Sod / Living / Green Roof

[tarmogoyf]

does anyone have any good DIY information on these ? google just brings back information on where to buy them or about them in general. not any real actual how to information.

[Helena]

It might have been organic magazine or one of the recent magazines..that had an article on green roofs. I would check into the most recent magazines..organic magazine, Mother Earth News ect. It sounds like an interesting w ay to roof a house. Good Luck..

[CamM]

Amazon seems to have a lot of books. Living roofs are heavier and therefore require wider beams, but you could add one on a low sloping gable. I went to a place called Accokeek and they literally put burlap bags over shingles with dirt and grew things out of it, probably had the rafters reinforced. There doesn't seem to be a lot to it other than laying/applying waterproofing on the sheeting and then adding possibly straw bales that decompose or sod from the building site.

[wyld thang]

They are doing this on office buildings in downtown Portland, OR(20 acres worth I think), and have testing at OSU. There is a cute little bus shelter in the next town over with a living roof. It's beautiful.
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1743

yay Oregon

[wyld thang]

http://www.permies.com/permaculture-...i-eco-building

[clovis]

One very cool thing about Ford Motor Company:

They have installed a green roof, as well as green sides to the plant where the F-150 is built in Dearborn, Michigan.

It is at their Rouge plant...I've seen it twice....pretty awesome!!!!!!

[clovis]

A cool link about the Ford green roof project:

http://www.greenroofs.org/index.php/.../290?task=view

Pretty awesome that they are anticipating a 7% decrease in energy usage. That equals a ton of money over time!

[texican]

I've always been intrigued with living/green roofs...

But I can't get past the 'permanence' thing. If I had a sod/green roof, and went to work for a few years, by the time I got back, I could have a collapsed roof, from trees growing on it. Anything with a smidgen of topsoil will get trees started, around here. I parked an old boat that belonged to my father, out by the barn two years ago. Noticed last week a goat jumping up in it to start browsing on some young trees that were growing... Looked in and no soil at all, just some indoor/outdoor carpet. I wondered what would happen if I had a green roof... doubtful the home could survive over ten years, even if it were overbuilt for the weight issues.

Of course, with a sod roof, google satellite view wouldn't give your location away....

[EDDIE BUCK]

I know these folks who turned a grain bin,into one of the most beautiful homes I and most other folks that have seen it,thinks it is as well.That dark green grass on its top,is mostly the reason.Oh they have to mow their house top from time to time.I never heard anything negative about it,but one more plus,they never need an ac or a heater.

Texican,if we ever go to war with Iran,our pilots might aught to strike all the darkest green spots first.Might be where that nut is making them N bombs,under neath that grass sod.

[anvoj]

I did a green roof on a portion of my house. It's a work in progress, but I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. I'm no expert or anything, just went ahead and did it. I made some mistakes, but it's holding up okay.

[foxtrapper]

The roof has to be strong to support the weight.

Consider the plants with care. Grass waving several feet high and trees up there are not a good idea. But low growing ground covers certainly can be. We have the latter here at work.

While most put dirt on the roof, you don't need to. Various other substraits will work. Pea gravel for example. Depends on the plants.

Depending on the slop and how creative you feel like being, you can work gardens up there. Though this is normally done on large flat roofs, it can be done on a pitched roof as well.

[anvoj]

I went overboard with the drainage layer on a 4:12 pitch, then wasn't around the first summer after getting it up. It was a dry summer so the sod died. Then I put sedum up there and it's doing great. In hindsight I would have been better off allowing the soil to hold more water. I have about 4" of soil up there.

[PulpFaction]

This is pretty interesting:

http://www.cityfarmer.org/CFgreenroof.html

[fishhead]

You could always put a ramp up to the roof and let the goats manage it.

A local guy is building a little village with green roofs. He's had problems finding the right vegetation but that shouldn't be a big deal.

If you used the right soil you could grow moss. That doesn't take much soil.

[fishhead]

Originally Posted by anvoj

I did a green roof on a portion of my house. It's a work in progress, but I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. I'm no expert or anything, just went ahead and did it. I made some mistakes, but it's holding up okay.

Since it would be difficult to shovel the snow off the roof did you engineer it to hold a winters worth of snow?

[anvoj]

the snow load is the reason I made sure it drains really well. I didn't want the roof to be one giant block of ice and then get 4' of snow up there. I'm no engineer, but I built it good and strong and it hasn't moved at all. Last year was its 3rd winter.

[wyld thang]

Originally Posted by fishhead

If you used the right soil you could grow moss. That doesn't take much soil.

True, that's right, I should go take a pic of my shed roof, it's an unintentional green roof. It was that way when we bought this place, the Leaves and moss etc falling out of the trees have built up and nobody ever cleaned it off and now all sorts of stuff is growing up there. This is just a homemade pole shed too, a corner is crunched from a big bough, and the roof is just that corrugated fiberglas and a tarp--I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed.

[tarmogoyf]

Originally Posted by texican

Of course, with a sod roof, google satellite view wouldn't give your location away....

Originally Posted by foxtrapper

While most put dirt on the roof, you don't need to. Various other substraits will work. Pea gravel for example. Depends on the plants.

so no dirt at all ?

Originally Posted by PulpFaction

This is pretty interesting:

http://www.cityfarmer.org/CFgreenroof.html

yes, that what Im looking for. I like the pictures too. Im going to have to go back and read that article.

Originally Posted by anvoj

I did a green roof on a portion of my house. It's a work in progress, but I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. I'm no expert or anything, just went ahead and did it. I made some mistakes, but it's holding up okay.

what kind of roof did you have to begin with ? a regular city house or something like a cob cottage ?

[anvoj]

I started from scratch. I bought some roofing membrane at salvage, put that over 3/4 ply, then a material called "platon"
( http://www.systemplaton.com/concrete_forms.html )
which is meant for putting against block walls to keep them dry. It looks kind of like a sheet of egg crates (if they were robin eggs). With an angle grinder, I cut holes in the bottom of some of the "cups" of the sheet and used it as my drainage layer. I didn't want to put a whole lot of gravel up there-so heavy. Then I put down a good quality landscape fabric (also bought at salvage) to keep sand and roots out of the drainage layer. Then about 4" of loamy dirt from the yard, then sod.
If I were to do it over I would skip the membrane-I think the platon is heavy duty enough-and not cut holes in it. On a 4:12 pitch I don't think I needed the drainage layer, and leaving the "cups" intact would help keep the soil a little more moist in the summer.
The idea behind having a good bit of soil up there is for the cave effect. The thermal mass acts to modulate the temperature in the house below, but if your main interest is the look of the thing there's no reason it couldn't have minimal soil.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Here's a link to an old 70's article in Mother Earth News on sod roofs:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green.../Sod-Roof.aspx