Norwegian Sod Roof Houses

Green roofs may be a newer phenomenon in many places but norwegians have been planting greenery atop their houses for hundreds of years.

Norwegian sod roof houses.

During the viking and middle ages most houses had sod roofs and they were almost universal until the beginning of the 18th century. These roofs are covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Its distribution roughly corresponds to the distribution of the log building technique in the. In rural areas sod roofs were almost universal until the beginning of the 18th century.

Norwegian grass roofs the norwegian translation is torvtak which means turf roof. The load of approximately 250 kg per m of a sod roof is an advantage because it helps to compress. A sod roof or turf roof is a traditional scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Until the late 19th century it was the most common roof on rural log houses in norway and large parts of the rest of scandinavia.

Turf roofs in norway are a tradition and you will see them everywhere. Houses with their roofs looking like small meadows may seem a little strange in these modern times but until the late 19th century turf roofs were the most common type of roofs in rural norway. Norway has a specific sod roof standard that defines how to.