Sod Roof

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 large parts of Scandinavia. Its distribution roughly corresponds to the distribution of the log building technique in the vernacular architecture of Finland and the Scandinavian peninsula. The load of approximately 250 kg per m² of a sod roof is an advantage because it helps to compress the logs and make the walls more draught-proof. In winter the total load may well increase to 400 or 500 kg per m² because of snow. Sod is also a reasonably efficient insulator in a cold climate. The birch bark underneath ensures that the roof will be waterproof.

The term ‘sod roof’ is somewhat misleading, as the active, water-tight element of the roof is birch bark. The main purpose of the sod is to hold the birch bark in place. The roof might just as well have been called a "birch bark roof", but its grassy outward appearance is the reason for its name in Scandinavian languages: Norwegian and Swedish torvtak, Icelandic torfþak.

A sod roof is well suited to a barter economy because the materials are ubiquitous and cost nothing, although the work is labour intensive. But a household would usually have a lot of manpower, and neighbours would usually be invited to take part in the roofing party, similar to a barn raising in the United States. The Norwegian term dugnad denotes an established custom in rural communities, where large undertakings were accomplished with help from neighbours.

Read more about Sod Roof:  History, Birch Bark, Sod, Sod Support Along The Eaves and Verges, Modern Turf Roofs, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words sod and/or roof:

    There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,
    Daisies, those pearl’d Arcturi of the earth,
    The constellated flower that never sets;
    Faint oxlips; tender bluebells at whose birth
    The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets
    Its mother’s face with heaven-collected tears,
    When the low wind, its playmate’s voice, it hears.
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

    Don’t want no money from you Ethan, no money, Marty. Just a roof over old Mose head and a rocking chair by the fire, my own rocking chair by the fire.
    Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)