find when considering a green roof for residential or commercial applications is the building's structural load capacity. Other considerations include access to water and the amount of sun and wind exposure the plants will receive.
Potential Savings
A green roof with about four inches of growing media (an extensive system) may reduce a building's cooling needs by 25 percent and prevent heat loss by 26 percent! This can be a substantial energy savings as every 1 degree Fahrenehit can reduce electricity use for air conditioning by 8 percent. Green roofs also make significant contributions to a building's LEED rating, with as many as 15 credits available depending upon design and level of integration with other building systems.
At GreenScaped Buildings, we speciailize primarily in extensive green roof systems. We also offer individual green roof components, such as growing media, plants and irrigation systems.
And of course, while green roofs are the single component of a building that improves with age, remember - maintenance is a critical part of its success!
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