Green Roofing and Energy Efficient Products

Ed the Roofer

Nathan,

I think that a Green Roofing forum might wind up becoming more and more popular as time goes on.

How can we, as regular contractors get it into not only the consumers minds, but also the city/village officials minds to be proactive in utilizing this environmentally friendlier option for their construction, especially their roofing product choices?

There should be some major advances being made in this field in the near future, with everyone becoming aware of the higher costs of fuel recently.

Ed

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Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

Grumpy

www.chicagogreenroofs.com The site isn't active yet (total piece of garbage actually), but I get a few leads per year from it. I have teamed witha landscape architect who does the garden part of it after I do the roof.

However a "Green" roof isn't only a garden. A green roof is any roof that is energy effecient. That's a cool white roof, that's a solar roof. These roof's are all green.

I even have been published in the Insight magazine for Illionois CPA's in the December 2007 issue discussing various benefits for a garden roof.


When ever I meet with customers I am discussing options which are enviromentally friendly. I may say "TPO is highly reflective roof system which could prove to lower your energy bills. This type of roof is called a cool roof for a reason! Not only will you save money but you also help the enviroment." When I run gutter estimates if they have alot of bushes or flowers or I can tell they take care of their landscaping I bring up rain barrells. I've got quite a few sales based on the rain barrells, because nobody else brought it up.

You're right people are much more enviromentally conscious.

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-Grumpy
Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

Ed the Roofer

I would be interested in seeing your write up for that publication.

Also, they are more aware and will eventually desire Green/Cool Roofs, but only when the prices are justified with a pay back period, IMO.

Ed

__________________
Just Wait A Minute, I Will Be Right Back With A Link For That.
http://www.rightwayroofingcompany.com/ www.rightwayroofingcompany.com
Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

Grumpy

Don't be so sure on the residential side. It's not always about dollars and cents when people make emptional buying decisions.

In the City of Chicago where back yards are getting smaller and smaller, people want a place to hang out and relax. We do quite a bit of repairs on these roof gardens/decks because they are never properly installed, and it's never a cheap fix since we have to remove decking and dirt. I just got back from one infact directly on the Lake (Sheridan Rd.).



http://www.icpas.org/hc-insight.aspx?id=4998 That's the write up.

__________________
-Grumpy
Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

Nathan

Yea, it's everywhere here in Austin. This is a very Green town.
We also just added a Green topic to DIYChatroom.com because of demand. As traffic grows here I know we will need to cover that topic here as well.

tridentroofing

Since the issue of global warming was raised decades ago, people have been finding ways to address this very important problem. So many solutions have been proposed and so many are still on its way to discovery yet people still lay deaf or blind to these kinds of ideas. Today is the right time to open our eyes and listen to the solutions that may help save the world we live in.

Our houses are the primary place where we can start to help save the world. Most of what we contribute to the issue of global warming is rooted in our life style. There are so many parts of the house that can be converted to become eco-friendly and a specific part would be our roofs. Our roofs are very important to us we even hire roofing contractors like Trident Roofing to address the needs of our roofs. Since it is exposed to the elements of nature why don’t we harvest those elements into something useful?

Typically roofing contractors like Trident Roofing construct our roofs with materials that are not that compliant to being eco-friendly like Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) which is not easily recycled. The concept of the green technology started in Germany 30 years ago; it became widely popular in Europe due to its positive environmental impacts. A green roof green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil, or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It is basically planting a garden on your roofs. This is very different from how roofers like Trident Roofing construct their roofs. The concept of the green roof may sound absurd to some but the approach to the conceptualization of the green roof is very scientific so that it yields positive eco-friendly results. Green roof technology requires an appreciation and detailed knowledge of plant biology, hydraulic engineering and architecture. These are thoroughly engineered systems which address all the critical aspects of design that is also vital to a typical roof construction by roofing contractors like Trident Roofing.

whitcoroofing

Consumers are becoming greener every day, and the green roof movement is becoming more popular. You have to take in consideration that green roofs such as roof gardens have only been in the United States for a short period of time.

The government should add some more incentives for consumers and companies, to go green (especially in the south). This would make a roofers job that much easier. As far as getting clients to purchase energy efficient green roof upgrades, you will need to sell them on the long-term value. They will need to look at the whole picture, and not just the initial costs. A cost saving analysis report can do a good job of showing them their overall annual savings.

shazapple

The problem with green roofs is wind and fire. A lot of the systems out there require some sort of maintenance to keep them from dieing and becoming a fire hazard. The wind uplift is a bit harder to nail down because it changes based on time and season.

One of the most interesting systems I've come across is http://www.xeroflor.ca/ because it is relatively lightweight and retains moisture.