This elegant house extension was designed and built by two architecture students using the guide. Both Verity and Craig were taking time off from their Masters of Architecture at the University of Bath to take this project forward. They used the guide which proved invaluable in creating the green roof finish.
Elegant green roof house extension – Craig and Verity celebrating their roof.
Inspiration all round
It was this time last year that Craig and Verity contacted us with a whole series of pictures of this great project. People rarely contact us with images and thoughts on what they have been done. This great project and their series of emails helped prompt us to update the guide and create this new online version.
As Craig Alexander says…
Thanks for your email. I’m pleased our original email has prompted the development of an expanded DIY Guide, I think it will make a fabulous resource for green roof info!
Products used on the green roof house extension
Certainly, our roof is made up of the following:
- Butyl Rubber with welded downpipes and upper and lower geotextiles from Butyl Products Ltd.
- Growing Medium (20% Compost 80% Recycled Brick) from Shire Green Roof Substrates Limited. They were happy to supply it in 25kg bags, which made moving it around and onto the roof much easier!
- The wildflowers were supplied as plug plants from a native wildflower supplier.
John [ who loves his edge detail ] loves the oak fascias, which really gives an elegant architecture finishing touch to this house extension. Also the use of rain chains at either end of the front of the house extension frames the building perfectly.
Plants and biodiversity on the green roof
‘Both ourselves and the client are delighted with the roof- it has established itself much more quickly than we were expecting, the entire roof nearly has full groundcover, which I had assumed would take years to achieve. There are already several plants and species that have established themselves, and its delightful revisiting every few months to see what has changed and how much thicker the plant growth is. We were also surprised how much height the plants achieved in early summer- the 4-5 inch growing medium certainly means they have plenty of water and space to grow! Various insect species have been spotted, and the local birds seem to love it- a pair of Canadian geese have even been spotted up there- made quite a racket on the velux windows!’
Talking about velux windows, the new on guide has details and videos on how to cope with these and skylights within a green roof. This is one of the aspects of green roof building we have regularly been asked about.
Craig and Verity have set up a fledgling business Lacey Alexander Design on the back of this project and we here at Green Roof Training wish them all the best for the future.
And hopefully we will be seeing some more green roofs, gracing their elegant architecture, whether on a house extension or on a whole new development.
