Advantages of roof garden over rooftop

As our cities grow larger and our personal living spaces gradually shrink, more people are turning to roof garden

as a way to utilize wasted space and bring nature back into their urban environments.

Every building has a roof, so the idea of ​​putting a roof garden there should be an obvious choice. Why? Because in the absence of a typical backyard, a rooftop green space can provide everything a traditional garden has to offer, with a great view.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of a roof garden on the roof and balcony, the basic steps in its construction, and the importance of including professional waterproofing in the design to ensure the integrity of your home.

A roof garden (also known as a green roof) is basically a layer of vegetation that grows on top of a layer of substrate on the surface of a flat or sloping roof. The substrate layer contains drainage and landscaping materials, and underneath is a waterproof protective membrane that acts as a barrier to prevent water seepage from above.
Rooftop greenery offers a wide range of benefits, including:

Protection against temperature fluctuations, reducing the need for heating and cooling and reducing energy costs

A private rooftop unit overlooking the cityscape

An opportunity to grow food and plants and increase biodiversity in urban areas

Improve general air quality by trapping allergens and other airborne particles

Reducing the amount of runoff and the volume of storm water

Property value is added by creating additional space.

The benefits of a roof garden in the balcony

A roof garden is a green space created on a balcony or porch and can be a collection of beds and pots or even a vertical garden (a garden that grows upwards using a trellis or other support system).
Roof garden has several advantages including:

Beautification in a rarely used space

Protection against noise pollution

A private space for solitude

A cooling environment in hot weather

Food source of plants and vegetables.

Building a roof garden

Creating a balcony garden can be a relatively simple process that involves choosing the right plants and containers and setting up a water and nutrient management system. In contrast, building a roof garden is a much more complex operation and several important elements must be considered before starting.

get confirmation

Where you live is the first point, because if you rent or live in a building complex run by a large company, you will need to get a permit to build your roof garden.

Checking the strength and weight of the roof

The weight of your roof garden is another key factor in the equation. Even a shallow garden bed can weigh up to 60kg per square metre, so it is very important that a qualified professional such as a builder or structural engineer assesses the roof’s weight capacity before attempting to build a roof garden. to check

The roof must be able to support the extra weight of building materials, plants and growing media, all of which can carry up to 250kg per square metre, so your roof may have to be modified or reinforced to cope with all of this. extra weight
The size and strength of your roof will determine whether you build a wide or compact roof garden. A wide roof garden is lightweight and designed to support a shallow layer of vegetation and soil (more than 20 cm).

It is suitable for spaces where people rarely walk on the roof surface (except for maintenance) and is designed to provide high efficiency water consumption and thermal benefits while keeping the overall weight low. holds.
On the other hand, a compact roof garden, with structural support to accommodate deeper garden soil, a greater variety of plants, an irrigation system, and even some of the amenities found in a typical backyard, such as a barbecue, is a much more substantial matter.

Roof garden design

After receiving the permit, the next step is designing the roof garden. Just like a regular garden, there are many factors to consider when designing your layout, including:

Shadow

Your roof garden will likely be exposed to full sunlight for much of the day, so consider where you can provide shade for the plants that need it, as well as for yourself. Heat not only comes from the sun, but also radiates from the roof itself and surrounding buildings.

Wind

A roof can be exposed to adverse weather conditions in an area, so try to incorporate wind into your shade plan. Windbreaks such as nets and curtains that disrupt the flow of wind rather than stopping it completely will be more effective, as solid windbreaks are more likely to break in high winds.

Privacy

If you live in a residential area, you may be seen by your neighbors, so consider ways to create privacy for both of you. In this instance, strategically placed trees or sunshades are preferable to building panels or fences.

access

Consider how you will get your materials and supplies in and out during the initial build and then how you will normally access your roof garden. Can you use an attic window in your home or will you rely on a ladder?

Electrical wiring

While electricity is not essential for a roof garden, having a waterproof electrical outlet somewhere on your roof can help

Useful for working with power tools and gardening equipment and for lighting if you plan to enjoy your roof garden under the stars.

wATERING systems

Your plants need to be watered regularly, so unless you plan on hauling buckets of water up a ladder every few days, consider a watering system that does this automatically. At the very least, install a water drum and drip irrigation so you don’t have to turn buckets or pull up the hose every time you water.

drainage

All that water has to go somewhere, so make sure you have adequate drainage to get the excess water out. Ideally, this runoff should go into your gutters and eventually be stored for reuse in your roof garden.

Waterproof

You certainly don’t want this extra water getting into your home, so proper waterproofing is an important consideration (this will be explained in more detail later in this article).

save

Gardening requires many tools and equipment such as fertiliser, spades, forks, shears, gloves, compost, potting mix, buckets and hoses, so consider a place to store all these items, ideally smart storage in rooftop furniture. Include yourself.

wall covering

Covering the wall will help a lot to break up the space of your roof garden. For common people, wall covering allows you to combine materials on the wall or vertical surface to improve the beauty of the space, you can use wall covering for stairs, retaining wall, slatted walls and fireplace.

What plants to put in your roof garden

Another major component of your rooftop garden is the plants you plan to grow on it. They need to be hardy enough to withstand the wind and intense sunlight conditions of a rooftop garden and ideally require copious amounts of water.
Ideal plants for places exposed to light such as roofs are:

native grass (Poa labillardieri), spring grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides), blue jelly (Sedum pachyphyllum),

Cordyline, Hibertia and Agave (Agave americana ‘Variegata’).
For vertical gardens on balconies, vegetables and herbs as well as plants such as bird’s nest fern (Asplenium nidus), rabbit’s foot fern (Davallia fejeensis), devil’s ivy (Epipremnum sp), baby tears (Soleirolia soleirolii), wax flower (Soleirolia soleirolii) ) Hoya carnosa), petunia spand and geranium (Geranium sp). consider

You should also consider the theme of your roof garden. Is it primarily a vegetable garden or is it more of a decorative feel, perhaps with an Australian, European or Oriental flavor? If your roof garden is not a large garden, you may even want to consider a water fountain in its design.

How you maintain your plants is also important. Do you plant them in the garden or in pots? Whatever you choose, make sure you consider weight and choose lightweight pots over heavy ceramic ones and keep the soil depth to the maximum weight allowed for your roof (vegetables at least 20cm need soil).
You should also consider weight when choosing furniture and decorative items for your roof garden. Ideally, choose plastic or fiberglass instead of wood for garden and deck furniture, and grass or ground cover instead of concrete or paving.

Waterproof

As mentioned earlier, effective waterproofing is one of the important factors in the roof garden. While some roofs are waterproofed during construction, most require some form of prevention to prevent water from seeping into the building below.
In preventing water penetration, provide a strong protective layer that is also flexible enough to allow expansion under physical or thermal movements of the structure, without compromising watertightness.

Older green roofs often used bitumen as a waterproofing material, but because it’s an organic material, it meant that plants were eventually able to penetrate it with their roots in an attempt to find nutrients.
Root resistance is one of the important features of any waterproofing system, and a system that is synthetic instead of organic is less likely to be penetrated by plant roots.
Geomembranes are waterproofing solutions that address both of these problems, making them ideal for waterproofing roof gardens.

Geomembranes

A flexible polyester PVC sheet that is waterproof, UV stable, chemical resistant and certified root resistant, tear and puncture resistant for use on flat roofs, balconies, It is ideal for terraces, platform slabs, under tiles. Ideal for waterproofing roofs, balconies, decks, terraces, water tanks and fountains. It has also been tested and approved for use in roof sealing for garden applications and planting flowers and plants, because the roof layer can be placed in extreme conditions and temperatures.

Arin Khak company with years of experience in this field can help you with free expert advice in the field of roof garden design and construction.