Even the most diligent homeowner doesn’t spend a great deal of time thinking about roofs.  As long as you do the general maintenance and have the shingles replaced by a professional when necessary, there really isn’t too much to think about.  The next time the need for a new roof comes up in your home, you do have a little more to think about.  In this day and age of environmental consciousness, you have an option in roofing that has been around for centuries and is currently enjoying resurgence in popularity.  Learn a little more about green roofs and decide if you think one would be the perfect fit for your home and lifestyle.

Roofing Contractors

Materials like metal and tile are considered to be fairly earth friendly, but a green roof takes things to a deeper level.  It’s likely you have seen restaurants or other places of business that have vegetation on the roofs.  They often use it as decoration, but this type of roof is not only attractive, it also promotes healthy plant based oxygen and certainly gives your home a unique look.  Thanks to a lot of work done in Europe with this ancient practice, this kind of roofing can be used anywhere in the U.S.  Let’s take a look at the layers of this kind of roof.

Closest to the roof itself, a waterproofing material is used.  If it doesn’t have a root resistant component, another layer with root resistant material will have to be added.  Obviously, it is essential for protecting the sub roof from potential damage due to the root system of the plants.  The next layer is the drainage layer.  A wide variety of materials can be used here.  Some people go with plastic or rubber to reduce weight, but it’s also acceptable to use clay or gravel as well.  Moving up the construction, you come to the soil layer.  Depending on your climate and the plants you are planning to use, this layer could consist of peat moss, regular soil, or potting mix.  Of course, your final layer is the plants themselves.  A qualified green roof contractor will be able to give you a good idea of which plants will work best in your situation.

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Tags: Green Design, roofing contractors, roofing ideas, roofs

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Green Design, Roofing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.