"Green roofs can get pretty heavy, especially after rain or snow."
Couldn't agree more—seen a few homeowners underestimate that myself. Had one client jokingly call his green roof a "sky garden," until winter turned it into a "sky swamp"...not so funny when you're footing the bill for structural upgrades later. Good call on highlighting structural assessments early; always cheaper to reinforce upfront than retrofit later. Glad to see someone else keeping an eye on the details.
Had a similar experience a couple years back. Worked on a house where the owner insisted on a green roof but didn't wanna hear about reinforcing the structure. Said it was "just plants," right? Well, first heavy snowfall, and suddenly he's got leaks and sagging beams. Ended up costing him way more to fix than it would've to just do it right from the start. Lesson learned the hard way, I guess...
"Said it was 'just plants,' right?"
Yeah, people underestimate how heavy soil and water can get, especially after rain or snow. Had a neighbor who installed solar panels without checking his roof structure first... same story, costly fix later. Did you end up reinforcing afterward?
When I moved into my first place, I thought the same thing—plants, how heavy could they be? Built a small rooftop garden without checking anything. After one heavy storm, I noticed the ceiling below started looking suspiciously droopy... turns out the beams weren't designed for that kind of weight. Had to rip it all out and reinforce everything. Lesson learned the hard way, but at least now I know better.
Yeah, rooftop gardens can definitely be trickier than they look. Before setting one up, it's always worth checking your roof's load-bearing capacity first—usually a structural engineer can quickly assess it. Then you can plan accordingly: lighter substrates, shallow-rooted plants, or even modular trays designed specifically for rooftops. Glad you caught it before things got worse... trust me, droopy ceilings are never a good sign, haha.
