The Point is a collection of self-catering holiday homes in the heart of picturesque Cornwall. The family-run business includes The Point at Polzeath, where several timber-built cabins have been created which required green roofs to be installed to comply with planning regulations.

Wheelbarrow Landscapes provides professional landscaping and garden maintenance services throughout Cornwall. The company is renowned for excellence in landscaping and garden maintenance and was chosen to fulfill this challenging project. A long-term customer of Green-tech, they turned to their sales advisor George Barton for advice and expertise in supplying green roof materials.

The primary challenge of this project was to source a solution that managed the weight limitations on the cabin roofs. Initially, the project envisioned using topsoil with wildflowers, but this was rendered unfeasible due to weight constraints.

After exploring available solutions, Wheelbarrow Landscapes opted for Green-tech's proven roof garden solutions, which included Gt RoofDrain for drainage. This is lightweight drainage layer that enables the collection and storage of water whilst providing a continuous drainage layer across the roof structure. The core acts as a water reservoir for plant roots to access in dry periods.

Green-tree roof garden substrate was chosen for the planting scheme. It is a blend of lightweight aggregate and award-winning Green-tree topsoil, which is ideal for green roof construction projects, due to its weight, excellent water-holding capacity, optimum drainage properties and good levels of aeration.

Instead of wildflowers or a planting scheme Green Roof Sedum matting was suggested and chosen. This is a lightweight and drought-tolerant green roof vegetation option, ideal for green roofs, especially those with a shallow substrate layer, as in this case. A Sedum Matting roof is a low-maintenance option that provides biodiversity, insulation, improves air quality in urban landscapes, and increases habitat creation. The plants offer a variety of leaf types and flowers which creates a blend of beautiful colours and textures when planted together.

Finally, Edge Guard was supplied to retain the lightweight substrate, which was especially important in areas that were lacking upstands.

James Ricks, Director at Wheelbarrow Landscapes comments, “We use Green-tech for all of our soft landscaping sundries and they always supply all the products we require, as and when we need them. They are knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with. Green-tech was able to supply all the products we required for us to install the green roofs and also supplied the Edge Guard powder coated in black to match the black timber cladding. Our client was delighted with the finished product and plans to use it throughout the site on the remaining cabin roofs once they are all built.”

The installation at The Point at Polzeath is testimony to the synergy between sustainable design and innovative environmental solutions. Green-tech’s products addressed challenges such as weight limitations and maintenance concerns and played an essential role in enhancing the aesthetic appeal and ecological sustainability of the project.