Over the years, the myths that focused on green-colored roofing managed to encourage the development of certain misconceptions. This article hopes to correct those misconceptions, regarding green roofs.
What is a green roof?
A green roof contains a system of layers, along with supports for soil and vegetation. The roofing itself requires almost no maintenance. The garden that grows on such a roofing structure does have to be cared for on a regular basis.
How does such a roof affect the temperature of the structure that it covers?
Counter to a popular misconception, green roofs do not collect and retain a large amount of heat. In fact, the presence of that layered structure, along with its vegetation, reduces the temperature of the roof’s surface.
That fact should be noted by anyone that lives in an urban environment. A rooftop that supports vegetation has the ability to moderate the effect of a heat island. In addition, it saves energy, because it reduces the need for an air conditioning system, as per Roofing Company in San Jose.
How extensively have the properties of green roofs been tested?
Do not believe the myth that refers to garden-filled rooftops as a recent and untested introduction to the housing market. A German developed the first green roof back in 1960. German homeowners tested the earliest forms of the newly developed rooftop throughout the 1970s.
Facts that bust some other myths about the layered system that was tested in Germany
The gardens that grow inside of such a system is not hard to irrigate. It does not require the existence of an extensive irrigation system. Of course, every garden should be watered on a regular basis. Homeowners did discover that green roofs tend to encourage the formation of leaks. Still, their efforts helped to perfect the system for locating a suspected leak in a garden-filled roofing structure. That system relies on the careful positioning of functional drainage areas.
The creation of drainage areas helps to hasten the rate at which water drains from the pools that have formed on a roofing structure. Of course, while a pool is not hard to spot, a leak that has formed might be harder to find, especially if the pool has dried up.
Fortunately, the proper positioning of the drainage areas seems capable of solving that particular problem. The drainage areas ought to be compartmentalized. The creation of such compartments succeeds in facilitating the location of any suspected leak.
Residents of some countries make a habit of using the extra floor that has been created by a flat rooftop. Perhaps their experience can work to counter the myths about green roofs, and thus aid the future development of such energy saving and easy-to-maintain roofing structures.
SAN JOSE