Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
|
Espagbol
|
Sedum roof on a wooden building in Spain??Hello all, this is such a great forum I can hardly keep myself from exploding with questions...just one for now:
We (me husband and 1 year old) have just moved to Spain and are fixing up a small farmhouse...but I need an office so am considering a log cabin/regular wooden building with a turf/sedum roof to keep it insulated. Wooden buildings don't need permissions here but they turn into saunas in summer.
Does anyone know about how to maintain a turf or sedum roof in a place like this? We are right down in the south, in the mountains, where there is virtually no rainfall and we have to irrigate using snowmelt channelled down into the valley. It gets very hot in the summer, 35 degrees and up. Would sedum be better? I don't really know the difference but have the impression that instead of turf I could use a thin layer of earth and then indigenous succulent plants, which quickly spread and give gorgeous flowers in summer too. Obviously it needs to b thick enough to give good thermal insulation but still be able to be supported relatively easily by a structure made of wood and not reinforced concrete.
The main issue I'm worried about is that it might become a home for cockroaches and rats and other unwanted beasties (a local ex-pat got me scared about this!) I won't have a kitchen in there so perhaps it wouldn't attract that kind of creature.
Anyway, if anyone has any experience/ideas on these matters I'd be very appreciative!
Thanks muchly,
Medina
|
marigold
|
Hello and welcome to DS  . I have no expertise on green roofs myself, but I imagine that sedums would tolerate drought better than grass.
|
Midland Spinner
|
We have a sedum roof, we occasionally get grass seeding itself into it, but it dries out & dies off in the summer - the sedums are fine in dry spells (ha! this is the midlands of England - what dry spells!!). So I would say your sedums would be fine, you might have to water them if it is very dry, but they are fairly tough.
|
arvo
|
Hi! And welcome from Wales.
I imagine some more of the Spanish DS'ers will be along in a bit, but since we're in the process of designing / planning our house and I 've been doing loads of reading round I thought I'd chuck my two penneth in.
I saw a great design on an American website that I can't remember the URL for (I'll do a bit of digging and post back if I find it). But basically what they'd done was built a metal frame a bit like a hay barn (no sides, just posts and a sloping roof), then they'd built their house underneath it. That way drafts blew beneath the roof and cooled the rest of the house and I guess when there was no draft the layer of air between top roof and house roof would act as insulation. Seems it works in the winter too, but I seem to remember it was somewhere like Nevada so I don't know what their winter's are like. Whether it would work with a Sedum top to it instead of a metal corrugated like they used I don't know, but worth thinking about.
Good luck with it.
Arvo
|
Espagbol
|
Thankyou everyone who's replied so far!
Arvo, what a great idea...it would basically create a permanent shade over the building. Do you remember how much of a gap they left between the sedum layer and the house roof? I didn't realise exactly what sedums were until I wikipedia'd them...turns out Spain is FULL of gorgeous indigenous varieties which are very well suited to the dryness of the climate. I will post back with pictures once I convince my husband to do it javascript:emoticon(' ')
Cheers downsizers and any more ideas are always appreciated!
|
arvo
|
It looked like a couple of feet from the photos, though it had a sloping pitch from what I could gather. Sedum would work really well where you are I think. I reckon the key to it is sourcing locally.
We're going to natural roof our house I think, but being here it'll be turf.
|
|