At the end of February, work began to repair the green roof of the Ronda Mercè kinder garden in Lleida. As the building is in use, the repair tasks framed in the BIG4LIFE project will be carried out during weekends and holidays to minimize the inconveniences the works may cause to the users of the building.
In order to prepare the space for the rehabilitation tasks, two lifelines have been installed, which will remain on the deck of the school permanently to guarantee the safety of the workers during the refurbishment and in the future maintenance of the green roof. A provisional scaffolding has also been installed in one of the school courtyards to access the roof directly without the need to access the building during the refurbishment period.
So far, the repairs carried out consisted of improving the existing irrigation system and removing the substrate and gravel that covered the deck. The following steps include checking the geotextile sheet (used as a filtering and protective layer) and the draining layer of the cover before reviewing the state of the insulation and waterproof sheet, which are the layers immediately below the drain in the building.
During the month of March, and once the state of isolation and the waterproof sheet has been assessed, repairs will be carried out – if necessary. Once the roof is examined, the project team will decide on the installation of a new draining and geotextile layer and continue with the specific substrate for vegetation growth on the green roof, the irrigation system. Finally, the team will start incorporating plants to the rooftop by planting sedum, a genus of succulent plants in the Crassulaceae family that includes more than 500 different species, with blankets.