HELLO, I thought I might give this forum a spin. Both my wife and I are civil engineers who are currently designing an earth-sheltered home. I am drawing the plans and finalizing the watershed umbrella for the green roof and retaining walls.
One of the best publications I have for this task is “Moisture_Proofing New Basement” by Bruce Greenlaw–The Tauton Press–so, that is how I ended up in this forum.
I would love to discuss my design with Bruce Greenlaw if at all possible–does anyone know how to contact him?
So far, I can not find a good resource in this area of California (Sacramento) for green roofs and earth-bermed walls. And there are a mulititude of products to choose from nowadays with regards to water/damp proofing.
I am looking into Safecoat(R) DynoSeal products, GenFlex roof membrane systems, and Akzo(R) Enkadrain systems at this time.
The structural roof deck will be a composite of hollow-core conc. planks topped with 3″ of rein. concrete sloped at 3%. All retaining walls are CMU with parge coating. A complete foundation drain will be installed and a free draining fabric envelope will be against the walls. The main retaining walls will be non-insulated so that thermal coupling is enhanced between the earth mass and the house. A watershed umbrella will be extended approx. 20 feet from the the retaining wall over the earth mass. The watershed umbrella (water proofing, insulation, and earth) follows the Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) concept as developed by John Hait.
So that is a lot and most likely not enough to understand with clarity.
Anyone out there with experience in this area?
Edited 3/23/2005 4:44 pm ET by hmr
Replies
Post your question at Breaktime, second button in the second row of buttons above. There's a guy there who posts as VaTom, who built the sort of house you're talking about.
Thanks for the advice--I posted the message in Breaktime forum.
No, but I know who does. Go over to http://www.countryplans.com
One of the administrators (Glenn) has an earth sheltered house, I believe, in your neck of the woods. He'll be able to talk over the pros and cons. He's got a green roof too. Believe that's where his vegetable garden is.
Green roof often complements Norwegian and Swedish log houses. Here is one builder that does them al over the world: https://eccobauer.com/en/norwegian-style-handcrafted-log-cabin
A watertight roof is critical to successful green roof construction. While some roofs are intrinsically waterproof when built, most will require some form of treatment to prevent water entry into the building.
two major types of waterproofing – liquid applied treatments and preformed sheets.
Liquid applied treatments can be composed of bitumen emulsions, modified bitumen, polymer cement systems, polyurethane, polyurethane modified acrylic, acrylic or two-part polyurethane hybrid elastomers that require mixing prior to application.
Preformed sheets are asphalt-based or comprised of thermosetting polymers or thermoplastic polymers.
For further guidance you can contact Melange Restoration they are best waterproofing contractors in nyc.