Comments on: Beautiful Norwegian Foliage-Covered Green Roofs

By: c.kopiwoda

c.kopiwoda — Sat, 26 May 2012 10:04:47 +0000

should I construct a ramp to get my mower up there every week? Or jus’ adopt a good goat that can climb—and when he’s done I’ll deal with the sh-t rolling off the roof on top of my enterprising head in the morning while I take my first sip of coffee.!? Hmmmmm
I beleive this is a ‘proximity’ OR nn contingency matter of how much sh– we can put up with. whoops! ended a sentence with a preposition AGAIN!

By: sankar

sankar — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:44:20 +0000

Nice idea to reduce heat inside our home.

By: jimmyjohn

jimmyjohn — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:04:53 +0000

Those trees look like they’ve grown through the roof, not on it.

By: ingy

ingy — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:22:25 +0000

Norway has a specific sod roof standard that defines how to put a sod roof with respect to security, weight load, climatic condition (amount of snow for instance), termites etc … The sod roof isolates well and looks indeed pretty. It is definitely the green alternative. And to the picture of the run-down home: The roof it self is not a problem, but lack of maintenance is …

By: inkirbrown

inkirbrown — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:23:58 +0000

I am by no means an expert on sod roofs, but I am Norwegian and I assisted my dad in putting a sod roof on our old family homestead last summer, so I know a lot more about the process than I did a year ago!

I can confirm that yes, you do have to plan for the roof to weigh more than a regular roof, so the supports will have to be extra strong. At least for modern roofs, you put several layers of waterproof and insectproof material in place, so termites etc should not be a problem.

And yes, you should make sure that plants don’t get too big, those trees in the picture on top do not look right! In some cases in the old days, I know they kept goats grazing on top of the houses, but those must have been some pretty low houses…

I took a series of pictures to show the process last summer, feel free to have a look:
https://picasaweb.google.com/inkirbrown/SodRoof#

By: karenwil

karenwil — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:55:29 +0000

“Norwegians have been planting greenery atop their houses for hundreds of years” – who knew not me!
Lazyreader has a good point about pests, termites. The home shown in picture featured in the article doesn’t look safe to live in!
trope have green solutions.

By: tmeadows

tmeadows — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:37:19 +0000

While in the Lofoten Islands we saw some houses with sod only on 1/2 of the roof. Is there a reason for that?

By: lazyreader

lazyreader — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:18:42 +0000

Good point? What about pests, insects, termites!. The house in the first picture looks like it’s gonna sag and fall in on itself. Do green roofs have insurance. We choose this because it looks good. But these are heavy capital investments and if it’s done wrong, you’ll be looking at a new roof you’re gonna have to pay for.

By: lordelisah

lordelisah — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:23:12 +0000

May I be assured that insects will never disturb me from atop?

By: lazyreader

lazyreader — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:51:05 +0000

I know sod roof homes are typical to some Scandinavian homes. Whether old or modern? How well does the roof hold up to the weight. What about the weight of precipitation, snows, heavy rain. Some types of green roofs do have more demanding structural standards especially in seismic regions of the world. Some existing buildings cannot be retrofitted with certain kinds of green roof because of the weight load of the substrate and vegetation exceeds permitted static loading. And lets not forget those poorly planned ones.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/green-roof-collapses-in-illinois/?scp=1&sq=green%20roof%20collapse&st=cse

By: evaone

evaone — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:27:56 +0000

it was nice seeing a house with plants on the top,for me it’s not common to see a house like that.very earth friendly