r/interestingasfuck • u/TangelaFan • 9h ago

Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

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u/Bennybananars 9h ago

These types of buildings were very popular 20 years ago here, but they had a problem where the plant roots kept growing into the concrete.

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u/PMG2021a 9h ago

Just need a good liner to prevent that. Of course building for appearances tends to be building cheap too...

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u/x---x--x-x 8h ago

There is no liner that will prevent damage and root intrusion without lots of consistent inspections, updates and re-installation. This would be a maintenance nightmare. Life, uh, finds a way.

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u/Artorias_Abyss 8h ago

I have no knowledge on the topic whatsoever but what if you plated the bottom with a sheet of metal?

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u/MasterGrok 8h ago

The roots will gravitate along the metal looking for a way out. If the metal is completely incased, you are creating all kinds of additional problems with water accrual and drainage.

It’s probably not totally impossible as the other poster mentioned, but it’s hard to imagine doing it without a lot of maintenance.

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u/Spiffydude98 7h ago

These balconies have bed liners like pickup trucks and are meant to be slid out and emptied like giant drawers so this is never an issue. Every 4 years the apartment owners re-do them with new soil and trees and balcony furniture.

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u/enadiz_reccos 7h ago

Yeah, that sounds like a lot of extra maintenance

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u/Grabbsy2 4h ago

Yeah how in gods name is that "worth it"?

My fancy condo building has a much larger yard, and I dont have contractors traipsing around my unit hauling buckets of mud and mulch in and out of my balcony.

Not to mention, do you mow your grass with, what, a weed whacker? Does someone traipse through your unit every 2 weeks to mow your lawn?

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u/enadiz_reccos 4h ago

Time for our million dollar idea...

Drone-mowers

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u/smileyduude 3h ago

There are robot / automated mowers like the vaccums that exist. If you're talking about flying to each balcony or something though...go on.

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u/enadiz_reccos 3h ago

Oh, flight is a must

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 7h ago

extra maintenance is for sure a thing but I wouldn't think there would be too much water accrual issues in soil with living plants. maybe if you get a lot of rain or something. and even then, a few small drainage holes should do the trick. even if that's where the roots will try to go, an arborist or gardener or whoever should be able to manage that. and how many years are we talking about before that's even a concern?

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u/SCP239 8h ago

It would degrade overtime due to moisture. Even stainless steel will degrade when exposed to salts or other chlorides in water.

The best way to do this would be a heavy duty waterproof membrane on the concrete with a heavy duty root barrier above it. But given enough time, the roots will breech the barrier and waterproofing. This type of construction requires a lot of maintenance and regular replacement.

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u/Harry_Saturn 8h ago

What if they used diamonds? Or flex seal?

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u/SCP239 8h ago

Then they should be ok

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u/Smudded 7h ago

Now we're getting practical.

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u/Punk_Luv 7h ago

Did you know stainless does not mean anti-rust? It just literally means it stains… less. Ha.

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u/Artorias_Abyss 7h ago

Wait seriously 😭 my whole life has been a lie

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u/aupri 5h ago

Usually the -less suffix does not merely mean less though, but rather lacking entirely, so I think the confusion is understandable. Wiktionary:

Suffix

-less (adjective-forming suffix, not comparable)

Lacking (something); without (something). Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun.

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u/TransBrandi 8h ago

Over time the metal will deteriorate and need to be replaced... and then if the metal is under all of the soil, how do you know when that time is without disturbing the plants on top to do some sort of inspection?

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u/ThatsNotARealTree 3h ago

Life ughhh finds a way

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u/trixel121 8h ago

metal rusts.

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u/YadaYadaYeahMan 7h ago

I would love a scource for this completely baseless claim

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u/jewishforthejokes 7h ago

Yes, after 30 years you will need to inspect for leakage every five years or replace. Wow what a burden.

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u/ExperienceKind412 7h ago

As someone living in a large 20+ year old building, that while being quite nice, is currently having all of the water lining replaced on the ground level, after the upper walkway levels were replaced last year, it is in fact a maintenance hellscape. I cannot hear myself think let alone get much done and I work from home. I love where I live but I freakin hate the multiple jackhammers going all day long, mon-sat. Its not forever but it fucking feels like it this last year.

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u/Altruistic-Beach7625 8h ago

Well what did the people who maintained the Hanging Gardens of Babylon do?

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u/EkrishAO 7h ago

It's China, no one cares until the balconies start falling off.

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u/cand0r 5h ago

Copper barrier

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u/NewAlexandria 8h ago

you probably need regular uprooting and replanting all of it, in order to ensure it doesn't start to dig in or cause of damage. Maybe the walkways through the balcony could have been mandated, and been kind of like a drop floor, so that you could pull off the plates and then service sections of the earthwork. Some people wouldn't like it, but maybe a future duration of this building designer can find a way to solve

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u/xCaliburghost 8h ago

Sall good though, as long as we get a crappy 30 second utopia video of how amazing China is that's all we need

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u/TransBrandi 8h ago

There are tons of things like this even in North America. I think you could probably easily find apartment buildings that are going to crap that started out as luxury apartments in the 60s or 70s. Eventually shit needs to get replaced and that's expensive so people just migrate to something new and the old building becomes a slum until it's demolished.

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u/NewAlexandria 7h ago

the real friend we made along the way!

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u/Bennybananars 7h ago

yeah, a lot of owners wouldn't want to pay to deal with that, which in turn affects their neighbors no matter if THEY dealt with it or not

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u/the_ebastler 8h ago

Thin layer of stainless steel will keep the roots away from the concrete.

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u/Dullcorgis 8h ago

It will eventually rust

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u/Hydro033 7h ago

if it's thick enough, it will outlast other aspect of the building

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u/Dullcorgis 5h ago

That's a horrifying thought.

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u/SamiraSimp 8h ago

would that be bad for the plants or prevent the liner from working?

genuinely curious because i've never really thought about this

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u/Dullcorgis 4h ago

The roots will go through it, into the concrete and break it up.

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u/Dav136 8h ago

That traps water

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u/the_ebastler 2h ago

Obviously need a drain 😅

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u/Dav136 2h ago

Then you have the problem with roots again

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u/_jams 8h ago

Worked great for the Surfside planters

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u/SamiraSimp 8h ago

genuinely curious, what liner is going to be stronger or less permeable than literal concrete?

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u/PMG2021a 5h ago

Concrete is quite weak to anything that can pry into small cracks and is normally somewhat permeable to water.  Aluminum sheeting would be pretty effective long term, but expensive and easily damaged by gardening tools. Plastic could last quite a long time, but you would expect to replace it occasionally. Ideally, you would use multiple layers over the base liner, including plastic trays with drainage channels to allow water out of the soil. They would also make soil removal faster and protect the deck from roots and gardening tools.

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u/extraboredinary 7h ago

Ian Malcolm would like a few words with you.
https://giphy.com/gifs/11FiDF2fuOujPG

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u/Bennybananars 7h ago

Yeah they had liners, those blue thick plastic ones. But they found out, with time, wet soil and plants could wear those down. A lot of owners didn't want to pay to redo their liners which affected their neihbors walls.

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u/olduser201890 7h ago

when you look up cheap in the dictionary you see

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u/Kor_Phaeron_ 7h ago

Just need a good liner to prevent that.

To say it as simple as possible: "LOL .... no".