Generally Green Roofs Are Not Meant To Be Walked On

It has become common in large cities on high rise apartment buildings so that residents can get fresh vegetables or enjoy blooming flowers.

Generally green roofs are not meant to be walked on.

But the occasional incursion by an inspector or maintenance worker would not be a problem for most commonly used plants. Perhaps it is because we forget that they really are roofs and have to follow all the rules that roofs have to follow. It is not advisable to walk on the vegetation if the plants are frozen you may damage them. A roof is designed to protect the building and to shed precipitation.

The garden roof will be similar to these. It s only meant to be green without access for the public or assembly. With planting media of 1 to 5 inches thick most extensive green roofs are not designed for public access or to be walked on any more than a typical membrane roof would. For instance when you fertilize the roof once a year walking on the sedum plants is not a problem.

It is even more important that the roof covering be watertight to prevent leaks into the building. They are nothing more than roofs that you walk on. Can you walk on a green roof. The ones we are going to deal with have conditioned space under them.

A green roof also referred to as a living roof is where the roof of a structure has a garden growing over a waterproof membrane. Key questions to ask at each stage of the green building process tested tips and techniques for successful structural design construction methods for new and existing buildings information on insulation. Yes you can occasionally walk on a sedum roof. Would you consider a green roof to be a roof garden as noted near the end of chapter 4 such that the special 100 psf live load is required.

Generally extensive green roofs are not designed for pedestrian traffic. Green roofs offer many public private and design based benefits. Container gardens on roofs where plants are maintained in pots are not generally considered to be true green roofs although. Can people walk on the green roof.

However green roofs in many cases are meant to retain water over a longer period of time to slow stormwater runoff and to nourish the plants. 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 it may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. But we tend to mess them up royally. We construct roofs that are either vented or unvented.

For this puropse let s assume that people are not meant to walk on this roof. We don t know which has potential for selection at this point. Several modular extensive green roof products have emerged in the last few years that allow plants to be grown at the factory prior to actually being installed on a roof.