“Go Green” Roofs that is!
Sep 10th, 2007 by Dan Standeven
I was reading an article in the globe and mail today about a relatively new phenomenon in North America called the green roof. This article was focusing in on the lower mainland of British Columbia Canada and how this new trend has started to take off.
The Green roof is system where the top layer of your roof is comprised of vegetation, or to be politically correct ‘growth media’.
This isn’t quite like throwing a garden on top of your roof and hoping it provides some benefits for your home, simply put this is a multi level system added as an extension of your existing roof which consists of the following: high quality water proofing system, a root repellent system, a drainage system, an appropriate growing medium, and the vegetation. As you can see there is some complexity to this type of roofing system.
There are some great benefits to having a green roof.
- The roof and all of it’s layers are completely protected from the your typical weather elements, such as extreme heat, rain, snow and everything else imaginable. Green roofs last twice as long as conventional roofing methods resulting in lower maintenance and replacement costs.
- Green roofs provide exceptional insulation, helping with heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Compared to standard roofs typical heat gains were reduced by 95% and heat losses by 26%.
- With the exceptional insulation comes the added benefit of soundproofing. Studies have shown the average sound level on homes with green roofs has drop by an average of 40 decibels.
- This one is my opinion only, I think it’s pretty cool to have a roof that looks cool, provides not only financial benefit, but also benefit to the environment.
Before I read this article, I thought green roofs were only for large office towers and high rises. It seems in the residential market that this is an upward trend and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these green roofs in the near future.
If your looking for more information about the green roof, I found a great website that explains this in much greater detail. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Real Estate, real-estate, Canada Real Estate, Canadian Real Estate, Green Roofs, Roofs, Environment
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[…] Real Estate Editorial gives a good article on city buildings and residences going “Green” by implementing green roof technology. […]
I have heard about putting vegetation on your roof to help with insulation and keep off extreme heat and cold. I really want to get this for my house as it really looks cool on top of a roof.