Thatch Roofs.
The most common material employed as thatch is either the straw of wheat, rye, or other grain, or reed, stubble, or heather. The straw of wheat and rye, when well prepared and laid, forms the neatest and most secure thatching; the former being preferable to the latter in smoothness, suppleness, and durability. Barley-straw is placed next to rye in fitness for thatch, and oat-straw the lowest of the four. The reed is a very durable material for thatch, but is generally too expensive. It has been stated that, in Norfolk, where the reed is a favourite material for thatch, a reed roof will lie fifty years without wanting repair, and that, with very slight attention, it will last for a whole century. Viewed in this light, a reed roof may probably be considered economical.
The method of thatching with reed, (which is one of the best and most difficult specimens of the thatcher’s art,) has been thus described. No laths being made use of as a support to the thatch, a few of the longest and stoutest reeds are scattered irregularly across the naked spars as a foundation whereon to lay the main coat; and thus a partial gauze-like covering is formed, called the fleaking. On this fleaking the main covering is laid, and fastened down to the spars by means of long rods called sways, laid across the middle of the reed, and tied to the spars with rope-yarn or with brambles. In laying on the reed, the workman begins at the lower corner of the roof on his right hand, and keeps an irregular diagonal line until he reaches the upper corner on his left; a narrow eaves-board being nailed across the feet of the spars, and some fleaking scattered on. The thatcher begins to “set his eaves” by laying a coat of reed, eight or ten inches thick, with the heads resting upon the fleaking and the butts upon the eaves-board. He then lays on his sway, or rod, about six or eight inches from the lowest point of the reed, whilst his assistant, on the inside, runs a needle threaded with rope-yarn close to the spar and to the upper edge of the eaves-board. The thatcher draws it through on one side of the sway and enters it again on the contrary side both of the sway and of the spar. The assistant, in his turn, draws it through, unthreads it, and, with the two ends of the yarn, makes a knot round the spar, thereby drawing both the sway and the reed tight down to the roof; whilst the thatcher above, beating and pressing the sway, assists in consolidating the work. The assistant, having made good the knot below, proceeds with another length of thread to the next spar, and so on till the sway is bound down the whole length, that is, about eight or ten feet. This being done, another stratum of reed is laid upon the first, so as to make the entire coat eighteen or twenty inches thick at the butts; and another sway is laid on and bound down about twelve inches above the first.
When the eaves are completely set they are adjusted and made even by an instrument called a legget. This is made of a board eight or nine inches square, with a handle two feet long adjusted to its upper surface in an oblique position. The face of the legget is set with large-headed nails, and these enable the workman, by using the instrument somewhat as if it were a turf-beating tool, to lay hold of the butts of the reed and to adjust them in their places. When the eaves are thus shaped, the thatcher lays on another stratum of reeds, and binds it down by another sway somewhat shorter than the last, and placed eighteen or twenty inches above it; and above this, others, in successive rows, continuing to shorten the sways until they diminish to nothing, and a triangular corner of thatching be formed. After this the remaining surface of the roof is similarly done.
In order to finish the ridge of the roof, a cap of straw is adjusted to it in a very careful manner. In this operation the workman begins by bringing the ridge to a sharp angle, by laying straw lengthwise upon it: and to keep this straw in its place, he pegs it down slightly with “double-broaches,” which are cleft twigs about two feet long and half an inch thick, sharpened at both ends, bent double and notched, so as to clasp the straw on the ridge. This done, the thatcher lays a coat of straight straw six or eight inches thick across the ridge, beginning on either side at the uppermost butts of the reeds, and finishing with straight handsful evenly across the top of the ridge. Having laid a length of about four feet in this manner, he proceeds to fasten it firmly down, so as to render it proof against wind and rain; this is done by laying a “broachen-ligger” (a quarter-cleft rod, half an inch thick and four feet long) along the middle of the ridge, pegging it down at every four inches with a double-broach, which is first thrust down with the hands, and afterwards driven with the legget or with a mallet. The middle ligger being firmly laid, the thatcher smooths down the straw with a rake and his hands, about eight or nine inches on one side; and at six inches from the first, he lays down another ligger, and pegs it down with a similar number of double-broaches, thus proceeding to smooth the straw and to fasten on liggers at every six inches, until he reaches the bottom of the cap. One side being thus finished, the other is similarly treated; and the first length being completed, others are done in like manner, till the farther end of the ridge is reached. He then cuts off the tails of the straw neatly with a pair of shears, level with the uppermost butts of the reed.
When straw or heather is used for thatching, the material is laid on in parallel rows, much the same as the reeds, but the mode of fastening is generally somewhat different.
Chapter V.
THE WOOD-WORK. GROWTH AND TRANSPORT OF TIMBER.
The operations of the carpenter and joiner in the preparation of the wood-work of a house are quite as important as those of the mason or bricklayer. It would not be possible in this little volume to trace clearly all the different processes connected with the building of a house as they occur in practice; for the bricklayer and the carpenter combine their work, as it were, step by step. But as the bricklaying and the slating, or tiling, relate principally to the exterior of the house, and the carpentry work to the interior, we have thus a line of separation, which will greatly contribute to the clearness of these details.
As on a former occasion we noticed the operations of the quarry, whence the builder is supplied with stone, slate, &c., it will now be interesting to give a few details respecting the growth and transport of timber.