Great Green Idea: Green Furnishing: Choose a Green Roof

Choose a Green Roof

One of the most interesting ways to make your home that little bit more ecologically friendly is to add a green roof to it. To some people this can mean adding solar panels or some other type of clean energy generator. However, what I would like to address in this article is the type of green roof which generates a living environment on top of your house.

What this involves is adding a "living" roof to your property and it is a system which goes back a long time in some countries and in recent year has started to become increasingly popular in others.

The origins of this kind of ecologically friendly roof are often traced back to the decade of the 1960s in Germany, although in reality grass roofs have been used in places such as Scandinavia for a lot, lot longer and are seen as a traditional building method in some places.

Europe is a focal point for the green roof idea, with Austria and Switzerland being two countries which are doing a lot of work to increase the number with are built by their citizens. In the USA some cities are now catching on and actively promoting the idea, with Atlanta, Chicago and Portland up front of the movement.

In some parts of the world you may have seen this type of green roof on office buildings rather than private homes, but the idea is becoming increasingly popular with home owners looking to make their home more ecologically friendly and in general terms can be used equally effectively on domestic or commercial buildings anywhere.

The idea behind the subject is, like most great ideas, stunningly simple. Instead of a pitched, tiled roof, you put a heavy, impermeable plastic membrane on top of a flat roof and then add organic material on top of that. Over time your roof evolves into a living, breathing space that gets filled with plants, helps increase the fresh air around us and also gives a place for wildlife to stay.

The benefits are listed here one by one:

* The plants which grow on your home will help reduce the carbon dioxide and pollutants which are in the air.

* A green roof gives a natural, healthy habitat for birds and other small animals who may be struggling to find somewhere to stay in a growing city.

* It reduces rain water runoff, which is an important part of water conservation and filter some potentially dangerous pollutants out of the rain water too.

* A well designed living roof can regulate the temperature of your home by keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in the winter. In fact, some studies suggest that a high number of green roofs in any given city could help reduce the summer temperatures.

Apart from these ecological advances a living roof can also give you great, natural sound insulation and it is a design which can be simply and cheaply added onto most types of new buildings.