Modules in the LiveRoof® Hybrid Green Roof System Enable Green Roofs to Function Naturally as a Unified, Sustainable Ecosystem
SPRING LAKE, Mich. — February 8, 2011 — Green roofs offer substantial benefits, including: decreasing stormwater runoff, protecting flat roofs so they last longer, reducing building energy costs, and moderating the urban heat island effect. Modular systems, composed of a series of pre-planted modules made of plastic, offer ease of installation on rooftops for “extensive” green roof applications (soil depths of six inches or less). The design of conventional modules, however, causes aesthetic and horticultural problems that diminish the performance of green roofs. The modules in the LiveRoof® Hybrid Green Roof System overcome these problems and maximize green roof performance.
Problem: Modules that Inhibit the Health of Green Roofs
Most modules are designed like trays with built-in moisture reservoirs: cups that hold water. Stored water can become oxygen-deprived. Roots sitting in water can then become diseased with fungal and bacterial rot.
Conventional modules compartmentalize the soil and plants into segregated grids. The sides of the modules act as walls between them, isolating the soil in each tray and preventing natural sharing of water and nutrients. The tops of the trays form a series of unnatural plastic grid lines visible across the rooftop. The combined effect is like setting out separate trays of turf in a backyard and calling it a lawn. That would not look like, or function like, a real lawn.
Grid lines are not only unsightly but harmful to plants. Plastic or metal edges exposed to the sun within the vegetative field heat up and stress the plants adjacent to them.
Solution: LiveRoof Modules Put the Green in Green Roofs
Compatible with many different roof systems and single-ply flat roofing membranes, LiveRoof modules are the most advanced and horticulturally sound in the industry. Manufactured in the U.S.A. with 100 percent recycled plastics, LiveRoof modules are naturally superior to the trays of the typical modular system. “LiveRoof modules establish a green roof as a dense, seamless planted surface rooted in a continuous, interconnected layer of soil,” said Dave MacKenzie, horticulturalist and president of LiveRoof, LLC.
LiveRoof’s patent-pending Soil Elevator™ technology is a removable insert that lines the inside of the modules. They allow soil to be filled to a level the reaches above the top of the modules. When the modules are installed side-by-side, and the Soil Elevators then removed, there is an uninterrupted layer of soil and vegetative surface extending above, and across, all modules. This unifies the soil over the entire roof — and conceals the modules, unseen under the soil and plants even during dormancy. Thus, no unsightly grid lines on the rooftop; no seams between modules to allow air to escape from the roof below and reduce green roof benefits; no module edges in the vegetation exposed to the sun to get hot and stress adjacent plants.
LiveRoof’s patent-pending Moisture Portal™ is a second innovative feature that serves as an open entryway on the sides of the modules. This establishes soil-to-soil contact between them. That makes a LiveRoof a unified green roof both above and between modules.
“Unifying the soil across the entire roof maximizes the cohesiveness of the soil and plant roots and allows natural sharing of moisture and nutrients,” said MacKenzie. “Connecting the soil above, across and between modules leaves no air gaps. That eliminates hot, wet and dry zones and optimizes R value, cooling value and stormwater absorption.”
“Because they were designed with horticulturalists who could envision the rooftop as a total biological system, the LiveRoof modules are tops in the industry,” said Daniel Lakstins, director of operations, Cool Construction Concepts, McAllen, Texas. “The roots of LiveRoof plants bind the soil together and hold it in place. The soil itself stores and releases water naturally, so there are no moisture reservoirs to trap too much water.”
According to Roger Bertolini, an associate with Limited Systems Consulting Group (Franklin, Tenn.) and one of the “Flat Roof Guys,” commercial flat roof and low-slope roof specialists, LiveRoof offers aesthetic advantages.
“You can cut LiveRoof modules to the size and shape you want. Then when you set the cut side up against the non-cut side of another module, the soil stays contained,” he said. “You can fit LiveRoof modules to odd dimensions and angles and shape them into creative designs.”
LiveRoof at IRE
LiveRoof is exhibiting at the International Roofing Expo (IRE) on February 16-28, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nev. at the Las Vegas Convention Center (North Halls). LiveRoof will be at booth #460.
About LiveRoof®, LLC
LiveRoof, LLC (www.liveroof.com) is the horticultural science company that developed the LiveRoof® Hybrid System: the only green roof solution installed as a naturally functioning ecosystem with thriving, fully mature plants. Combining the best elements of proven green roof technologies, LiveRoof establishes a seamless vegetative surface rooted in a continuous layer of soil. This design maximizes environmental benefits, energy savings and rooftop aesthetics. Regional growers in its national network adapt LiveRoof plants for local conditions and customize plant selection for every project. LiveRoof’s natural function and natural beauty offer the highest level of green roof performance at the lowest level of acquisition-installation-maturation-maintenance costs. The proof is on the roof — showcased in LiveRoof projects that stand out as signature elements on commercial, public, university and school buildings in more than two dozen states and Canada.
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Notes to Editors: (1) A detailed corporate backgrounder on LiveRoof is available upon request. (2) LiveRoof press kits will be available in the press room at IRE.
Media Contact:
David Aquilina
612-716-5628
