Category: Green roofs
-
It’s raining meadows
After last weeks exciting pictures of the roof in Hertfordshire there has been even more growth: Even the local wildlife is taking a keen interest: There are also some fungi appearing, will have to get the mushroom book out and see if these are edible ones: It looks like the roof is fairly comfortable with…
-
Rain not just good for ducks
The green roof I built in Hertfordshire last year has put on a remarkable growth spurt in recent weeks: I am very pleased with how it looks now. We had been experimenting with a micro irrigation system to keep it watered in the hot months but this has been redundant given the weather lately. In…
-
Simple ways to improve the efficiency of your home – Part 2
The second and possibly shorter post on improving your home. Water efficiency Start with your water companies website and see what you can get for free from them. My local company Thames offer a few here. I suspect that like the energy companies they don’t do this out of the kindness of their hearts but that…
-
Mini green roofs
I am giving a short talk at the London Green Fair next month on building your own green roof so I have been looking around for examples. They are starting to appear all over the place now. Near my home in Lambeth there is a lovely community roof on some garages where they grow wheat…
-
Green roof workshop
Just returned from a great green roof workshop organised by Ben Kimpton at The Ecology Consultancy. The workshop was by Gary Grant and Dusty Gedge of The Green Roof Consultancy and covered green roofs and living walls. Some interesting elements included popular myths and why they aren’t true: Fire – The risk of fire is greater on…
-
Energy savings from insulation project
I have just got the energy bills from my first insulation and draught proofing project for www.ecoalex.com and they are excellent: This was for a four bedroom detached house in Hertfordshire and we carried out the following measures in November/December last year: Draught proofed each room around skirtings, windows and other holes Added temporary secondary…
-
Green roof update
The green roof in Hertfordshire is growing well, the sedum has bedded in and some wildflowers are starting to appear elsewhere. Some of the thinner areas of substrate don’t seem to be producing much, I will monitor this and add more soil if nothing shows up in the spring.…
-
Will making my house green save me from the zombie apocalypse?
I was pleased to see lots of discussion of the zombie apocalypse on twitter the other day, all sparked by this blog from the US Centre for Disease Control http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/ So I was thinking about how the zombie apocalypse might affect my business of eco retrofitting, pretty badly I think and I am not sure…
-
Green roof update
Just a quick one, not finished yet but the roof is progressing nicely, we have the sedum in place for the middle of the roof and drainage channels laid out in pebbles across the rest of the roof. Now all we have to do is add in soil from the garden in the gaps so…
-
Eco retrofit part 2: Insulation
Work on the house is ongoing and I have been looking at ways of adding extra insulation into the house without taking the walls down. I think if we are going to do the major insulation work it will have to wait for the summer. However we took a picture of the house in the…