As surface area increases the weight of green roofs obviously increases proportionally.
Weight of extensive green roof.
So in dry state 50 m2 traditional green roof weighs around 5 tons while a similar sized urbanscape roof weighs just 1 ton.
Roughly speaking extensive green roofs have a thickness of between 4 and 15 cm and a weight of between 30 and 220 kg m2.
Intensive green roofs are essentially roof gardens and may also need to allow for the additional weight of paving and terracing furniture and even trees.
Such facilities include different types of plants with the shallow root system.
Green roofs consist of a number of layers including a waterproofing layer drainage layer substrate and planting.
The planting medium in intensive green roofs starts at 6 inches although you will see some wiggle room in various definitions and really elaborate designs may exceed a couple feed.
It weighs 60 and 200kg per square metre.
A green roof is a layer of vegetation planted over a waterproofing system that is installed on top of a flat or slightly sloped roof.
An interesting example of an intensive green roof is manaton the award winning private house on dartmoor that uses local meadow grass to blend the family home into the landscape.
Green roofs are also known as vegetative or eco roofs.
You can plant plants that have a shallow root system on these roofs.
Intensive green roofs weigh from 35 pounds to beyond 100 pounds per square foot when dry it is all a matter of the soil depth which is affected by the amount of mounding that is used.
Green roofs which are planted and seeded tend to perform better in the long term.
Extensive roofs are lower maintenance that intensive ones and lighter in weight.
They fall into three main categories extensive intensive and semi intensive.
Extensive green roofs traditionally support 50 120 kg m 2 10 25 pounds per square foot of vegetation while intensive roofs support 390 730 kg m 2 80 150 pounds per square foot of vegetation.
What is a green roof.
A green roof with a lightweight solution of 30 kg m2 is only possible with sedum vegetation and a green roof with a weight of 220 kg m2 is composed of a combination of sedum grasses herbs or host plants.
Once the plants are installed and the soil is moist these rooftop green spaces can weigh as much as 150 pounds per square foot.