Green roof
With a green roof, you contribute to the environment, save energy and add value to your home. These are just some of the advantages a green roof brings with it. Using those advantages requires that you find a green roof that best fits (on) your house. Sedumroofshop provides an overall concept based on custom work. This means that the roof integrates seamlessly with your home and will be professionally installed, including the substructure. You won't have to worry about anything yourself. Installing a green roof is a professional job. The Sedumroofshop experts will gladly inform you about the possibilities.
What is a green roof?
A green roof is a roof that is covered in vegetation. Not the kind of vegetation that is the result of neglect, like weeds, but more like a consciously landscaped roof garden. This kind of roof garden is a green, sustainable and environmentally friendly extension of traditional roofing such as tiles or bitumen. Roofs are not suitable for any type of vegetation. A roof can get very hot, so the plants need to be able to withstand high temperatures. Equally important is that the biotope does not overload the roof. That is why a green roof system is usually planted with succulents (sedum). Succulents are light and resistant to heat. A sedum roof stays nice and green all year round. In summer, the flowering succulents attract many bees. In addition to sedum, a green roof can also be planted with herbal plants like grasses and flowers. Most green roof systems span a few dozen square metres. In some cities, complete city parks have been built on the roofs of large buildings. For example, one shopping centre in Rotterdam boasts a roof park of no less than 80,000 square metres.
Enjoy nature on your sedum roof
With a green roof, you make a valuable contribution to the biodiversity of your immediate environment. Not only because you are growing plants on your roof, but also because a green roof attracts insects like bees and butterflies.
Sedum is a carrier plant for bees and butterflies. Succulents provide these insects with nectar and pollen. A sedum roof by Sedumroofshop adds a new biotope to your plot. You will then get to enjoy the buzzing bees and fluttering butterflies in the garden that are attracted to your sedum roof.
What are the advantages of a green roof?
A green roof has many advantages.
- It insulates well.
A green roof has a cooling effect and can reduce the indoor temperature by as much as 5 degrees. With a traditional flat roof, temperatures can rise to 70 degrees Celsius in summer. Having succulents on your roof will prevent that temperature from exceeding around 37 degrees. In winter, the thick layers of a green roof system protect your home from the cold..
- A green roof helps prevent cities from warming up.
A green roof system that includes, for example, sedum, evaporates the heat or loses it by transpiring. It returns the heat to nature, as it were. Compare this to the large amounts of concrete and stone that instead retain the heat and thus - partly as a result of climate change - increasingly warm up the cities. Green roofs are therefore a way of combating the warm-up of cities and thus of the climate.
- A green roof limits the inconvenience of excess water.
Our climate is not only getting hotter, but also wetter. Cities have increasingly less green space available to gradually absorb and retain rainwater. The result? An overloaded sewer system and flooding. A green roof retains 60 to 80 percent more water annually than a bitumen roof. With a green roof, you reduce the risk of flooding on your own plot and in your immediate vicinity.
- A green roof system purifies water and air.
Research shows that green roofs are able to absorb 95% of the cadmium, copper and lead, and 16% of the zinc found in water. A green roof not only filters polluted rainwater, but also fine dust and CO2 from the ambient air.
- A green roof contributes to biodiversity.
The plants on green roofs attract insects like bees, hoverflies, beetles and spiders. Roofs with a herbal vegetation particularly contribute to biodiversity. A green roof system therefore contributes to the conservation or restoration of endangered plants and animals.
- A green roof has a sound-insulating effect.
The biomass on a green roof dampens the sound. The thicker the green layer on your roof, the less noise can penetrate into your home through the roof.
- A green roof improves the quality of life in urban areas.
A green roof adds a bit of nature to the city. And with how much stone and concrete urban areas have, that's a very welcome addition.
- A green roof lasts longer.
A green roof system is sustainable in multiple ways. Not only does it contribute to making the climate and environment more sustainable, it lasts longer, too. The lifespan of a bitumen roof is roughly 15 to 30 years, while a green roof lasts twice as long: 30 to 60 years.
- A green roof can produce food.
Your own roof for healthy eating. Cultivate some vegetables on your roof and you can start doing just that. This makes for a wonderful solution if you lack the space in your backyard.
- A green roof increases the value of your home.
Sustainability is 'in' and energy saving is a 'must'. For those reasons alone, homes (and other buildings) with a green roof are expected to increase in value.
Would you like to know more about having a green roof atop your home? Please contact Sedumroofshop for a free consultation. We look forward to meeting you!
