Everybody talks about green homes and green design but many a time people forget about their garages. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that an attached garage creates a large amount of in-house pollution and affects the health of the occupants. This happens because the interface between the house and the garage is not properly designed reducing the indoor quality of air. As a consequence, all green features incorporated in the house get nullified due to neglecting the designing of your garage.
The single largest contributor is the noxious exhaust generated by the car which enters the house through doors and cracks in the garage walls. Low formaldehyde sealing agents are the answer to seal the cracks in the garage wall and the door leading to the house to tackle air pollution. Garages have other materials that give off toxic fumes. The list includes turpentine oil, benzene used by lawn mowers, cleaning agents, and pesticides used for gardening. To keep the garage well ventilated, it is a good practice to have an exhaust fan mounted in the garage to suck out the foul air.
Installing a green roof for your garage is a good green innovation. A green roof can be completely or partially covered by grass, plants or other vegetation. Many companies in the US offer this service of building a green roof. In a green roof building process, an environmentally friendly water proofing material called Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) forms the first layer. On top of the TPO layer, water retention and filter layers are put. Next comes the top most layer, the growing medium, which is a light weight mixture of rock and soil. Plants with shallow roots, which are drought resistant, are then planted in this medium. The environmental advantages of a green roof are many. Green roofs help reduce noise pollution, filter rainwater and reduce the cost of cooling your house. Respiration of plants helps reduce ambient heat in the surroundings. The plants absorb sunlight and reduce the heat from reaching the roof surface thereby increasing the life of the roof. It is estimated that that one green-roofed garage can eliminate the equivalent of eight kg of pollutants and even generate enough oxygen to keep 25 people alive for a year. Having that extra patch of elevated green adds to the aesthetics of the house which would attract not only humans but also your feathered friends, thus adding to the biodiversity of your area.