What is green roofing?
In brief, a green roof is a vegetated layer that sits on top of the conventional roof surface of a building. They are also referred to as eco-roofs,
living roofs or roof gardens.
There are two types of green roof; intensive and extensive. An intensive green roof is what most people would think of as a roof garden. A fairly deep layer of growing media supporting a wide range of vegetation which may include lawn and trees.
This section describes extensive green roofs. An extensive green roof consists of relatively lightweight layers of material supporting shallow rooted, low growing plants, in this case, members of the sedum family. Most domestic buildings can support the weight of an extensive green roof with few or no structural changes to the building, and because the plants are well adapted to living in exposed conditions, there is very little maintenance involved.