The Grass Roof Company - Retro Fitting

RETRO-FITTING GREEN ROOFS

Retro-fitting green roofs on existing buildings has become a bigger part of our work. The potential of a green roof to add biodiversity and colour to a building is finally being recognised. It is the most sustainable way to get 'green' into our urban areas.

Here are some examples of greening existing buildings. After we have strengthened the structure internally we use a stone gabion edge to allow the water off the roof but keep the soil/substrate on. Combining this detail with a new root protected waterproof liner literally breathes new life into a tired building.

RETRO-FIT AT MONTEM PRIMARY SCHOOL

We worked with the amazing Sophia Ioannou to fit a new living roof onto an existing structure in the centre of the playground. We had to strengthen the existing roof extensively to support the 200kg/m2 weight we were adding to the structure.

We also installed irrigation to help establish the plants and give them a chance through the now rather regular London droughts!

SUB-STATION RETRO-FIT

A lovely community garden was built around this substation in Southwark. Driven by Carole Wright and the residents it was a fantastic space, other than 1 thing, the sub station and its drab felt roof overlooked by most of the residents. With funding from Southwark council and with help from Nils Battye money was raised for us to ‘green’ the sub-station roof.

Please click the photos for a larger, more detailed view - click again to close.


A school PE shed before retro green roof was fitted.	Showing the school PE shed with the green roof and recycled sustainable material panels.	Summer house roof with 'garden' planting.	Retro-fit green roof on a standard garden shed.


A shelter showing the stone gabion edge.	A container and a generator roof have had a green roof fitted. Containers are particularly suitable for this.	The container roof 4 months after planting!	Here we have used the gabion edge combined with out modular green roof tray system to cover a used freight container.


Plants waiting to be planted into the biodiverse substrate mix at Montem Primary School. The ground was still frozen solid when this picture was taken.	At the Southwark sub-station we added a new EPDM liner and put up 150mm of substrate. The roof was planted in Nov 2009.	I went back to see everyone in March 2011. They had made a great job of looking after the roof, but while I was there I couldn’t resist a spot of weeding! Good luck to everyone involved and hope to see you later this year.