Latest Articles Our Cities Need More Permeable Surfaces Areas

Our Cities Need More Permeable Surfaces Areas

Roof gardens can play a key role in sponge cities, helping better manage excess rain. Here's a look at how Viking's Roof Garden System stands out from other options.

The benefits of Roof Gardens are endless… if you specify the right one. There is no better example of the need for our towns and cities to increase the presence of roof gardens than the recent record-breaking flooding experienced in New Zealand’s Northern Region. The Chinese have experienced many excessive rainfall disasters where huge amounts of water have met large areas of impermeable surfaces. Such events have led to their development of ‘Sponge Cities’ - cities with large areas of tastefully landscaped wetlands and bioswales to give excessive rain a ‘soft landing’ before being fed into the storm water system and/or stored underground for future use. Roof Gardens featuring prominently in these ‘sponge city’ projects.

Viking Roofspec specialises in the supply and specification of Roof Garden systems. There are a few points that distinguish Viking’s Roof Garden system from others:

  1. A ‘System’ approach — not a concoction of parts that have been cobbled together from various suppliers with the hope that they may work. It’s an internationally tested and proven, proprietary system from Carlisle Construction materials (USA) – one of the world’s largest suppliers of membrane systems. This tested and proven combination of components is not messed with.
  2. History-in-use — Viking has supplied roof gardens for many successful projects over the last 20 years without any failures.
  3. MIRAdrain G4 layer — This critical drainage board component is a multi-purpose 3-in-1 product that provides: an absorbent moisture retention layer to keep soil damp, a series of cups and holes that both retain and release water in controlled volumes, and a protection layer to ensure the root barrier below isn’t damaged.
  4. Aluminium drainage boxes — these boxes promote the drainage of stormwater while simultaneously protecting the drains from clogging with soil.
  5. CodeMark membrane system — Viking Enviroclad is not only CodeMark certified; (the highest form of product assurance), it is water potability certified which ensures the cleanest possible water is being fed into the stormwater system.
  6. BRANZ Appraised — Viking’s Roof Garden system is the market’s only BRANZ appraised roof garden using a sheet waterproofing membrane (versus a liquid applied one).

The Viking Roof Garden system is backed by a 20-year warranty and can only be installed by a Viking Roofspec Approved Applicator.