Green Dream: Fun With Tons of Steel!

With the first-floor walls poured, it's time to erect the structure for the rest of the house before my panels show up. Does this look a little overbuilt? Well, there's a very good reason why folks don't build flat-roofed houses in the Great White North: It's called snow, and it's heavy. It makes little sense to design a house that would allow snow to sit on the roof, stressing the structure, instead of just sliding off.

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But I'm a man of little sense and I really wanted a green roof, which needs a flat surface with no run-off. So I consulted the engineer, who coldly delivered the facts: You can have both, but there's going to be a lot of weight up there and you'll need structural steel to hold your roof up. Lucky for me, steel prices have been down a bit lately. I still spent more than I wanted to on the steel, but I hope to make it up with my future rooftop corn crops.

Here's a look at what happens when the steel shows up, and isn't exactly what I was expecting ...

John B. Carnett, PopSci's staff photographer, is using the latest green technology to build his dream home. Follow along as the project progresses on his Green Dream blog: popsci.com/green-dream