Green Roofs

[MountainDon]

Not green as in the color of the paint on our homes metal roof, but green as in grasses and plants.

I understand the concept of green roofs. There are many advantages as far as reduced cooling load on the building, maybe reduced heating costs as well, plants use up CO₂, and so on. But I believe the mayor across the river (Albuquerque, NM DESERT) has lost touch with reality.

He has announced a proposal to give away $100,000 of city (taxpayers) money for several pilot projects. He wants buildings with grass and plants on them. This makes me wonder if he's ever been up on a roof in the summer here. It gets very hot and there's no shade unlike down on the ground! Now this comes after several other projects he pushed through. Some of them made some sense. But this hare-brained idea seems to be counter productive to some of the other plans.

1. New construction can only have postage stamp ground level lawns. Xeriscaping is the hot thing. I don't have a problem with that. Using native desert plants and grasses that don't need watering makes good desert sense to me.

2. ABQ has bill credits for installing water saving toilets & washing machines. There's been a push to replace the old water using swamp (evaporative) coolers with refrigerated air. All to reduce the rate of water use. Okay fine. This is a desert after all.

But then he wants people to plant stuff on their roof that's going to need to be watered! Nuts.

Anybody out there need a mayor, slightly used, works okay most some of the time??

What worries me is that my city tries hard to be better than ABQ. We have a couple of our own home grown, publicly funded turkeys, but that's another tale.

[MountainDon]

A quick research quest today netted a list of cities that have made some success stories in the green roof field. Places like, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle.....  All locations with considerably more rainfall than here in NM. We get an average of about 8 - 9 inches a year.

[glenn kangiser]

How about semi-green -- Ken Kern mentioned - roll roofing - well sealed - the 6 mil plastic, a couple inches of sandy loam I think and succulents growing on it. 

I can't think of any use for a used (or new) politician so I'm afraid you are SOL there.

[MountainDon]

I wonder if they'll issue a ticket if you let your roof go wild? They do for yards.

[MountainDon]

It would also make a lot of extra money in the engineering fees as the ordinance as proposed stipulates all such structures be engineered. $$  Extra building permit costs too no doubt.

[glenn kangiser]

Follow the money -- mayor got a stake in it?  Lobbyists?

A roof ticket -- indecent exposure -- Roofs Gone Wild

[tanya]

Actually green roofs are fine even in the desert.  The added plants help with cooling as mentioned and shade cloth and native plants are also easy enough to work with.  Once the rook is shaded it wont be any hotter than any other area and even if it isn't shaded with the proper set up it wouldn't be any hotter than any other garden space.  For instance white sand could be used to reflect much of the ehat.  One thing is for sure though people have to get away from planting only for looks and start growing food.  Food takes additional work though so I don't see city or county municipalities going for that process, and  what is the point of watering anything else when water is so scarce?    Just because something is the "in" thing does not make it practical.  I suspect a nice community garden would be a better way to spend the taxpayers money.