Cleaner construction of durable green rooftop in residential buildings with municipal water supply

Abstract

Rooftop vegetation is a popular choice among architects and builders at present because of its aesthetical appeal and environmental benefits. It has consistently been regarded as a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to the construction of buildings. Recently, people have adopted rooftop vegetation in their homes, and it has become popular. Large scale roof gardens in commercial buildings are safe due to proper design and protection techniques by experts. Due to economic constraints, rooftop vegetation in normal residential buildings cannot follow stringent regulations and expensive protection techniques. However, it is to be kept in mind that any rooftop vegetation endeavour, if not properly designed and maintained, might result in severe durability problems in roof concrete. There are unseen drawbacks to simple practices of concrete rooftop vegetation in common residential buildings, specifically the presence of aggressive agents in treated water from the public water supply, which is commonly used to irrigate the vegetation in such buildings. The effect of vegetation on the concrete roof and its influence on various salient aspects, specifically the durability of concrete, is discussed in this paper. The influence of chlorides and sulphates present in the municipal treated water used for watering plants and shrubs on the durability of concrete is also presented. Moreover, the chloride threshold value of the reinforcement is between 0.1% and 1.5%. The total charges passed through concrete are also reduced to less than 1000 Columbus with the addition of agricultural by-products. In addition, root intrusion tendency of commonly grown plants on rooftop and corrosion due to agricultural chemicals are also mentioned. In the latter sections, remedial measures are highlighted to minimize the negative impacts of rooftop vegetation on the durability of concrete. In addition, to highlight the impact of chlorides on the roof concrete, the study also presented the chloride permeability and service life of blended concrete.