Green Builders Blog

flecha57 asked:


Hi:

I’m a landscape design student. I have a design project for designing and building a green roof. I live in Puerto Rico, most houses are made with concrete, and the roofing is flat. How do I figure out how much weight can a flat roof can hold? A simple extensive Green Roof weighs between 60-150 kg/m2 (13.0-30.0 lb/sq.ft.) depending on the thickness of the Green Roof system build-up. How do I know if the roof is suitable for a green roof. The roof measures 50′ x 60′, about 8″ thick, all concrete (with steel bars).

What else I need to know to figure this out? I mean calculations, formulas, stuff like that. Can someone please help? I’m quite worried. The teacher has been awful, he’s no help at all. I barely have two week to finish this (plus my other classes). I have been doing searches on line with no luck. I don’t need to hire an structural engineer, I just the know how, in simple words since I’m not an engineering student.

Any reference to anything (books, internet) will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :o)

Patricia

mouses1 asked:


What are some home remedies?Any other advice?

Tad

Heidster asked:


I am opening a new class a office building. I have an acre atrium in the center and have a 9 hole professional putting course going in along with water features and tropical plants. I need ideas for some sort of grand opening/putting contest. This s not a put put course. It is being designed by a top golf course designer. Help I don’t golf!!!

Julius

Bill in Kansas asked:


Amazing…..

I posted this yesterday, and it must have hurt some little lib’s feelings because it got reported.

I guess Libs just can’t stand to read the truth.

President Obama said in his press conference that there was no pork and “not a single earmark” in the bill, so how does he explain all of these…..

•$1 billion for Amtrak (which hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years)
•$50 Million for The National Endowment for the Arts
•$400 million for global-warming
•$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
•$650 million for digital TV conversion coupons
•$600 million for the Federal Government to buy new hybrid cars
•$7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities
•$81 billion for Medicaid
•$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
•$20 billion for food stamps
•$83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax
•$252 billion is for income-transfer payments
•$246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film
•$88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker
•$448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters
•$248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters
•$400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s
•$1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs
•$125 million for the Washington sewer system
•$1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion
•$75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”
•$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges
•$25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction
•$500 million for state and local fire stations
•$6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings
•$88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service
•$412 million for CDC buildings and property
•$160 million for volunteers at the Corporation for National Community Service
•$200 million for reseeding the grass on the National Mall

I guess he has a “different deffinition” of pork, or maybe he would rather call it chicken

Luke

BlackDahlia asked:


It looks like if you win the home, you are responsible for the up-front closing costs, taxes, etc, and recording fees to record the deed of trust. I’m just wondering if the deed can be put into your name or if they somehow put some type of lien on it or make some conditions that say you cannot sell it. I know you would initially have to pay the up front costs, but you couldn’t you pay the initial costs and property taxes for the first year, and then sell it?

This is a link to the official rules.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_66099,00.html
I would want to sell it if we won because, we couldn’t afford to keep paying the taxes, etc, for longer than the initial costs. And because of my husbands job, he cannot relocate, so we would have to sell. The package is worth about 800,000, so even if we made a few hundred thousand from a sell it would be a huge profit for us.

Bertie

Bella asked:


I have a project we gotta do… and it’s to design a restaurant and a clubhouse for the military… the officers and the soldiers… my concept is focusing mainly on green, sustainable buildings…. i looked at ken yeang’s work.. VERY inspirational… can ne one help?

Kellie

linette l asked:


A Confession of Lies

No, it isn’t needed: this blue sky, the two exact trees
Where they are green ash, blue pine. The seas can rise
To within an inch of the buildings but will not,
Ever. For now, like them, my words can be trusted.
There is no need for a doubt. We will not die.
We cannot keep the woods from receding north
To a cooler horizon. Red, white, and yellow
Trash will escape our hands to go into the water.
A glowing, new coal will escape our lips and go down
Through time in the water, to come up a cool, gold
Drink. The truth: We aren’t eager to die. We
Turn all our acts to good. We think and desire
Alike. Whatever we start we complete. We don’t
Let our anger loose. All earth
Is as wide and dear and clean as when I was small.
Whenever I lie, I tell a truth.

Georgia