Put Rain Runoff To Work

allowed us to bring durability, ease of cleaning, and economic value to the project.”

Innovations for the budget-minded

Pushing the limits of print technology, laminate manufacturers continually re-imagine and reinvent their products to pioneer greater advancements in the surfacing industry. One example is the Formica Corp.’s, Cincinnati, 180fx collection, which captures the true scale, striking color variation, and veining of full-sized natural-granite slabs.

Years ago, one sure giveaway that a laminate countertop was impersonating granite or quartz was an edge that was overly simplistic or revealed a brown line. These days, however, surfacing detectives will have to fi nd another clue. Manufacturers now can add decorative laminate edges suitable for curved, clipped, or 90-degree corner installations. These profi les transcend the customary limitations of laminate by encasing all sides of countertops and other work surfaces.

While commercial designers on a budget have long used laminate as a stand-in for natural stone to achieve a rich look, healthcare designers opt for laminate due to its durable, maintenancefree qualities. Exotic granites, marbles, and stones were never a practical consideration due to upkeep issues and their porous natures. How

The natural colors of the surfaces in this nurses’ station provide a soothing atmosphere for staff and patients. Featured Formica products include Prestige Walnut Fossil (doors and accent panels), MDF Solidz (accent panels), and Travertine (countertops).

ever, today’s laminates offer healthcare designers heightened design freedom.

A longtime solution for the challenge of budget constraints, laminates provide designers with economical opportunities to achieve a rich ambiance through the use of extensive millwork. The custom work often serves as a major focal point, infl uencing the overall design appeal. Unfortunately, the use of engineered woods and different saw cuts and species also greatly affects the bottom line and are not feasible options with tight budgets. However, today’s laminates

possess the aesthetic qualities needed in terms of color, vertical graining, and even texture, and they slash costs while allowing the integrity of a design as a whole to remain intact.

Laminate also has the ability to create a fun and funky focal point. While bold, bright colors might not make their way into hospital lobbies or patient rooms, specifi ers often use colorful laminates to bring cheer into pediatric settings. Since digital print is the basis of its design, laminate offerings are left to the imagination and include fun colors and graphic patterns.

Laminate’s future will be driven by continued joint exploration with the design community to discover new innovations. The result will be expansion of the surfacing material’s many selling points and reduction of its impact on the environment, carrying laminate forward as a versatile, hygienic choice for healthcare settings.

Bill Roush is director of communications at Formica Corp., Cincinnati, and a 20-year veteran with the surfacing manufacturer.

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Put Rain Runoff To Work

Stormwater management is a crucial component in any plan for a green building.

Bill Johnson, Firestone Specialty Products

In today’s commercial-construction industry, going green is on the minds of everyone from architects to contractors to building owners. And for good reason: A green building— especially one that is LEED-certifi ed—is very attractive to tenants and is much less expensive for owners to operate in the long run. A major consideration for any building is managing rainwater. Keeping it out of the building is critical, of course, but when the ground can’t absorb stormwater, the overfl ow can cause fl ooding and devastate streams and wetlands. Impermeable surfaces such as roofs, roads, and parking lots can increase rainwater runoff by as much as 45% (source: IBM, Armonk, NY). The Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, has named urban stormwater runoff, which can carry a wide variety of pollutants, as a leading source of impairment to rivers, lakes, and estuaries, as well as the plant and animal life in them. Ironically, another concern for cities and developed areas is the shortage of water. Hardscapes restrict rainfall from soaking into the earth, which is necessary to replenish groundwater and other sources for clean drinking water. As greater focus is put on water management in urban settings, architects and building owners need to become more thoughtful and proactive about implementing water-management practices for commercial buildings and other new construction.

Controlling rainwater runoff is of growing importance because of runoff’s negative effect on the environment, particularly for natural water resources including oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Given many adverse implications—sewer overfl ow, pollution, fi sh and wildlife habitat destruction, and potable-water scarcity—watermanagement standards and codes are becoming stricter. With more than 80,000 square miles of impervious surfaces in the United States, architects, building contractors, and facility owners must seek best-management practices (BMP) for managing water and achieving hydrologic responsibility. New standards and codes apply to new and existing commercial construction.

With a wide variety of products and applications available, commercial-building-product companies can work with building professionals to design water-management solutions that address multiple aspects of water collection, treatment, retention, and use, such as: • Managing stormwater discharge from hardscapes such as roofs, roads, driveways, parking lots, and sidewalks • Transforming impervious parking areas to functional drainage areas • Converting parks and sports fi elds to functional,

multi-purpose green spaces • Reducing or eliminating the need for added irrigation on golf courses • Creating rain gardens that treat high volumes of stormwater runoff and reuse rainwater for irrigation purposes • Recycling graywater for use in onsite subsurface irrigation • Protecting walls from water and fl ood damage.

Conventional water-management systems control water runoff and discharge it as quickly as possible or contain it in an open reservoir for later use. A downside of this system is that an open reservoir takes up valuable space. It is critical, especially in cities, to be effi cient with space since real estate is not only limited but also costly.

Any commercial building contains a huge number of components from the foundation all the way to the roof. Smart project managers look at every possible opportunity to make those components as green as possible, including some that literally go from the roof all the way down to the foundation—and even beyond. One is stormwater management: capturing rain in places where it won’t damage the building and in fact will be a benefi t. In this article, we’ll follow the path rainwater takes from the time it hits the roof to its ultimate use and recycling.

A patio garden turns a roof into a welcoming space at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio. Fanciful metal “fl owers” add more color for children to enjoy through the windows or on the patio.

Take it from the top

For building owners and architects seeking ways to conserve energy, vegetative roofi ng systems are a great cool-roofi ng option that helps minimize energy consumption and maximize building performance. Architects use vegetative systems to transform roofs into beautifully landscaped environments. Beyond energy savings and aesthetics, though, vegetative roof systems play a vital role in controlling stormwater runoff, while simultaneously insulating and protecting a roof from threats such as UV and heat-stress degradation. Multiple system confi gurations and choices in vegetation make it easy to create a sustainable, environmentally responsible roof for a greener commercial facility.

Public-policy changes to mitigate the stress of stormwater and combined fl ow drainage have spread rapidly across North America. Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, and Washington have led the way in requiring buildings to hold back 1 inch to 1 3/4 inches of stormwater for the fi rst 24 hours after a rain event. In each of these cities’ new requirements, vegetative roofs are literally at the top of the stormwater-management chain. These low-maintenance, high-performance solutions provide an insulating layer that makes the building’s heating and cooling more effi cient, protects roofi ng material from UV and

Another view of the green roof on the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital provides a better look at the sedum and hosta that are the dominant plants at the end of the summer.

Composite pavers provide part of the hardscape around beds of sedum on a vegetative roof. Both the pavers and the planted areas contribute to water management.

heat-stress degradation, and extends the service life of the underlying roof.

Research conducted by the city of Portland, OR, demonstrated that, over a period of six years, vegetative roofs attenuated peak runoff rates from roofs and reduced the overall runoff volume through evapotranspiration (the cumulative effects of moisture evaporation into the atmosphere and the migration of water through the plants). Properly engineered and designed vegetative roofs collect and use rainwater, control the rate of stormwater runoff, and create a fl ourishing environment for the plants through capillary action that waters the plants from the collected rainwater. Stormwater that can’t be immediately absorbed fl ows through the plants and growing media, down into the waterretention layer. As the stormwater fl ows through the plants, growing media, and water-retention components of the vegetative roof system, it is fi ltered and cleaned, so that when it fi nally fl ows into the public system, it is naturally cleaner.

The dirt on green roofs

Vegetative systems come in a variety of confi gurations. Tray systems are modular components that can include plants that have been grown offsite prior to installation or vegetation that is planted onsite. Tray systems are best suited to smaller garden roofs of less than 10,000 sq. ft. and for plants that grow no taller than about 6 inches above the growing media. The modular trays are easy to move, which speeds up repair of any roof leaks during the service life of the roofi ng system.

For more expansive rooftop areas, a multilayer system is typically a more effective choice. This intensive option, with a growing-media depth of 4 inches to 8 inches, offers the ultimate in landscape-design freedom. Installers can shape it to conform to bends, curves, or low slopes, for example. This system encourages healthy growth for foliage as tall as 6 feet and allows a vegetative roof to provide a true natural-landscape feel. It is the true “designer’s palette” vegetative roof system.

Regardless of the system, however, properly installed and maintained vegetative roofi ng produces healthy plant growth to ensure a beautiful rooftop garden. Tray and multi-layer designs feature a protective root barrier, drainage and fi ltration layers, and a water-retention layer for collecting stormwater and controlling its fl ow into drainage, growing media, and plants. Some vegetative roofing systems can accommodate an irrigation system, although they usually aren’t necessary. Rooftop plants are typically a drought-tolerant, fi re-safe, non-invasive mix of sedum varieties. Sedum can be installed from pre-planted trays, planted as plugs, or laid out on either a tray or multilayer system as sedum tiles, mats, or blankets. They can also be hydro-planted as cuttings for a lower-cost option. It is not uncommon for local native-plant species to be included in the rooftop plant design.

Plant Layer

Growing-Media Layer

Air Porosity

Water Porosity Water-Retention Layer

Filtration Layer

Drainage Layer

Root-Barrier Layer Critical to keep area dry and to provide air flow.

Vegetative roofs use natural processes to move moisture and air through several layers of material, including the plants comprising the top layer.

Vegetative roofi ng systems provide a wide range of benefi ts from an environmental standpoint: • A highly effective stormwater-management solution that complies with public policy • An insulating layer that helps reduce building heating and cooling costs • Extension of the roof and roofi ng-material life by protecting it from UV and heat degradation and by mitigating wind uplift • Enhancing air quality and reducing the heatisland effect in urban and developed areas by converting carbon dioxide to oxygen and