Green Roof Structural Details

A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium planted over a waterproofing membrane.

Green roof structural details.

Note that it is not like a traditional roof garden in which planting is done in free standing containers as well as planters that are placed on an easy to access roof terrace. And to ensure the appropriate green roof assembly relative to the membrane chosen is provided it is important to understand how they work and how they are installed. The roofs are designed so that water drains vertically through the media and then horizontally along a waterproofing layer towards the outlet. Because water runs off the roof more quickly a thicker substrate layer is needed.

Green roof structural requirements. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Architectural details photo by tommy hileman. Green roof and waterproofing details utilize many thin layers which might not be legible if drawn to scale.

You need to make sure that the structure can cope with the extra weight of your green roof especially when saturated with water. The structural requirements for a green roof are the most important aspect to consider. We try to think of green roof details more as diagrams than perfect scale drawings. A green roof is a green space that is created by adding various layers of plants and a growing medium to the top portion of a traditional roofing system.

Green roofs typically contain a layered system of roofing which is designed to support plant growth and retain water for plant uptake while preventing ponding on the roof surface. Steeply pitched green roof 25 40. The key to any good green roof project is a good waterproofing membrane. There are many types of waterproofing membrane.