by Brianna Crandall — October 20, 2014—Green Living Technologies International (GLTi), a provider of intelligent patented green roof and wall technologies, has been selected to oversee the remediation of one of the largest green roofs in Florida. The three-year-old green roof, installed by another company, is in decline and in need of maintenance. In 2011 the Florida International University (FIU) School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) was awarded LEED Gold certification, with credits for its green roof, which has an average soil depth of 6″ and drip irrigation.
In 2011 the FIU green roof was considered experimental. This project falls under the typical situation that GLTi says it finds over and over: the majority of green roofs do fairly well for the first two years, but just as the two-year warranty expires, the green roof may rapidly decline without ongoing cultural and routine maintenance practices.
GLTi ProStaff based in Miami will begin the process with an intensive task of manual weeding and irrigation calibration. The roof will then be evaluated to determine if any other components of the system require removal and replacement. Current findings include erosion and exposed subsurface mesh typically used in lighter weight applications.
GLTi says it has successfully introduced green roofs to sub-tropical climates like Miami’s, which require specialized design-build and an ongoing maintenance plan. The patented Green Living Roof shown on this page utilizes native plants and media recipe from local materials blended with GLTi bioSoil in sub-tropical Honduras. According to GLTi, the project was installed in 2008 and is still thriving.
GLTi points out that in all micro climates, not just the sub-tropic regions like Miami, the patented Green Living Roof is an ideal product because it provides superior water control and retention while separating the roots, allowing wicking in both the horizontal and vertical plane. It is lightweight, flexible and has a compressive strength of 3200 pounds per square foot while conforming to undulations. The combination of the correct media blend and GLTi bioSoil creates a natural success, adds the company.
According to GLTi, there is no one media recipe applicable to all green roofs; the media is blended to accommodate the plant choices and to re-create the natural biological processes at the root level. The company has experience in 13 countries creating the critical variable of using local materials to engineer a growing media that will allow the vegetation to thrive.
