Needless to say, we shouldn't create large roof water retention systems without protecting the roof from them, which is where the waterproofing membrane comes into play. This tough material is the most important layer of any green roof. A dripping green roof (no matter how beautiful it is) is a failed green roof. Waterproofing membranes come in many different formats and installation methods.
They can be burned or scrubbed while hot, fluid applied or placed on pre-formed sheets. Redundancy and resilience are key attributes when evaluating waterproofing membranes. As with water, you don't want roots digging into the roof. Not only does this mean that the roots have punctured the waterproofing membrane, which has impeded its effect, but that the roots themselves can cause serious structural damage.
The primary purpose of the drainage layer is to move excess water into a drain or scupper and, ultimately, to remove it from the roof. There is a delicate balance between overdraining and underdraining. All of these factors influence the determination of the best drainage layer for a particular project. During a rain event, the first few hours are always the most exhausting for stormwater infrastructure.
The objective, therefore, is to delay roof runoff for as long as possible. On a green roof, you are already going through the plants, the substrate and the drainage layer. If you add a water retention layer, it will take even longer. Drainage layer This layer, shaped like an egg carton, manages water by retaining only the amount needed for plant growth.
The excess is drained through a system of channels molded on the underside of this layer, which takes it to the roof drains, to prevent the system from becoming waterlogged or significantly increasing the weight of the system. The filter cloth prevents the growing substrate (soil) from above from being washed away or clogged by the drainage layer below. Green roofs are built with some common components. They are often called inverted roofs, since insulation and waterproofing are not placed on top of the roofing material, but on the bottom.
These components form the functional layers of intensive and extensive green roofs. Common components include roofing, waterproofing, insulation, filtration and drainage, planting medium, and plant material. Of the layers of a green roof, none are more important to healthy plant growth than growing media. The plants are grown in outdoor greenhouses or nurseries and are taken to the roof during the milder times of the year, to help them become better established.
Here's a quick look at the layers of a green roof, so you can be sure that yours works and protects as well as possible. The protection and filtering layers, the drainage of the green roof, together with the control boxes, the delimiting elements and the evacuation channels are key components of a green roof system. It also makes modernizing an existing structure with a green roof more expensive than designing a green roof for a new building. Of the layers of a green roof, the first is the most important for the survival of the building envelope. Root barrier: flexible and resistant to breaks and punctures, this layer prevents roots from penetrating the roof membrane and causing leaks.
In fact, some professionals do not use the right materials or install the green roof layers in the right order. The type of drainage layer and the type of moisture separation or retention fabrics used in a roof will influence roof performance. Roofs with intensive green areas, with more layers and the capacity to hold large amounts of water, make this consideration especially important. While green roofs are impressive, they would only contribute to stormwater ills if they added lots of soil, organic compounds, or other media to the runoff. The bottom line is that you'll need an expert to help you choose the right combination of plants for you, as well as treat the underlying layers of a green roof that make it work as well as possible.
This cover mechanically protects the lower layers against drainage elements and also contributes to the uniform distribution of rainwater, which has not been absorbed by the drainage layer. The ways in which plants can be arranged are innumerable, providing endless possibilities when it comes to the design, aesthetics and function of green roofs. The electronic leak detection method can detect and locate any leak, even defects the size of a small hole, but requires the installation of a thin metal wire grid inside the planted roof and the waterproofing layers. Waterproof membrane In many cases of modernization, this layer already exists and, depending on its condition (watertightness), it may need to be replaced or not.
