Vegetation Roofing Comes with Added Benefits

Scott Buescher is an accomplished Florida business executive, entrepreneur and award-winning real estate expert whose industry experience spans more than three decades. He is the owner and president of Mercedes Homes, which is credited with building more than 6,000 units in Florida and other locations across the United States.

In the recent times, numerous advancements have been made in building and construction techniques with an aim of achieving safety and boosting efficiency in energy and water use, including what is called a “building envelope.” A key emerging trend of a building envelope is vegetative roofs, where roofs are either fully or partially covered with vegetation.

Vegetation is planted on a medium installed on top of a waterproof membrane and may consist of an irrigation system useful during the drought season as well as a drainage system. Compared to conventional roofs, vegetative roofs help to effectively manage varying temperatures across various roofing materials as well as decrease heat loss. In addition, roofs covered by vegetation guard buildings against harmful UV sunrays as well as lower the surge on stormwater systems.

Breaking the Storm with Hurricane-Resistant Construction Methods

As the chief operating officer of Mercedes Homes, Florida resident Scott Buescher helped the company win two National Housing Quality awards. Living in Florida has sensitized Scott Buescher to the need for construction techniques that can better withstand hurricanes. Typically, increasing hurricane resistance can be accomplished in three ways:

- Stricter building codes. These are the main line of defense against storm damage. Florida’s strongest-in-America codes call for impact-resistant glass, better connections between walls and roofs, and shingles that are nailed rather than stapled.

- Strengthening wood-frame houses. Tying together the roof, walls, and foundation of a building is crucial to increasing wind and flood resistance. Costing only a few dollars each, metal connecting brackets are simple to install during new home construction, while putting them in later can be very expensive.

- New types of glass and concrete. So-called “bendable” glass uses microscopic fissures to make it 200 times stronger than conventional glass. Walls that support the glass can also benefit from ultra-high performance concrete, which incorporates fine-grained aggregate and specialized fibers. This new technique forms walls that bend more than ordinary concrete and stay upright even if cracked. Concrete products such as engineered cementitious composite maintain their integrity even when powerful stressors threaten to tear them apart.

How Hurricane-Resistant Technology has been Embraced in Florida

Eye of the hurricane
Photo by NASA on Unsplash

For over 25 years, accomplished construction expert Scott Buescher has worked at Mercedes Homes, LLC, as chief operations officer. The private building firm has successfully constructed thousands of homes across the states of Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Scott Buescher grew the Melbourne, Florida-based firm from humble beginnings of only 35 homes in its first year to 5,700 units and $1.7 billion in revenue at its peak. He also spearheaded innovation efforts in embracing hurricane-resistant technology in conjunction with various partners.

Hurricane-resistant technology has evolved significantly in the last decade owing to increased hurricane activity causing widespread destruction. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida introduced new, stringent, mandatory building codes on a local level, followed by implementation of the new regulations on a statewide level in 2002. The new regulations have drastically influenced new constructions in Florida, making it the state with the highest mandatory code in the U.S.

A key highlight of the modern building code emphasizes the exteriors of buildings. New homes constructed in Florida in areas that experience winds of more than 120 mph must have exterior impact protection. Impact protection includes the installation of reinforced doors, hurricane shutters, and impact-resistant windows. Other code changes for houses in the 120-mph wind zones are mandatory roof straps, which connect the roof of a house via cables that run all the way to the concrete slab or basement.