Cob: Very succulent free shed

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2001 TICKLETOWN at aol.com wrote:

[snip]
> SAW it. Thanks Shannon. I'm totally empowered and motivated to finish my own 
> little burrow now and REALLY get into some dirt! And sticks and stones and 
> grasses. I'm eager to see how your roof turns out - I didn't feel able to do 
> thatch (thought you had to have the right grasses and tons of know-how)  but 
> now I'm wondering. What about cattails? Also your jar windows were neat. In 
> fact the whole little shed looks downright SUCCULENT. Keep us posted,

Having the "right grasses" -- phragmites communis (the best) which is a
fairly common water reed, or wheat or rye (though not the modern varieties)
-- make for a much longer lasting roof (60 years for phragmites, 25 to 30
for wheat and rye), and probably have numerous other advantages, but the
technique should work for most grasses with a round central stalk that
grows to between three and seven feet tall, though some may be alot more
work than others, and the durability may be only a few years.  I have
absolutely no idea how long this roof will last given what I am using and
my minimal thatching experience, but I have no doubt it will work (though
the result may not be pretty :-)  As far as the tons of know-how, the
basic technique for a simple roof design is fairly easy, though it takes
a great deal of practice to really do a good professional looking job
that will last a long time.  I do have the advantage of having taken a two
week course from one of the world's leading authorities on thatch
(Flemming Abrahamsson), and spent another week hanging out with him and
pestering him with questions, but I think it wouldn't be to difficult for
most people to learn to make a simple thatch roof that doesn't leak (one
that looks nice and lasts a long time is another issue).  With regard to
the use of cattails, they have a kind of spongy solid core which is likely
to hold moisture and make them rot alot faster than a grass stalk with a
hollow core, but they would probably work.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
                      |    Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications
   or: (541) 451-5177 |                  www.deatech.com