fire

[Eric D. Hart]

At 12:00 AM 12/3/96 +0000, goshawk at gnat.net wrote:

>I do have a questions about roofs. I am thinking about putting up a 
>roof with EPDM over plywood/insulation. then I plan on putting sand 
>on the EPDM then maybe some cactuses.  I firgure a sand roof is more 
>fireproof. Ok I am a little paranoid.
      If you want to put sand on the roof, the pitch of the roof has to be
low.  A flat roof (read a leaky roof) would keep the sand in place best
although some sort of slope could be used.  If the sand doesn't have
vegetation completely covering it, then it is liable to blow away or erode.
Cactus aren't likely to cover the roof completely, at least in the short
term (also, cactus in Georgia??!).  You would also have to worry about the
extra loads the sand would add to your roof.  If you want to be relatively
fire proof, use a metal roof.  EPDM and plywood will burn very well, thank
you if they don't have something fireproof encasing them.  Forget about the
plywood decking and just use purlins and a metal roof.  A fire relatively
fire proof insulation like cellulose will work and you might be able to
figure out a way to put dry wall in the ceiling for added fire protection.

Eric D. Hart			
Community Eco-design Network	  
Minneapolis, MN  USA		
(612) 305-2899 
erichart at mtn.org			
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m037/kurtdand/cen