Recently, natural and harmless materials in construction have become very popular. Therefore, more and more often you can come across the question of how to make a thatched roof, what a thatched roof is and how many years it can serve “faithfully.”
A thatched and reed roof only means general concept roof coverings. So, the material can be not only straw, but also reeds, palm leaves, sedge, reeds and many other similar plants. A house with a thatched roof looks simply amazing, against the backdrop of urban metal and slate roofs.
Pros and cons of a thatched roof
In most cases, reeds are chosen for work of this type, since their service life can reach 50 years. Another advantage of this plant is its flexibility. It allows you to make the roof of the most bizarre shape. Nowadays, a thatched roof and reed roofing is an indicator of wealth and is considered elite among a variety of roofs.
Natural thermoregulation. This advantage of both straw and reed coverings allows you to maintain a comfortable microclimate in the premises. There is no need to install forced ventilation, since the material is like wood coverings, is able to “breathe”. In addition, straw keeps the building cool during the hot season and does not allow heat to pass through during the cold season.
Unique appearance thatched and reed roofing. Due to the fact that all work is done by hand, the roof becomes truly unique. Thatch also gives the roof an original appearance. Any roof can be covered with thatch, regardless of its size.
Elimination of appearance harmful insects. If no mistakes were made during the installation of the roof, then the appearance of harmful insects in the straw is absolutely excluded. The thing is that when covering the roof, the straw is compressed very tightly, thereby making the roof very dense and insects cannot settle inside it.
In addition, reed and thatch roofing does not accumulate dust and is protected from the appearance of microorganisms. This happens thanks to a special impregnation done during production. It also provides protection against moisture absorption, the appearance of fungus and loss of shape.
Elimination of flammability. Recently, engineers have managed to produce a product that can reduce the risk of fire to a minimum. It is also recommended to install additional fire sprinklers.
Environmental friendliness and low weight of reed and thatch roofs. The materials are completely harmless to human health and are also beneficial. Using straw can significantly save on strengthening the foundation.
Disadvantages of thatch and reed roofing
Complex and long installation. All work must be done manually, so it is not only time-consuming, but also expensive. That is why roofing made of straw and reeds is considered elite today, because you need to spend a large number of time and effort to create it.
High price of material. The coating itself is also much more expensive than regular coating. However, its use eliminates the need for a waterproofing coating, as well as a heat-insulating layer.
As can be seen from the above, thatch and reed roofing has more benefits than disadvantages. Therefore, the question of how to make a thatched roof is fully justified by the naturalness and harmlessness of the materials used.
Creating paintings from straw is a decorative and applied art associated with dried plants and cereals, which presents amazing masterpieces of craftsmanship. They make you admire both the perfection of the greatness of the world and its extraordinary beauty. Sometimes you wonder - how could this be made from a simple straw?
What is a straw? These are dry stalks of grain crops. What's so special about it? But what is special is the sun’s shine and the energy accumulated by the plant during growth and maturation, the natural energy of light, sun and beauty. Look at ours, doesn’t it really give off the warmth and smell of summer?
Preparing straw for work
Without properly prepared straw for work, a florist is just an artist without paints. Indeed, in “straw” floristry, various stems of cereal crops (cultivated and wild) are used. They serve as the material for making most interesting works- paintings made from straw. The main thing is not to miss, to have time to collect and dry the collected ears in time.
The straw is collected shortly before the harvest. And during the period of milk maturity, the rye is cut off. Although even when overripe, the ears can be surprisingly beautiful. It all depends on the soil, the type of cereal, the amount of sunlight and precipitation.
Raw straw material
A how to make straw suitable for handicrafts? Straw material can be prepared using a hot method: a tube in a soaked and steamed state turns into a soft, beautiful plate or ribbon when cut and ironed.
With the cold preparation method, the cut straw tube is firmly clamped on both sides with the rings of scissors and thus “ironed” several times. Cold-processed ribbons acquire better shine, brightness and elasticity, which allows you to create more original crafts.
The richness of natural tones and shades of straw ears is various varieties and different periods of their collection. Although, the same straw will have lighter shades, only dried not in the sun, but in the shade. If you need to get special color shades straw ribbons, there are also additional methods for painting and bleaching them.
- Can bleach straw, placing it in a solution of hydrogen peroxide for several hours;
- Dark shades are acquired by boiling straws (for example) in a decoction of onion peels;
- To obtain lemon or bright yellow shades, add baking soda during the boiling period of the straws (calculated at 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water);
- Many florists do not use straw dyes, but use various methods burning: with a soldering iron, a burner, in the oven. Safety precautions must be observed here.
Straw ribbons It's not about the color, it's about the combination various shades shadows and penumbras, choosing the direction of fibers, choosing texture. This can be seen clearly in the picture. Go for it! Everything is in your hands and depends on the vision and experience of each master!
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The roof, made of straw, was almost an integral attribute roofs of an ancient hut. One of the main reasons why thatched roofing was so popular was the availability of the material and its good quality. And even today everything positive properties straw is highly valued, so the material, although not always, is sometimes used as a roofing covering.
Such a roof not only has an attractive and unusual appearance, it is also reliable, durable and capable of creating a unique and, of course, favorable microclimate. Any house with a thatched roof will look very stylish and original.
Today, when the market building materials filled with modern and innovative designs, many developers, however, often prefer natural materials. Thanks to advanced production technology, thatch roofing is characterized not only by strength, but also by significant durability. Evidence of this is its service life, which can reach 50 years, which significantly exceeds the service life of some even much more expensive and modern materials.
Myths about the thatched roof
Due to many misconceptions regarding the performance of thatch as a roofing material, many myths about this material should be debunked. These include the following:
Advantages of thatched roofing
One way or another, the thatched roof has a number of positive characteristics, because of which you can make your choice in favor of this roofing covering:
Moreover, straw is a unique material also because such a covering of it, only 35 centimeters thick, can reliably protect a house from severe frosts or heat, while the weight of the material per 1 m² is 35 kilograms. Therefore, with the help of straw, you can cover a large area of the roof and create a structure that does not carry a serious load on the walls of the house.
When thinking about how to make a thatched roof yourself, you should familiarize yourself with its other advantages, including:
Features of a thatched roof
The method of laying straw roofing differs significantly from other roofings popular today.
If we talk in detail about what a straw roofing pie includes, then this is:
The device does not involve any complexity; you just need to correctly collect and strengthen the sheaves of straw on the roof. Moreover, the material can be used on roofs of absolutely any type with any shape. The roof can be gable, semicircular or dome-shaped. Today, thanks to the work of professional designers, it is possible to create a truly unique, fashionable and inimitable design that can distinguish a building from the mass of similar buildings and amaze even the most demanding critic.
Houses with thatched roofs - a variety of options, watch the video:
Proper installation of thatch on the roof
Laying a thatched roof yourself is not difficult; you do not need any special tools, knowledge or skills. You just need to assemble it correctly rafter system, lay the sheathing and support slats on it, which carry the main weight. Next, the pre-prepared straw must be collected into sheaves. Using a special spatula, the coating layer is formed, so that the coating lies flat and, as a result, gives the roof a harmonious appearance.
Factors that are important to remember when laying thatch on your roof:
- the material must be solid and have an even color, without rot or any signs of burning;
- It is best to use galvanized clamping wire. The distance of the first clamp from the bar should be 200 millimeters, the second - 120 millimeters after the first, after that - every 260 - 300 millimeters;
- the fixing wire should have a cross-section of 1 millimeter;
- The thickness to which the coating layer is laid depends on the parameters of the slope - its length and slope. If the slope does not exceed 40 degrees, and the length is 7 meters, then the thickness of the layer can be 22 centimeters in the ridge area and 25 centimeters in the base area (read also: “Building a roof with your own hands: structural elements.”
Residential houses or outbuildings with thatched roofs are now rare. But there was a time when she served people for more than a dozen years. Such a roof was rained on and the sun burned. The straw had turned black with age, and the northern slope of the roof was covered with a brown-green panoply of moss. But as soon as two or three straws were pulled out of the eaves, it turned out that only the ends of the straws darkened, while they themselves retained an amber-yellow color and a soft golden shine. Only smoldered upper layer roofs. Straw is a rather fragile material, but skillfully laid in dense rows, it served as a roof for about half a century. Rural builders were attracted not only by the availability and cheapness of such a roof over their heads. “Under a thatched roof, the hut is warmer in winter and cooler in summer,” the peasants claimed. Indeed, a thick layer of straw is an excellent insulator.
Try and use the old proven methods, make a hut or gazebo in the yard, a canopy over the table. The shape of the coating may vary. In addition, gazebos or shady canopies can also be installed in forest park recreation areas, field camps in pioneer camps, etc. Thatched roofing is decorative, goes well with wood and fits well into the surrounding nature.
In the old days, long and straight rye straw, compressed with a sickle, was used for roofing work. Now the bread is harvested with a combine. Straw passing through it crumples and becomes unsuitable for roofing works. True, instead of rye straw, you can use stems of wild cereals: reed, reed grass, meadow grass, bromegrass, foxtail grass, timothy grass, grass grass, fescue grass, wheatgrass and many others. In almost any pasture, light lilac or violet-brown spots are still visible from afar. These are panicles of wild cereals. Cattle do not touch the hard, woody stems. By autumn, the panicles with stems discolor and become whitish. They can be harvested until late autumn. Tied into sheaves, they can be stored in the attic until next summer.
In the southern and western regions of our country, reed was a widespread roofing material. It is still used to this day for coating outbuildings. Under favorable conditions, straight, hollow reed stems reach a height of about 5 m with a thickness of up to 2 cm. The top of each stem ends in a dense panicle with many spikelets. The length of such a panicle can be from 20 to 50 cm.
Reed harvesting should begin in midsummer, when its lilac-brown panicles are fully formed.
Reeds are reaped with a sickle. If you can’t find a sickle, use a large table knife, preferably with a sharpened blade that has an arched edge at the tip. It is easier to cut reeds with this knife than with a knife with a straight edge. To give the knife a bend, grind off part of the blade on a sharpener. Then beat it on an anvil or on a headstock for beating the scythe, you will get small notches on the blade. Serrations (teeth) can also be applied with a chisel. Such a knife, like a regular sickle, will not cut the reed, but cut it down.
And one more piece of advice. When harvesting reeds, do not forget about mittens - without them, it won’t take long to cut your hands with sedge, which grows in abundance along with the reeds. Sedge cuts are very painful and take a long time to heal.
At the same time as reed, it is necessary to prepare meadow cereals. Their straw is used not only as an independent roofing material, but also as an auxiliary one - for knitting sheaves, laying between layers of reed.
In addition, you will need thin poles with a diameter of three to four centimeters, the so-called shelgoznitsa or prutuga. They should be straight, strong and flexible. It is best to make them from willow, but aspen and alder poles, as well as long narrow pine slats, are also suitable. Sheaves of the first row are placed on the beams, and layers of reeds or straw are pressed against the roof slats. Pressures are tied to thin slugs willow twigs- vices. Unlike those used for weaving baskets, twigs for vitsa do not have the bark removed, and they do not have to be straight. The crowns are at least a meter long.
It is advisable to cover the roof in calm weather. If the herbs are too dry, then even the slightest breeze can become a hindrance. Therefore, before starting work, moisten them and spray them with water. Soak some of the grass that you will use to bind sheaves in a wide basin for about an hour.
The first row of the roof forms the eaves - the lower hanging edge of the roof. It is laid out from whole connected sheaves - regular or double. All sheaves must be made identical so that the eaves are uniform in thickness and beautiful. A carelessly executed eaves can spoil the appearance of the entire roof. When knitting sheaves, the thickness of their elements was measured from time immemorial by hand - in handfuls, called in some areas "handles". A handful is a bunch of straw or reeds that can be held in the palm of your hand with clenched fingers. (Of course, the handfuls of an adult and a child are different.) The thicker the sheaf, the more handfuls it contains. Thick sheaves, consisting of 8-10 handfuls, are used for large roofs. For a hut or gazebo, you need thinner sheaves - 4-5 handfuls.
The straw rope used to tie a sheaf is called different places in different ways - sling, viscous or tied. Svyaslo is usually made one handful thick. Identical bundles of reeds with an equal number of handfuls can be laid out on the ground in one row in advance and tied up as bundles of wet straw are made.
To make svyaslo, take a handful of straw, divide it in half, and then fold it again into a single bunch, but only with the butts in opposite sides. The bundle will become more uniform in thickness and longer. Now start twisting the string. At first glance, this matter is simple. But in fact, you can’t do without knowing certain techniques. These techniques have been developed over centuries. All the reaper's movements were precise and precise. But even the most experienced reaper twisted his first string slowly, trying to remember the sequence of movements. First, practice yourself.
Place the bundle of straw horizontally on your outstretched arms and, stepping back from the edges to the width of two palms, squeeze your fingers tightly. Raise one end of the beam with your left hand to shoulder height, and lower the other end with your right hand below the waist. In this case, the end is on the right. twist clockwise in your hand. When the slightly twisted bun is in a vertical position, the back of your right hand will be facing away from you, and the back of your left hand will be facing you. Place the end of the bundle, held in your right hand, under the armpit of your left hand and press it firmly with your elbow. Now let go right hand, use it to grab the bun in place of your left hand, and lower your left hand. Then grab the end of the tourniquet near the armpit of your left hand, remove it from under it, lifting it left hand up and the right one down. Your hands will be in their original position. If you want to get a stronger connection, repeat these movements one or two more times.
Place the finished svyasle around the prepared bunch of reeds, connect the ends and twist them together clockwise, then bend them in half and slip the svyasle. This method of knitting sheaves was not chosen by chance. The fact is that the reed or straw is held in it very firmly and does not fall out, even after lying in the roof for decades. At the same time, the knot of such a sheaf can be easily untied with one movement of the hand. It is enough to pull the free end of the string. This is especially convenient in cases where reeds or straw are supplied to the roof in sheaves, where they need to be quickly untied.
In addition to the usual single sheaves, double sheaves are knitted especially for eaves. Dense and durable, they adhere well to the roof slabs, and, in addition, they are not so easy to untie. This means that eaves made from them are much stronger. To get a double sheaf, first tie a regular single one. Tie it loosely, place it on the ground and press it with your knee. It will become flat. Divide the sheaf into two parts with your hands and rotate them 180° relative to each other. The panicles of both parts will be directed in opposite directions. Turn another 180° and the panicles will connect. You will get two sheaves connected to each other by one svyas.
It is not difficult to calculate the number of sheaves needed for the eaves. Drive two pegs into the ground at a distance of one meter from each other and place the prepared sheaves between them in one row, pressing tightly against each other. Suppose you have ten sheaves packed in one meter, and the perimeter of the roof is 8 meters. This means you will need 80 sheaves.
Before lifting the sheaves onto the roof, clean them and level them from the end. To do this, place the sheaf on the bench so that the butt part hangs slightly over its edge. Then take a trowel full of nails and comb this part of the sheaf, removing sedge and old reed fragments from it. Then, using a spatula to hit the ends, carefully align them. Do the same with all the other sheaves.
It takes two people to cover the roof. One will feed the sheaves, and the other will string them onto hooks. Place the sheaves as closely as possible to each other and at the same time make sure that the line of fears is even. If this is difficult to do by eye, then pull the string and navigate along it.
For this and subsequent rows, untied reed is used. Spread the second row of reeds in such a way as to cover the strings of the first row of sheaves. The roof will be more reliable and durable if you put a thin layer of meadow grass straw under the reeds. If you do not add straw, then make a thicker layer of reed.
The reeds spread along the slope of the roof are pressed against the edges. They are tied with wires - flexible willow or birch twigs. You can also use aluminum wire - soft and thick enough. Tie a bundle of rods or wire to your belt so that you can easily get them out if necessary. Pressing the clamp as tightly as possible to the roof with your knee, insert the end of the wire next to the clamp through the layer of reeds into the attic. The one who will be in the attic must take the end of the wire and, having circled it lightly, push it through the layer of reeds onto the roof. On the roof, the vitsa must be tied and slipped under the harness. In the same sequence, all subsequent layers of reed are spread and pressed with pressure to the very top. In this case, the rows of reeds will be arranged in steps. The stepped roof is beautiful in its own way. But if you are planning to make a roof with smooth slopes, then a comb, the so-called brush, should come to your aid. Methods of thatching using these tools were called “under the brush” or “under the comb.” The comb represents wooden board(300 X 250 X 50 mm), on one side of which longitudinal cutouts in the form of teeth are cut, and on the reverse side there is a handle. At one end of the board, nails without heads are driven in at a distance of approximately 30 mm from each other. With this part of the comb, the reeds or straws are combed, as it were, with the corrugated side of the comb the ends of the reeds or straw are carefully tapped, achieving a smooth transition from one layer of reed to another without steps.
Finish the job by placing reeds or thatch on top of the roof. On a gable roof, the reeds are bent over the ridge, first on one side and then on the other. On top of a skate gable roof strengthened by so-called goats, or chains. Their links are made from poles of equal length on the ground. At the lower end of each link, wooden pins are driven into pre-hollowed sockets. The chain links are lifted onto the roof and placed on the ridge at an equal distance from each other. Quite heavy clamps are placed on the pins, which tightly press the chain links together with the reeds to the roof slopes. The chain is also laid lightly at the very top.
The top of the conical and pyramidal roofs is designed differently. On the top of these roofs you can put a cone, bent from tin or rolled into a bag of thick birch bark. Or you can plant a thick sheaf on it with the panicles down, on top of it is a hoop bent from a thick willow branch, and tie it to the sheaves with thin rods or wire.