Building a deck onto your home or garage's roof can help increase your yard's usable space and help improve your health. If you have a flat roof, or a sloped roof, you can have a roof deck installed over part or all your roof. Here are three benefits from building a roof top deck that can help improve your health.

Keep Your Gardening Space 

By building a deck on your roof instead of in your backyard, you will be preserving all your available gardening space in your yard. This space can be used for growing vegetables, flowers, and other enjoyable plants. As you take care of your outdoor garden, you will be helping to lower your stress. 

A study published in the Journal of Health Psychology showed those that garden had a decrease in their stress. Another study found that by increasing your garden size by 10 percent, you can lower your health complaints in an amount equal to a five year reduction in your age.

The CDC recommends to get in at least 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week and gardening is considered a moderate exercise. 

When you have a backyard garden, it can be easy to get in the recommended 2.5 hours of exercise every week. As you are working in the garden, you will benefit with more energy and you will be less likely to get heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and osteoporosis. As you work in your backyard garden, you will also be using and strengthening your leg and arm muscles at the same time. 

A New Place to Entertain Friends

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, about 8% of Canadians will suffer from depression at some point in their lives. When you are dealing with depression, the last thing you want to do is be around people, but socializing is a great way to help with depression. A rooftop deck is perfect for you to to be around friends. It can help to increase your interpersonal bonds and your energy levels, which can help you feel better. So, once you have a rooftop deck built, you will have more outdoor space to entertain and have friends over. 

In one study the physical benefits of socializing were found to be equal to exercising. Socializing on your roof deck can also increase your immunity to illness. It was also found that people with few or no social contacts were four times more likely to come down with a cold. 

Keep Your Pet's Outdoor Space

With plenty of space in your backyard, you will still have plenty of space for your dog or other pets. Pets are great for helping to lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases. They can also help lower your cholesterol, triglyceride levels, and increase your chance of surviving a heart attack. And, they can help lower your stress levels and increase your ability to deal with stressful situations.

Your pet can also help your children's allergies by exposing them to pet dander early in life. Then, as they grow up they will have a reduced allergy development.

With a large backyard for you and your pet to run around and play in, you will also benefit from the exercise. 

When you are feeling down or sad, your pet has a way of knowing your emotions and will be an emotional support system for you. This helps boost your mood and self-esteem.

Choosing to use your home or garage's roof as a foundation to build an outdoor deck can help your health in many ways. Learn more about how to get started on the construction of your new roof deck by following the link.