[Strawbale] Re: Green roofs

[Rene Dalmeijer]

Amit,

I built such a small LB SB house about 3 years ago with a living roof. 
As far as I know it is still in perfect condition. The waterproof 
membrane is EPDM which is a form of rubber. Since then I have always 
used EPDM as a roof membrane and I am a keen advocate of green roofs. 
Normally I suggest the owner use the services of a green roof system 
supplier. But it is quite feasible to do it yourself but that does 
involve quite a bit of research.

What Patrick suggests is actually a very good suggestion ( see last 
mail below) but does take a lot of time. To build up a sufficient stock 
of sedum or other suitable plants. Maybe the best place is the roof. 
Start off with some bought plants and see what happens. Keep on 
removing plain grass and weeds as they die out during dry periods 
leaving the roof bare susceptible to erosion. You can seriously reduce 
the weight of a green roof by using a sepcial substrate with a lot of 
perlite. The last roof I was involved with is in IJburg check out 
www.strobouw.nl follow links English>SB houses> IJburg weighs only 
40kg/m^2

Rene
On Sep 29, 2006, at 12:00, strawbale-request at amper....muni.cz wrote:

> I am about to finish a small room (12sqm) SB, and interested in 
> knowledge of
> ¨live roofs¨, should be light because its a load bearing construction 
> with
> clay plaster, any ideas for light soil roof? also what kind of water 
> proof
> membrane should I use?
>
> Amit

>> Where are you my friend who is a gardener says look in local walls and
>> gutters for plants that are already growing locally in thin soil it 
>> will
>> proably be a sedum.  30mm of soil with 10mm of gravel is not much 
>> heaver
>> than tiles probably less than 100kg /m2 when soaked maybe some one 
>> else
>> knows the max load on bales.