Six ways to avoid green roof disasters

Mike Goodhead, Divisional Manager for ISD Solutions’ new industrial waterproofing division, explains what you should look out for when considering a green roof and how to maximise success.

Green roofs have come a long way as genuine construction options. An understanding of how they work, plus training and installation expertise, means that failures are now very rare. Technical advances and quality of the materials used have also contributed.

Today, green roofs can be designed to meet a wide variety of commercial requirements and generally fall into three categories – Extensive, Semi-Intensive and Intensive. Each has a progressively deeper growing medium, up to a metre in depth for Intensive types, with differing maintenance and irrigation requirements.

These, in turn, have different weight and structural considerations and require different roofing solutions. The waterproof membrane is critical here, and there is a wide range of products available covering the latest liquid applied systems, hot melt, mastic asphalt and numerous built-up systems. And each has different application requirements.