Roofing

Weatherproofing Your Garden Building

A long lasting, water-tight roof is an absolute must on a garden building.

At Garden Spaces as standard, we use a RubberCover one-piece, single ply EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) sheet, produced by Firestone. All our installation teams are fully trained to install this material and therefore we can offer a 20-year warranty backed by the manufacturer.

Highly Durable

Rubber such as EPDM is hailed for its strength and durability, and is also a stable compound with no accompanying odour or fumes that normally characterise rubbers.

This material is so stable and watertight that it can be totally submerged and will never leak if correctly maintained. This makes it a fantastic base material on which to mount our living sedum roofs which are wet for most of the year.

We secure the rubber roof with a unique contemporary extruded powder coated aluminium edge trim.

Water Drainage

All our roofs have a minimum 1:70 fall across them to encourage water to run off into black plastic guttering which is usually situated at the rear of the building. If building regulations do not apply, then this water can drain onto the ground in a mini soak-away, or we can harvest it in a water butt.

Note: Some water pooling can be expected as we are always trying to maximise internal headroom but it is nothing to be concerned about and will quickly evaporate.

Eco-Friendly

EPDM rubber roofing dramatically lowers the carbon footprint of a structure in a number of ways:

  • The lifespan of a rubber roof is up to five times that of a felt roof, and 2-3 times longer than an asphalt roof.
  • EPDM is installed in an exceptionally eco-friendly way, without the lengthy and dangerous use of heat and flames.
  • Rubber sheet roofing provides excellent thermal insulation properties and is an outstanding sealant against water penetration.

Get Back To Nature with a Living Roof

If you’d like your building to blend with your garden landscape, you may wish to consider adding a green living sedum roof. Our sedum roofs are grown, harvested and delivered by the very best UK based company.

Why add a sedum roof to your garden building?

  • It looks fantastic. A green roof is infinitely more attractive than an expanse of EPDM rubber; it can make a garden building into a feature, or it can blend into its surroundings.
  • Help for Wildlife. Sedum roofs create a great habitat for mini beasts such as beetles and spiders, they provide food for butterflies, bees and seed-eating birds and the spent flower stalks supply nesting material for our feathered friends.
  • Insulates against heat and cold. Research has found that in summer time, the temperature under the membrane of a green roof is 150C below the temperature of a standard roof. In winter, it is 4.50 warmer under a green roof than under a standard roof which can help save on fuel bills.
  • Rainwater management. A green roof absorbs up to 75% of rainfall and releases it slowly, reducing pressure on drainage systems. A green roof also filters pollutants from rain water.
  • Noise reduction. Research by the International Green Roof Institute concludes that a sedum roof can halve noise inside a building – ideal if you want peace and quiet in your garden office.
  • Air quality is improved. CO2 is absorbed by the plants, while dust and pollutants are filtered out.
  • Carbon sequestration. A sedum roof stores up to 239 grams of carbon per square metre depending on the species present.
  • Work and wellbeing. It has been well documented that looking out on to greenery is good for the soul and aids concentration. It can help people work more productively and has been shown to help hospital patients recover more quickly.

A few things to remember about sedum roofs

The roof structure will have to be reinforced to take additional weight, allowing for full water saturation, maintenance and snow. This needs to be 120 Kg/m2.

Sedums cannot tolerate shade, so be wary of the position of your garden building and potential tree growth close to the garden building.

The sedum requires little care but will need feeding once a year, in spring, with a low nitrogen granular feeder.

Trims, guttering, soak-aways and water butt

Roof trims

We finish our flat roof models with a bespoke powder coated aluminium roofing trim that we have manufactured. These trims are very durable and generally colour coded to match the glazing frames, to offer the minimal pallet of colours we are famous for. As ever, it’s all in the detail!

Gutter and down pipes

As standard we supply uPVC guttering and down pipes, fitted with a sturdy gutter brush to stop the worst of the debris entering the water channel.

We also offer a more aesthetic powder coated range of box guttering and downpipes. These come in both anthracite grey or black to match the glazing frames, and again maintain the minimal colour pallet.

The run-off water is usually fed into a small soak-away but other alternatives are available if removal of water from the build location is required or desired.

Gutter Brush
Contemporary Guttering
Roof Trim
Soakaway

Water Butts

Rain water can easily be harvested by employing a water butt solution. We offer various sizes of butt (larger capacity or slimline) depending on the size of the building, the storage capacity required or the space available.


Soffits and barge boards

Attention to detail is a corner stone of our design philosophy, so all our roofing details are RAL colour coded to match your glazing frame colour, to both maintain a minimal pallet and to reinforce that architectural ‘Spaces look’. All materials incorporated are designed to be as durable as possible, and also low maintenance.


Sun Tubes – Additional Natural Ceiling Lighting

To increase the amount of natural light into our buildings, we can offer sun tubes which provide amazing levels of natural light to enhance your working or living environment. They function by harvesting and focussing natural light and then refracting it down a short tube into your building. As you would expect from Garden Spaces this works perfectly within our building/roofing system as we form a totally waterproof join between the light tube housing and the EPDM single ply roofing membrane.

We use the world leading brand in sun tubes to deliver the benefits of brilliant, natural light to our buildings, allowing you to switch off artificial lighting during daylight hours and thus significantly reduce your energy costs and consumption.