What Kind of Roofer Would You Be?

So...not to quote anyone...but one of the folks who I am working with on the project has a novel view of roofers. They are important, but not necessarily skilled (or often conscientious). They seem to fall into two categories---drunk slob, or sales guy who sends over drunk slobs... We need to get the roof membrane on the addition this week, so it will be interesting to see which we end up with (looks like we have both categories to choose from).

I would really like to do something green here, but it is another example of how it is tough for regular folks to embrace the current technology. Our beloved mayor has pushed green roofs on the city of Chicago. There is a rooftop garden on city hall. They are required on every new large multi-unit building. But wow, are they heavy and pricey.

Rooftop gardens, for those not in the know, are exactly what they sound like. Plantings on the roof of a building. No, its not a botanist's dream space up there---the plantings are hearty, simple, and low (though I did go to a great community development meeting last year where a builder had to spend most of his time explaining why a rooftop garden was a city mandate, not a feature that was being foisted on the neighbors that would guarantee year-round noise from parties). The vikings and many others used to put sod on their roofs---it is great insulation. And in an urban setting, they are even more valuable:

They hold rainwater so as to not overwhelm the sewers and flush pollution out of the system (in our case, in Chicago, this avoids dirty water being flushed out into Lake Michigan which is also our source of drinking water)

They do not reflect heat, so the help to limit the issue of heat islands

I just like the concept...

So, traditional systems are built on 3 or four layers that support the needs of the succulent plantings as well as preventing damage to the house from either water or roots. They weigh a ton and cost more---3X to 5X a standard roof membrane (I am in Chicago, so I have a flat roof). I have seen an interesting tray system that looks a ton easier to manage, but it will still cost thousands more to put in place, even on our itty-bitty addition roof.

We've looked at other products too. Typical Chicago roofs are flat and covered with a bitumen or other largely petroleum product. That is bad stuff to have on your property---plus those drunk slobs regularly set buildings on fire when torching the flammable coatings onto the roof (like the irreplaceable Sullivan-designed landmark Pilgrim Baptist Church nearby). So my ears perked up when I heard the Shedd Aquarium roof was coated with a soy-based compound a couple years back. Even though the petroleum-free product is locally produced, we could not find anyone interested in making it available for our little project when we looked into it early in the project.

Economies of scale will clearly help the green building movement. But for now, it seems to count against us. Oh well, back to sorting through proposals from the roofers that bothered to send them...