[Strawbale] Living Roof (on strawbale) - advice?

[Rob Tom]

On Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:46:31 -0500, Heidi Wordhouse-Dykema  
<heidi at dykema.net> wrote:

>
> Speaking of beefier roof systems, I'm planning 16" OC for my trusses.   
> Did people find that adequate, or should one move spacing closer  
> together to help support the extra weight of a living/green roof?
>
> Robtom, I'm not gonna build a strawbale roof, darlin'.  I'll be building  
> a strawbale infill building, that happens to have a living roof.  The  
> living roof will have some flakes of straw on top of it to mulch up the  
> dirt and protect it from rain the first few seasons, but goodness, I'd  
> never try to insulate a roof with strawbales!
> That's what sheepswool is for! (grins)
> Heidi

Heidi;

I'm not your "darlin'" and when people speak of "Living Roofs" on a  
strawbale list, they usually *do* mean a roof deck overlain with straw  
bales, in the manner as described in The Straw Bale House, depicting the  
configuration developed by Michel Bergeron/ArchiBio.

What you're describing sounds like what is typically called a "Green roof"  
and if you Google that (or go the the "Green Roofs" folders at SB-r-us) ,  
you will find plenty of info.

Yes, it may appear to be a matter of semantics but search engines do tend  
to be funny that way. (You did mention that you weren't having much luck  
finding info on the web. Right ?)

If the only role that straw is going to play in your "living" roof, is  
flakes of straw as mulch over the growing medium, then I'd say that those  
flakes will likely get blown off by the wind unless you put some sort of  
netting over the straw. Low-slope/flat roofs rely upon the wind to sweep  
them clean of snow so unless you have trained the wind in your area to  
distinguish between snow and straw...

You don't mention anything about the design of your trusses, (or the  
design of your roof for that matter) nor are the specified live & dead  
loads mentioned so there is no friggin' way anyone could tell you if your  
truss spacing is adequate.


===* ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<archilogic at chaffyahoo dot ca>
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply