Making good use of a garage roof...

[Howie]

HI,

I have a car-port which I am just about to convert into a garage. The roof will need to span 5.5m x 6m. The car-port is cut into my hillside garden and the top is level with the land on the highest side, which is a 1-metre thick retaining wall.

I would really like to use my new roof as a patio or other useful area. I had originally thought about constructing a concrete roof so that I could grow a lawn on top of it - but the other wall is only made up of a single skin of concrete blocks (laid flat) and might not take the weight of a concrete roof.

Anyway, does anyone have any useful construction ideas for a roof I can walk-on and use as a nice area of my garden?

TIA.

H.

[mrcheerful]

[Rick]

I'd check with a strutrial engineer, but it sounds like you could put just about anything up there. If the blocks are concrete blocks, laid on their side they are massivly strong, assuming they have a good foundation.

Beam and block floors can be put on a single skin of blocks, and may well work on your roof.

Grass is not massivly heavy, say 2 tonnes a cube for soil, 50mm thick, gives you 10 square meteres a tonne

Decking may well work.

You may consider tyring this place into a bomb shelter, you sould like you are at least half way there .......

Rick

[bigcat]

If you choose a 2" deep soil layer, which is well below the normal recommended, you'll need consistent frequent watering in hot weather to keep it all alive. As I found out to my cost. Unless its shaded all day.

For more details on constructing turf roofs, see C.A.T.

NT