In reply to michael adams ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:26:55 +0100, "Uncle Marvo"
wrote:

In reply to Sacha ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

On 16/10/06 14:19, in article
, "Martin"
wrote:

On 16 Oct 2006 06:08:45 -0700, "La Puce"
wrote:


Uncle Marvo wrote:
I heard something on GQT on R4 on Sunday saying that sedum was
difficult to get, and all you got nowadays was some inferior
variety.
Is this true?
I have told someone that I would kindly build them a green roof
on their garage, idiot that I be. I haven't a clue what I'm
doing, but I was going to put a rubbery membrane on it, build
round the sides a bit, fill it with compost and plant sedum and
maybe some alpines etc, in a Norwegian stylee. You can't walk
on the roof, it's asbestos or similar, so I can't be weeding it
either. I understand that I can put chicken wire over the top
which stops certain wildlife eating the roof, but I think that
would be ugly in the extreme.
Any ideas/tips/pointers/books/articles on the subject would be
very welcome.

Hullo Uncle. I'm sending you this link to start with - so that
you can also consider a grass roof which would be ideal as the
maintenance is pretty minimal. And it happens to be a project we
are still considering, not the roof but the house, a segal house
(instead of a boat possibly) ...

http://www.segalselfbuild.co.uk/arti...gagreenro.html

Did I miss the bit about the potential for the roof to collapse
under the weight when it is waterlogged?

Or how to cut the grass when it has grown?

That's the bit that worried me. I believe that's why sedum or
similar are used, cos you don't need to. I expect there's a way to
stop grass growing.

The roof caves in first?

The best way I have found is to *want* it to grow ...

I'd be more worried about putting a heavy weight on an asbestos roof,
for the same reason that you can't walk on it.
--

Martin

If the corrugations run down the slope i.e. across the short span
then there's no saying that he couldn't walk on it.

Although there's only one sure fire way to find out.

But in any case that's no comparison.

With a person all their weight is concentrated on their footprint.
So each footprint weighs, say 5 stone. That's the point of maximum
stress which would cause the structure to fail. Its doubtful if a
footprint of soil up to the depth of a foot would even weigh two
pounds, one 35th as much. And so the stress will be evenly
distributed across the entire structure.

Good point. The only problem then would be a) getting the thing on there in
the first place and b) weeding it. How do the Norwegians, who do lots of
this, manage their weeding? I had assumed that sedum or whatever they use is
short growing stuff which beats the weeds. Maybe not.

Perhaps I'll use astroturf!