Thread: Cleome
View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Old 10-07-2005, 10:03 PM
Mark Anderson
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article lid says...
If those are California poppies on your rooftop garden be careful they
self seed all over the place. Can you walk on your roof without causing
leaks?


Although the California poppies may seed all over, they have to compete
with all the other wildflowers which keeps them in check. They have
problems because they don't grow that big and tend to get smothered by
the other plants as the summer progresses. If a bunch of them can
establish a beachhead then they make it.

The roofs are rubber which is pretty durable and for the mid level roof
top I had the joists reinforced to interior bathroom standards, 2x12s
spanning 10 feet, 16" oc, so it can hold a lot of weight -- even in the
middle of the span. To protect the rubber roof I laid another layer of
rubber material over that. Where people walk I put a layer of foam
matting, those 2'x2' interlocking squares, and then there's an outdoor
carpet over that to protect the foam. So far, 3 years later there hasn't
been any leaks (knock on wood). On the main roof which I started this
year, I just laid an extra layer of rubber material where the planters
are and placed the planters on wood so that the weight of the planters
don't melt them through the roof during hot days. That rooftop isn't
reinforced so the planters can only be placed next to a wall where the
stress on the beams is mostly shear instead of deflection. The shear
strength of those beams is more than enough to support each planter which
holds 3 cubic feet of dirt. I only go up on that rooftop once a day to
water and check the plants and I have to be careful when walking on the
raw roof material.