What is Ecological roofing?
Well for me it using a roofing material that does not need to be changed for a long long time and that even after its life span will be recycleable or will easily fit back in to nature. Such materials are:
Clay tiles should last about 50-60 years and will easily find there way back into the earth after their life span.
Zinc This must be pure Zinc and is a fabulous metal to use for roofs. It will not rust and will never need to be painted, but can be after it has oxidized. Should last over 100 years or more and is easily melted down and reused again after its lifespan.
Copper again is a beautiful roofing material which will never rust. It turns a beautiful moss green color after a while and is easy to melt down after use and even has a great resale value as scrap material. It is however more expensive to buy than Zinc.
Natural turf or grass roofs, are beautiful and great to install. Only draw back is their weight. Plan a good roof structure if you intent to use one.
Straw or reed are to me the most beautiful and obviously very environmentally friendly. Unfortunately in a lot of countries now they ask you to put gypsum board as the ceiling material under these roofs to act as a fire detterent, which defeats the purpose of having such a wonderful roof in the first place.
Wooden roofs are beautiful, easy to make and install. The may need to be coated with tar or some oils such as cooked linseed to protect them. Are obviously easy to repair or replace and are environmentally friendly if the wood is local.
Can you think of any more??
Copper and Zinc have very high environmental footprints.We better use them for critical applications (electronics, etc.) rather than for roofing where there are cheaper and more environment friendly alternatives. Slates can be used as well. Kind regards.
ReplyDeleteAbout reed: the gypsum boards under the reed also makes it hard for the reed to properly dry out after a rain. This probably shortens the life span with at least 10 years!
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is the poor availability of slowly grown reed - nowadays the high nutrition outlet from agriculture makes for fast grown reed in most of the western world. This reed is prone to rot and disintegrate.
An old style reed roof was expected to last at least 50 years in a humid climate - now you'll be lucky to get half of that!
I second the comment on slate roofing. Slate roofs can last many decades, and all that really deteriorates is the fasteners. The slates themselves can be reused on other structures, new or remodeled, time after time.
ReplyDeleteSteel roofing can be recycled, and much of the steel used to make it has already been recycled. It is good for water catchment. Not perfectly green, but worthy of consideration.
Living roofs are great, but some comment and consideration must be made about the waterproof layer, or containers, under the grass or other plants. This layer is often made from petrochemicals. As mentioned, the weight of a living roof, especially when saturated with rainwater or snow, will require a much stronger roof structure. This, too, increases the environmental footprint. In spite of that, living roofs can be a great choice.
Perfect! Yes of course Slate. Thanks for that. I should have had that one there also. Fantastic roof material. It is used on the majority of roofs in Ireland where I am from, but is hard to find and very expensive here in the Nordics. Therefore not used as a roofing material.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of metal roofs! A lot of them are recycled yes but another reason for using them especially here in the Nordics or Eastern Europe is that they are lightweight and therefore perfect when you have heavy snowfall. I would agree with the footprint argument but I feel if they have such a long lifespan as copper and Zinc then its is acceptable to use them.
For example, there was a church roof made of copper here in a city called Turku which was over 100 years old and in great condition but part of it got damaged by a falling tree during a storm and therefore they decided to update the whole roof structure and change the copper also. The copper from the old roof was recycled and the whole new roof therefore only cost them 25% of what a complete new roof would normally cost, and will last for another 100 years if not more... That's quite ecological, I think!!
Thanks for the comments.
Paul Lynch