Green Roof
Green Roof Resources and Installers
Here is a great page full of information on green roofs, green roof installers and green roof supplies.
Extensive Green Roof
An extensive green roof is a green roof that is less than 6″ thick. As opposed to an intensive green roof that is more than 6″ thick. Because of the thickness of the growing medium an extensive green roof can only support sedum and drought tolerant small plants. The reason for this is the limited root space [...]
Green Roof Benefits
The primary ecological benefits of Green Roofs are as follows:
The Reduction of Urban Heat Island Effect. An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surroundings. As population centers grow in size from village to town to city, they tend to have a corresponding increase in average temperature, which [...]
Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls Book
The book Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls by Nigel Dunnet and Noel Kingsbury is an authoritative book and should be on the shelf of any Brooklyn green roof installer.
I bought it in the hopes it would help improve the Eco Brooklyn living wall technique for Brooklyn brownstones where plants are actually growing on the [...]
Living Walls and Green Walls
Here is a great pdf doc on green walls. It is created by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, an excellent resource for urban green roofs and living walls.
We install living walls in Brooklyn and are constantly looking for better techniques. The art is still very new and we are still very much in the exploration [...]
Brooklyn Green Roof Maintenance
We went to check on one of the green roofs we installed last year in Park Slope. It looked good! Some of the edges were a little wind bare but for the most part the sedum were happy and growing.
We are Brooklyn green roof installers and it is really satisfying watching us spread a sea [...]
Brooklyn Green Roof Strawberries
You have to check this picture out. It is of a strawberry on the green roof of the Brooklyn Green Show House. Notice the pine cone, sedum, flowers in the background. It is a world as seen from a field mouse or bee. We can see things like this too.
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Great Natural Exterior Paint
We’ve been experimenting with exterior wood paint with some great results.
The research is based on the traditional Scandinavian red paint, which is a base of linseed oil with various things added. One description:
Centuries ago, European farmers sealed the wood on their barns with an oil, often linseed oil, which was a sort of tawny-colored oil made from [...]
Brooklyn Brownstone Living Wall
In our pursuit to turn Brooklyn green we are very excited about growing living walls on the facades of brownstones. A living wall differs from a climbing/hanging wall. The first has the plants ON the wall. The wall becomes the medium from which they grow. A climbing or hanging wall simply has plants that climb [...]
Green Roof Plants
Mother Plants is an upstate NY garden company that specializes in green roof plants. As a green roof installer in Brooklyn we find it quite convenient to buy from them. Whatever you order basically gets to Brooklyn in a day or two.
They have just put out their 2010 catalog and is full of lovely pictures [...]
Strawberries on Green Roof
It is that time of year to plant your native flowers and edibles. Here we are planting strawberries onto a Brooklyn brownstone green roof! Yum!
New York Green Roof Installer
Eco Brooklyn prides itself in green roof installations on New York brownstones, condos and coops. We offer the full line of services:
Structural analysis of existing roof by an engineer
Removal of old roof if needed
Structural reinforcing of roof if needed
Installation of green roof
Pergolas for solar thermal and PV panels above the green roof
Bulkheads and decks [...]
Health Benefits of Green Roof Study
Check out page six on this pdf “Health & Horticultural Therapy“, it mentions some studies concerning the restorative attributes of green roofs and living walls in hospitals and nursing homes.
-Decreased patient healing times – Given that many hospitals are located in highly developed areas, green roofs are a good way to expose patients to [...]
Green Roof Construction and Maintenance
The Book “Green Roof Construction and Maintenance” by Kelly Luckett is a thorough overview of green roof installation, maintenance and return on investment.
The book is published by McGraw Hill, a publisher of many good green building books.
The book is on the dry academic side. There aren’t any cutesy pictures or graphics. In fact the book [...]
Recovering America
Please read to the end: there is an invitation for designers and architects to submit work to Eco Brooklyn.
After hearing that Malcolm Wells, pioneer of underground architecture, had died I bought a couple of his books and read up on him.
I regret not meeting him when he was alive. He had a great sense of [...]
Brooklyn Green Roof Detail
Here is a great picture of a green roof installation for a Brooklyn brownstone.
I like it because it is simple. There are a lot of ways to install a green roof on a Brownstone. They simply have to meet the low weight requirements but apart from that you can do it many ways.
This is one [...]
Building Green Book
This book has a long title: Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs. But then again it is a big book.
Written by Tim Callahan and Clarke Snell this book overflows with 600 pages and 1500 images. The book aims to [...]
Brooklyn Green Brownstone Renovation Template
The way Brooklyn brownstones are currently renovated does not work. It does not work for the environment nor for the inhabitants’ comfort and utility bills.
Eco Brooklyn is focused on redefining how a brownstone gets renovated. We use the Brooklyn Green Show House as an example of a renovation template that works for the triple [...]
Green Roof and Solar Installation Tax Abatement
Navigating the maze of paperwork to get the New York Green Roof and Solar Tax abatement can be confusing, and we’re green roof and solar installers! Below is a list of all you need. The process is pretty simple once you figure it out. Any New York green roof installer and solar panel installer needs [...]
Brooklyn Green Roof Installation
We just went to check on one of our green roof installations in Brooklyn. It had just rained and the air was crisp and clean. Mists floated over the still sleepy brownstones and tree lined streets. And the little pockets of sedum on the green roof dimpled with sparkly rain drops. It was a really [...]
350.org and Turn Brooklyn Green
350.org is a site worth knowing about. It is at the helm of a very sensible movement to get the CO2 levels of the world back down to 350 part per million, which is a safe level. Right now they are at 387 and it isn’t very clear whether they will keep going up or [...]
Green Roof Installation
Here is a useful booklet on green roof installation. It lays out the different options depending on the growing medium thickness and drainage requirements. Although it is a booklet created by ConservationTechnology.com to sell their product it is an excellent booklet on how to install green roofs.
We are green roof installers in Brooklyn, which means [...]
Green Window Cover
Here is a cool window shade made out of a box and semi wild plants. It shows how we can put plants in a lot more places that the hyper manicured garden. Window sills, ledges, above doors, on walls, as fences….plants can be part of our building structure just as we use other materials to [...]
Green Roof on Grade
We had to install a green roof in Brooklyn with part of the roof being slanted. We wanted a product that was ecological as well as practical in terms of keeping the soil on the slope.
We found our solution in one of our favorite places: the dumpster.
We love the dumpster because every ounce of material [...]
Green Roof Installation In Park Slope
We just installed another green roof in Brooklyn. This time it was in Park Slope. We tried something different with this one. Instead of the conventional drainage mat we tried a new kind of mat.
The conventional mat has dimples and is covered by a mesh so earth does not pass through. It looks like this:
The [...]
Green Roof Gas Stations
I just met with landscape designer Rachel Poritz who is designing a green roof design for some gas stations. Hey, even gas stations can benefit from a green roof.
The gas stations are not just any pit stop though. They are Gaia Certified gas stations. They will sell gasoline derived from socially and environmentally responsible [...]
Preping Brooklyn brownstone for green roof
We just prepared a Brooklyn brownstone for a green roof installation. It was your typical Brooklyn brownstone: 750 square feet or tar. At least the owners had the foresight to cover the tar with reflective paint.
The roof had 100 years of tar on it. There must have been almost three inches of the stuff:
Our [...]
Brooklyn Green Roof Installation Ideas
Whenever we do a green roof installation in Brooklyn we get our sedum from Motherplants.
They just sent us some pics of other green roof installations they supplied plants for. The installations were not Brooklyn based but the climates were similar which means they can easily be done in Brooklyn too.
This one is really cool because [...]
Green Roof Materials For Brooklyn Brownstones
The materials needed for a Brooklyn green roof are varied. If you are dealing with a brownstone there are real weight requirements to contend with. We have removed the roof and built a stronger one but that is cost prohibitive in many cases.
Simply removing the 80 years of accumulated tar is often a simple solution. [...]
Sloped Green Roof in Brooklyn
We have an interesting challenge on a green roof we are installing. The roof is a typical brownstone roof in Park Slope. But the facade of the building goes higher than the building so there is a steep sloped roof at the front of the building.
We’re investigating the best materials to use on that sloped [...]