Rooftop greening and Excel soil

Rooftop greening is becoming more and more popular in urban areas, but one of the issues related to the planting soil is soil scattering and runoff due to wind and rain.

Rooftops are more affected by wind and rain than the ground, and lightweight soil is often used to reduce the load on buildings, so it is necessary to periodically replenish the soil to ensure a certain soil thickness. there is.
Furthermore, unlike on-ground greening where the soil is sufficiently thick, rooftop greening requires cultivation and maintenance of plants in a limited soil thickness.
Therefore, if the soil is selected incorrectly, the roots of the plant will become clogged early, resulting in stagnation of growth, and if left untreated, the plant will die.

Excel Soil can respond to these challenges.
Excel Soil is a solidified soil, so it is hardly washed away by wind and rain, and there is no need to replenish the soil after construction.
In addition, the original characteristics of the soil material can be maintained even after it is molded and solidified, and since it was originally developed for delicate seedling production, it can be adapted to a variety of plant cultivation.

``Excel Soil Greening Base Material'', developed as a material for rooftop greening using Excel Soil, is made of organic materials such as peat moss and perlite, a mineral material, molded into a plate shape using polyester fibers.
In addition to the above-mentioned benefits, this base material also has sufficient water retention capacity.
In addition, typical solidified soil often hardens to form a coating on the surface, and may not be able to absorb sufficient moisture.
On the other hand, Excel Soil maintains excellent water permeability even though it mainly uses water-repellent peat moss.
Due to this high water retention capacity and water permeability, it is possible to omit the water retention layer and drainage layer that must be installed under the soil in general rooftop greening, especially thin layer greening using lightweight soil.

Furthermore, since it is made from lightweight materials, it is extremely lightweight, weighing approximately 10 kg per square meter when dry (when the soil thickness is 50 mm).
In addition to being a solidified soil, it reduces the labor involved in transporting it to the rooftop construction site and laying it, and there is no concern about it scattering, which improves the working environment.
Furthermore, even when it is full of water, it weighs approximately 45 kg per square meter, so it can be installed in buildings here as well.

Example of rooftop greening using Excel soil

Effects of rooftop greening

Heat island countermeasures

In recent years, the urban heat island phenomenon has become a problem.
As a countermeasure for this, by installing rooftop greenery, it becomes possible to suppress heat emissions from the building by blocking the building's heat and cooling surface heat through the evaporation of water from the lawn, thereby alleviating the heat island effect.
As for the effect of lowering the surface temperature of buildings, a difference in surface temperature of up to 28 degrees has been confirmed under experimental conditions.

Energy saving measures

Green roofs can provide the same insulation effect as insulation materials.
By lowering the temperature on the roof, the temperature of the entire building can be lowered and cooling costs can be reduced.
Based on the experimental results of the amount of heat flowing into the room from the roof, an 81.3% reduction was confirmed under the experimental environment.

Construction results

Product list