Thatched roof? Cob home?
 

Anyone here live with a thatched roof or in a cob house?

The historian at the living museum I went to told me that a thatched roof can last 25 years and that, if made right, they do not leak and the insulate the house.
Sounds good.

They do definitely last long but I would be surprised if there are many thatchers, if any at all, in America. :)

I've heard there is one thatcher in the US but I don't have any info. I would be worried about the fire hazard.

When I visited my ancenteral home in Croatia I notice a nitch in the side of the fire station with a small statue of St. Floren. Also a large statue in the local church. Found out St. Floren is the parton saint of fightfigters. At one time all of the houses were thatched and if one caught on fire, an entire block might burn down. Now they use tile, which are said to last up to 100 years if the framing structure under them is not damaged.

I doubt you could insurance such as structure as you are essentially putting kindling on the roof.

Interesting and nice to look at, but a bit too primitive for me. Cob is mud and cow poop and thatch is just asking to burn here in 0% humidity.

Just me.

Thatch is still used in the UK, a fair bit. Sometimes due to planning laws (Not changing an old structure) or sometimes due to a desire to be "green". The fire risk is there, but I'm sure there is a way of reducing it I have read about but I cant think of it off the top of my head.

It is beautiful at the end of the day.

It is difficult to get straw that is suitable for thatching here in the U.S. unless you have a farmer set his combine to "custom harvest" grain in such a way that it leaves the straw usable for thatch.

Thatching requires "long straw", and with conventional harvesting measures, mostly all we have is "short straw" at the end of the day...suitable as animal bedding but useless as thatch.

Interesting. I saw some barns in poland with thatch. I would not feel safe with it on the roof of my house, but I would use thatch on an out building that is a safe distance from the main house.

Well, Borax is said to be an eco product that can keep bugs out and act as a fire retardant. Maybe soaking the straw in a borax sollution would help.

I would doubt you could get homeowners insurance with a thatched roof. I'd also think it would be banned under construction codes. Isn't it a shame that such good methods are falling to the wayside because of regulations.

Strawbale houses are now being built using strawbales as roof insulation.

I've heard that rats really love thatch roofs....

I can't say much about thatch roofs, but I did get to visit "cobville" - a place with about a dozen little cob homes.

I took a couple of videos. Here is the first one:

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/40/7qzX1jUWa_s

Most of the roofs were green roofs with stuff growing on them made with pond liner.

The guy that designed these is quite the genius. He makes a small space seem much bigger than it really is.

If I lived in medieval England or Europe, and had access to unlimited amounts of long stemmed straw, thatch roofs would be the rule. {Hasn't most grain varieties been selected for short stems now [less chance of falling over or breaking with a full head of grain]).

If the world ended tomorrow, seeing as I live in an uber humid region of the country, I'd probably use a wooden roof. Within half a mile, there are hundreds of cypress trees, that could be felled and split with froes to make shingles that'd last forever.

Use whatever you have at hand locally.

Straw bales doesn't make sense here, as there is zero straw to be had... you'd have to drive two to three hundred miles minimum to find any. And you'd have to pay... so it's not economical.

Part of my new home is going to be stone, part post and beam. I'm still open to the idea of infilling the posts with a mix of local red clay as cob. Scratched strawbale walls quickly, as we have fire ants and other insects that make homes in your walls, even when they're sealed... cannot imagine the mayhem they'd cause inside nice comfy strawbales.

I agree, I doubt it would be insurable and I also agree that many tradtions are being lost because of government and fasion.

How do they get them into the roofs?

Yeah, good point. I was thinking last night how the birds would love it also.

Good points.

About your house: if you live in a very cold area of the world, cob is not that good to build with because it has a very low R-value. if I recall corectly, the r-value is about 3, which is pathetic.

I agree that building with local materials is good.

Paul, great video. I actually saw you video last year when I was wondering around you-tube.

What are those cob houses like in real life? Are they warm at night?

While I've never seen the house, supposedly there is a wealthy guy that built a new house about 15 miles from me, and had a thatched roof installed.

Supposedly, as I've heard, he flew a guy from England to Indiana, to build the roof. I am told that it is pretty cool to see.

I was also told that the owner could get insurance, but there is a stipulation about fires from the roof, and water damage if it ever leaked.

Again, I heard all of this second or third hand, so I don't really know. Still a cool thread.

FWIW, if you were building a house, outbuilding or cottage, and didn't care about insurance, and were trying to use local material, and had the time to do it, I think it is a great idea.

All of the old potato cellars around here have strawbales on the roof for insulation. Some of them are very old and still standing, others fall in.

In the Philippines, they use nipa roofs some times. Walk from the front of the house with the new tin roof to the back of the house under the nipa and the temperature drops at least 20 degrees.

Well, the warmth stuff might better be covered with the rocket mass heater stuff.

As for what they are like in real life, all I can say is that part of my brain would calculate that they are REALLY small. And another part would calculate how they actually FEEL much bigger. And part of me thought about how it would be nice to live in something like that because it feels a bit like a piece of art that is grown from a seed. There was a powerful draw to want to live in something like that. I suspect that you cannot get that feeling through the video.

Does that help?

Nice info clov.

Interesting. How did they build the potatoe cellars? What is nipa?

yes, it helps. Well, you can make four story houses out of cob, so the material does not demand that one build small with it, but the advantages of building small ar that you need less fuel to heat and light the place. I found the homes in your video cozy. I could see myself living in a little village like that.

many of the houses built over 100 years ago intentionally had low ceilings because when they planed the building they would figure in the volume of the rooms and how much fuel it would take to warm it -pretty smart.

Bulldoze a trench maybe 6 feet deep, 25-30' wide, and real long, 150' or so. Take lodgepoles, since lodgepole pine grows here, and join them in a point above the trench so they are about 20' tall. That will make a V shaped roof. Then lay smaller poles across the rafters the length of the trench and set strawbales on top of them, starting at the dirt and working your way up to the peak. Shovel dirt on top of the straw. Make some ends with big doors and fill with spuds.

Nipa is leaves from nipa palms, not available locally.

interesting. What is the tempiture in the spud-hut?

Get it cold enough in the winter, it stays cold a long time. I found some place with pictures of some: http://www.darrenclarkphoto.net/blog...1_archive.html

I see more collapsed like these than standing, but some are holding up.

I think one of the main reasons for building small is that building with cob is really slow.

Good point.

Alfie (the grandfather of the cob revival) says that back in the day they use to bring the ox and cattle in to mix the cob by walking on it, and that they use to build wood forms and then fillthem with cob (shuttering). Maybe, the large amount of time needed to build the little cob houses is because they are using a slow method of building.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. They look like a lot of work to make. maybe a root cellar would be easier.

I would sure like to see a "fast method" for cob!

well where im from you have 2 roofing options Thatch or Slate (im from the UK)
im INLOVE with a well dont thatched roof, it has an incredible insulation factor, they are oddly watertight considering its just layers of straw...and they look absolutly beautiful.

rats/insects/birds are only a problem in older/uncared for thatch...well done thatch thats properly looked after is so tight that theres no way to bed down in it.

but...the fire hazard is there...
you do have to remember though that english houses where thatch is common place are built of brick, so while the rooves are flamable..the building itself not so much so the fire risk overall is lower if i remember rightly, as theres no easy path for fire to follow to the roof and thatched cottages are usually single story or story and a half homes putting them at leass risk from lightning...and well its wet in the uk so im sure that helps with the fire hazard too...
i love the look of thatch, just absolsulty love it...

and i cant see it being anymore of a fire risk than houses built of wood...lol.

here though i think the cost of doing a REAL thatched roof would be incredibly high.
theres a guy in town though who had a rolled eedge roof though and from a distance it looks thatched even though it was asphalt shingle.

i love that in this country you cant get insurance on a thatched roof...yet you can get it on houses built of wood...
in the uk youd never get insuarnce on the majority of houses here, yet no problem with thatched roof!

odd how things work. :P

I'll bet there are places on the globe where people use cattail leaves for thatching. They are filled with spongy structures so I would assume the R-value is pretty good plus they have a cuticle that is water resistant. The leaves can be 4-6' long.

Well, thh 'fast' way of cobs is called adobe. Well, not really, but the principle is the same. Claymud mixed with straw, allowed to dry, and then stacked up. Not good in earthquake country though, unless it is reinforced well.``

interesting. Good idea about cat tail.

I saw a show on wild china and there are people along the sea in northern china who thatch their cottages with sea weed. So, I guess you can use many things. Maybe one could thatch a roof with used plastic shopping bags, that would be interesting. Or, build walls out of those blocks of compressed cardboard that large businesses throw out. Could be good.

I have never cobbed, but from what I hear mixing the cobb is the most laborious and time consuming part fo the job. In an interview alfie ( the grandfather of the cob revival) says that they use to walk the cattle on the cobb to mix it, the cattle did the tough part, then they would build walls.

I am not sure if cobbing a house takes longer then building in the current building methods, but I think it is wonderful that a person could build a house with sand, dirt, clay, straw, natrual stones for the foundation, timbers cut with a hand ax, and a roof thatched with the garbage stems left over after you harvest a years worth of food, all with out power tools, or if you want to go extreme, no money. Very healthy and freedom confirming, I think.

Might not be as pretty but I would rather have a steel roof. I put the one up on my house for 800 bucks including replacing all the wood as well. If your a real cheap skate I guess back in the old days folks would lay long boards on the roof vertically. They would then cut small strips to cover the cracks between each board. Then the whole works would be coated in linseed oil.

How big is your roof. 800 is a pretty good price. Steel is very practical. Laying the boards and over laping them has a name, but I dont recall it. I think it might be called cross lapping. I never thought of that method before for roofing, but you are right people do it. I think it is popular in scandanavia.

Some people just cover the roof with tar paper. Maybe tar paper doesnt look so good in a fancy area, but if I had a lot with a lot of privacy, I wouldnt car what my house looked like, it might be covered completely in tar paper, or a cob house wiht a tar paper roof.

I suggest you look at modern "tar paper" otherwise known as roofing felt. Its not very durable if exposed to elements. Maybe you are thinking of rolled roofing. Looks like asphalt shingles, but comes in a roll like felt. Frankly if you shop around and arent particular about color, you can mix and match odd lots of asphalt shingles cheaper than rolled roofing. They are also easier to work with on the roof.