Sedums for the Main roof

Sedums on the Main Roof

The next two days were the culmination of almost 14 months of dreaming and scheming , hatching and planning, designing and organising and grunting.  It seemed like a long flog but we were looking forward to its end.  

The sedums for the main roof arrived on a big truck with a extendable boom like a HIAB crane.  It could reach up about 40 feet and could swivel its forks around.

I need to apologize for a complete lack of pictures here as my brain faded completely. Si you'll the thousand word version.

The product we installed from Xeroflr was their XF301 Sedum mat.  It is a field grown product.  It was delivered on a Connons truck so I assume it was grown by Connons on one of their Waterdown farms.

It was based on a layer of drainage material weave side up that had one layer of water storage fleece below it.  The open weave of the drainage material was filled with GM (growing medium) into which a range sedums had been grown.  By my count we have 8-10 species, although a couple predoominate.

The mats came rolled in 1 m by 1 m sections. Each roll was 1 m long by about 0.4 m in diameter, weighing about a gazillion pounds. About 40 or 50 lb.  Quite heavy and unweildy. They were delivered with 54 sq m ( about 550 sq ft) rolled up on two pallets.

Aknwloedging the reach of the crane, we elecete to lift them in batches of 6 -7 beacuse that matched the distribution of our temporary staging zone / landing pads.

S, with teh drivers help we rebundled the rolls intoa spare pallet and starting hoisting them up toteh roof. Whih took a couple of hours.

Then, with the trusty support from my able assistant (son, 28) we unrooled the mats and fitted them on top og the GM.  This brought t top of the installation up to be about 1/2 in above the level of the perimtere rail. Which felt fine to me.  

There was quite a bit of cutting and fitting to manage the smaller areas and shapes.  Initially I used a pair of scissors, for about 2 inches.  Then I tried a heavy duty Excato style knife and used a fresh blade every meter.  The GM is very bluntening. I would run out of blades very quickly. 

The solution is a 4" size angle grinder hired for the day or two.  

It was fitted with a "crack chaser" blade.  Did a really good job of cutting through the felted base material and the woven GM carrier.  Worth at least $40 a day!!!

To their credit, Xeroflor did ship a few more pieces than were strictly ordered, so we were able to sift and pick through the shipment to get really good mats for installation.

The sedums did come out looking floppy - flat and jaded - not unexpected from rolled material that had been scrunched into a roll then bounced at the way to the installation site. As part of the installation process I gave them all a good watering and they picked up substantially over the next couple of days.

So here is how it looked after we finished the installation.

Main roof open area

Up on the top of the 3rd Storey Walkout - close up.

Up on the top of the 3rd Storey Walkout.

The northern edge is tucked underneath the solar panels.

In some locations the GM filtered through the sedums.

Well, that's it. Jobs over. 

Over the next few months I'll put up some photos to show how it develops.  I'm hoping that the areas with GM showing will diminish as the sedums really start growing.

And I am looking forward to a cool summer.

For people who are interested in further discussions I suggest you leave a comment and I'll get back to you. We can remove the comment later to keep your coordinates relatively quiet. Or contact me via Facebook.
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