Research and Development of XERO FLOR

The Prerequisites 

Developing green roofs is a very complicated object. Many questions cannot be answered merely by practical experience. What exactly are the effects of green roofs? What requirements must their separate components and the complete system fulfill?

What improvements were yet to be made? And how? Purposeful scientific research brought the answers. This research was done by the Institute for Green-planing and Gardenarchitecture of the University of Hannover. The research on which our XERO FLOR system is based was made under the supervision of Professor Dr. Liesecke. Further help and support was offered by the Inventor's Center of Lower Saxony (EZN).

The Contents

To achieve practically usuable results by research, you must ask the right questions first. The founders of our green roof-project were especially interested in finding out how to optimize the quality of the vegetation, the substratum and the different constructive layers.

Special focus was given to the questions of root-growth behaviour, resistance against microbiological influence and grade of flammability. The inventors also concentrated on temperature isolation and water-storage, knowing that these are main points of interest for the house-owners.

The Results 

The very complex research-project on green roofs has led to a wide range of results. The inventors and our company therefore would like to focus on the most important facts.

The Ability to Store Water 

Even in our most light-weight version for a green roof, it is clear that over half of the precipitation on it returns directly back to its natural cycle. Roofs with Grass/Herb vegetations have an even higher value of 70 percent.

Fire-resistant Roofs 

This ability to store water makes our system especially attractive for areas prone to wild fires, as unfortunately have grown very frequent in certain areas of the world, e.g. the region around the Mediterranean or California. Our roofs are practically uninflammable. In fact, the history of "green roofs" goes back to WWII. When houses hit by bombs suffered damage to the roof, people would -  from the need of the moment - throw soil onto the buildings in order to stabilize them and make them water-proof. Experience showed that these first green roofs were immune to firebombs, making them safer than the other structures.

Modern green roofs would of course supply the same effective protection.