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Green roof helps companies save on their utilities
Special material allows grass and other plants to grow on top of standard roof
by Nathan Carrick | Staff Writer, The Gazette
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
From the ground, the shrubs and grasses perched on the roof of the Bentley building in Sandy Spring are barely noticeable.
But when it comes time to tally the building's heating and cooling bills, Fred Nichols says their presence — and benefits — are obvious.
"We get about an 18 percent savings on our heating and cooling bills," Nichols, owner of Nichols Contracting Inc., said. Part of the company's operations are in the Bentley building.
In April workers from Freedom Garden Products installed about 2,000 square feet of AQUALOK foam on the flat roof then planted blue holly, liriope grass, heather, old gold juniper, blue star juniper and golden euonymus directly in the foam. The plants cover about two-thirds of the roof, but Nichols said he is thinking about covering the whole thing.
The work took less than a day.
Wendy Bell, a spokeswoman for Premier Plantscapes, the Burtonsville company that installed the roof, said the roof system is the first of its kind in Maryland. The company installed a similar roof in Arlington. But the benefits of the roof are so great, she expects to see them sprouting up all over the area in the next few years.
"We've got the interest, it's just a matter of getting them out there," she said. "It's really the perfect environment for plants to grow in. Two inches of this foam is the equivalent of two feet of soil, and two inches of foam holds an inch and a half of water."
The system, which is installed directly on top of the existing roof, is significantly lighter than if soil was used. It requires no modifications to the roof before the foam and plants are installed. The new roof weighs 10 pounds per square foot, where a traditional green roof with soil or stone base can weigh anywhere from 25 to 250 pounds per square foot, Bell said.
Making a roof green with traditional materials often requires it to be reinforced to prevent collapse, but that is almost never needed with this lighter design, Bell said.
The system can even be installed on a sloping roof, so long as it is not too steep, Nichols said.
The foam was originally developed to be placed in the fuel tanks of space shuttles to prevent the fuel from sloshing, Nichols said.
But its hyper-absorbent properties make it a good fit for using as a planting material.
As a plant grows, the roots integrate into the foam, Nichols said.
He wants to use the green roof on Ashton Meeting Place, a shopping center planned for the intersection of Ashton-Sandy Spring Road and New Hampshire Avenue.
He hopes Park and Planning commissioners will inspect the roof on the Bentley building to see that it is suitable for the Ashton Meeting Place.
"I was skeptical myself when I first heard about it," he said. "But it's hard to find a downside."
The installation on the Bentley building cost $50,000, which is approximately $25 per square foot.
But with the cost-savings on heating and cooling bills in addition to lessened storm water management costs and tax breaks for the environmentally friendly improvement, the roof will pay for itself in four or five year, Nichols said.
And it works, to boot.
"These plants have basically doubled in size since we put them in," he said.
Bell said in traditional green roof systems, mostly cedars and alpines are planted. With the new technology, virtually any kind of plant can take root.
"The benefits are pretty significant," she said.
Injured Olney man returns to the community
by Terri Hogan | Staff Writer, The Gazette
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
For Dave Krehbiel and his family, there is no place like home.
After a debilitating injury that kept him hospitalized for more than a year, Krehbiel is continuing his rehabilitation from the comfortable confines of his home.
To this family, home means more than the bricks and mortar that make up the Shamrock Drive house where they have lived for 21 years.
It also means coming back to the community that has supported the family in countless ways since the day over a year ago when Krehbiel was injured during a family vacation in Ocean City.
In August 2007, Krehbiel and his children, Steven, Sarah and Shannon, were swimming in the ocean when he was tossed around by a wave, resulting in a bruised spinal cord and damage between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae.
His daughters, both swimmers and lifeguards, instinctively pulled him out of the water and up onto the beach, not realizing how their lives were about to change.
Krehbiel was taken to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where he remained for three months before moving to Kernan Hospital, also in Baltimore.
In February, he was moved to Greater Laurel Health and Rehabilitation Center, where he lived until Sept. 24 when he finally returned to Olney.
It has been a long recovery, with the first several months spent on a ventilator, said his wife, Vickie Krehbiel.
"That was our first goal, to get him breathing on his own again," she said.
Other milestones followed.
"You have no idea how good water tastes," Dave Krehbiel said, recalling his first sips. "That, and being able to talk again."
But other obstacles remain.
Dave, 51, has limited control over his arms.
"We are hoping that over time Dave will learn to use the limited movement that he does have to the best of his ability," his wife said. "Our current goal is for Dave to be as independent as possible. We hope that soon he will be able to control his power -wheelchair without assistance."
Dave Krehbiel is working on his computer skills, using special speech-recognition software. He has kept up with his business associates through an online marketing community and hopes to get back into the marketing profession.
The homecoming
"It is great to be home," Krehbiel said, sitting in a wheelchair in a newly constructed bedroom at his home. "I am happy to be back in the company of my wonderful family."
He is glad to once again be a part of family meals and grateful that he no longer has to worry about Vickie traveling to and from the hospital each night.
The Krehbiels look at the new room built for Dave and realize they are blessed.
"It's all pretty incredible," Sarah Krehbiel said. "We feel very lucky to be in a community where so many people helped us."
The bedroom, which used to be a carport, was constructed by Ashton developer Fred Nichols and coordinated by family friend Lisa McCarthy and the organization Rebuilding Together.
Rebuilding Together is a nationwide home repair and rehabilitation program dedicated to keeping homeowners, particularly the elderly, disabled and families with children, living in dignity, safety, warmth and independence through volunteer services.
McCarthy contacted Rebuilding Together and learned the project could be accomplished with additional fundraising. So she held a fundraiser, as did Lou and Eleni Altobelli and local teens D.J. Carswell and Taylor McCarthy. The teens organized a flamingo fundraiser in which people paid to have flocks of the plastic birds land in an unsuspecting yard.
Vickie Krehbiel worked with Nichols, who listened to her ideas and said it could be done, even when others had told her it was impossible.
Dave did not want a handicapped ramp up to the front door, so Nichols created an addition that was functional, yet meshed perfectly with the existing house, the Krehbiels said.
The addition features a large bedroom highlighted by lots of windows, wood floors and an exposed brick chimney. It also includes a large accessible bathroom, a hallway leading into the kitchen with an overlook into the living room, and access to the rear deck and ramp that leads down the side of the house.
A framed photo of a plastic pink flamingo hangs on the bedroom wall as a joke because Nichols had told Krehbiel he was building him a pink room, and also as a reminder of the successful flamingo fundraiser.
Throughout the construction, Vickie took photos documenting the progress and shared them with her husband. He was home for a few brief visits in the spring, so he got to see the work as it progressed.
Sarah Krehbiel, a student at the University of Maryland, is living at home this year while student teaching at a Montgomery County elementary school.
"It just feels like home again with Dad here," she said. "It's just where he is supposed to be."
Krehbiel welcomes visitors and feels that people are worried about intruding.
"I want to see people," he said. "They are always welcome."
Despite the thrill at having Dave at home, his transition has not been easy and has brought frustrations as the logistics are worked out.
Vickie Krehbiel said that just getting a special bed delivered was an ordeal.
"The day before he came home they brought three beds and none of them were right," she said.
She is also struggling to work out a schedule of homecare personnel to provide Dave's care, and coordinate the many doctor appointments.
Just before Dave's scheduled release, the family encountered a setback with the required Living at Home program for disabled Maryland residents between the ages of 18 and 64. But in order to qualify, a person must require a nursing-facility level of care.
Although Dave met the criteria for the medical portion of the waiver, he was denied approval because his Social Security disability check is $3 over the monthly limit for qualifying.
Vickie put out an appeal for suggestions on how to deal with the situation on Dave's Caring Bridge Web site, and was overwhelmed by the suggestions and efforts of people contacting state legislators on their behalf.
Through those efforts, the Krehbiels were able to secure a one-year waiver and continue to work towards obtaining a permanent waiver.
"The Living at Home waiver provides us with some attendant care and transportation to Dave's doctor's appointments," Vickie Krehbiel said. "I do have to pay for some of Dave's care with his Social Security disability check because the number of hours provided is not nearly enough."
But one of the biggest struggles the family faces is a positive one — how to properly thank everyone that has supported them.
"The support has been overwhelming. I would not have survived otherwise," Krehbiel said.
Neighbor Carol Andre has coordinated meals for the family since the accident, and they are still coming.
A handicapped-accessible van was donated and enables him to look forward to more outings.
Krehbiel had planned to attend the recent University of Maryland homecoming tailgate party with his Theta Chi fraternity brothers. When the rain prevented him from being able to attend, friends Ellen and Cal Moore brought the tailgate to him.
"They were absolutely amazed by the addition and told me how lucky we were to live in a community that would help out in such an incredible way," Vickie said.
"This is what has kept us going," she added. "Olney is truly an amazing place. Our story has touched a lot of people, and we have been touched by so many."