Thatched roof- yay or nay?

[20thCenturyGhosts]

Theoretical as the house is out of budget anyway, but would you go for a thatched roof? Just looked up cost of repair and it is up to £25,000!!!

Personally no, only because I've seen too many burn down if chimneys aren't swept and maintained regularly. Plus as you say the cost of renewing

Depends on all the other factors I suppose, but it would definitely put me off. They need repairs here and there less frequently re-doing completely, which costs £. All that money which you could be spending on a holiday or something! And yes, fire risk although that can be mitigated to a certain extent.

How often do they need to be renewed? We had the (normal) roof of our building redone recently and it wasn’t far off that price. I understand they’re more difficult to insure which would put me off.

House insurance is mad and they get full of creaturws

They are nigh on uninsurable. And a massive fire risk, they can smoulder for days before anyone notices.

I was scrolling through the social media of the local fire service for the last year. It was basically a list of the incidents they attended. The number of thatched roof fires was really quite alarming.

I would have said yes until a friend of mine bought a house with thatched roof and I found out they get loads of rats in the thatch. I wouldn't even look at them now.

Ooh, a yes from me.

Depends on size, £25K does not sound over the top. You will pay around the same for a standard roof replacement in London... but anyway, it's beyond the point as you are not going for it anyway....

I am thatched - or, at least, my house is! Yup, things live in the thatch, sparrows nesting currently, swifts will soon be building their nests under the eaves, a bat roost, voles - brilliant and all are welcome, it is their home too.

Virtually uninsurable? Not so, one simply has to find a specialist insurer and, yes, premiums are slightly higher, but not significantly so.

Replacement? About every 20 years for straw thatch or 25 years for water reed at around £10/square foot for the finished job. And ridges ideally need replacing every 10 years.

Fire risk can be mitigated by treating with fire retardant or intumescent coatings. And regular chimney sweeping, but that should be a given anyway, regardless of whether thatched or not, if one has an open fire or woodburner.

Well insulated - cool in summer, warm(ish!) in winter and the distinct advantage of having no gutters to clean or maintain.

It's a "yes" and a 👍from me!

I think they look wonderful, nothing is prettier than a thatched cottage and I often wistfully think about buying one but I soon put my practical head on, the fire risk is what would worry me most, having to put a significant amount of money away for re thatching and on going repairs and creatures making it their home, also I’m not sure if you could store anything in the loft area so reduction in storage would be an issue, so for me I think I will just rent one for a holiday to get my thatch fix!

@Hedgesfullofbirds
I have a question if you don’t mind.
I’ve always loved the look of thatched houses. But wondered about spiders? Do you have more in a thatched house than a normal house? For some reason, I’ve always imagined yes. But I’ve never known anyone who has lived in a thatched house to ask!

@ElizabethTudor - interesting question! And not sure that I can answer categorically. My house is full of spiders, but then, so too, was my former house, which was conventionally tiled, but only because I rather like 'em and am happy to have them about.

But I guess that, yes, probably, since the thatch provides lots of secure hidey holes for them. And since most thatched properties tend to be rural the spider population is almost certainly larger. Would that be a positive or negative for you

[quote ElizabethTudor]@Hedgesfullofbirds
I have a question if you don’t mind.
I’ve always loved the look of thatched houses. But wondered about spiders? Do you have more in a thatched house than a normal house? For some reason, I’ve always imagined yes. But I’ve never known anyone who has lived in a thatched house to ask![/quote]
Spiders are attracted to thatch because their prey is. One of my friends got rid of her spiders by using a pesticide and then got a maggot infestation in her roof - they were literally dropping out of the sky around her house.

Definite negative.
Your answer was what I feared.
It’s the same with beamed houses, which I also love. (Clearly stems from my Tudor days, ha ha)

Give me maggots dropping from the skies any day. Though clearly that’s not ideal.
I’ll just never have to live in a thatch.
I’ve pretty much also discounted the country too, because of the size of the bastard spiders some of my friends report.

@ElizabethTudor

Give me maggots dropping from the skies any day. Though clearly that’s not ideal. I’ll just never have to live in a thatch. I’ve pretty much also discounted the country too, because of the size of the bastard spiders some of my friends report.

True. The biggest spider I ever saw in my life (and I’ve seen tarantulas) was roaming around my house in Milton Keynes. It was so huge even DH struggled and he’s used to big insects from being born in a farm in a hot country. Luckily for us it decided to walk out on it’s own.

@GrumpyHoonMain - did it close the door on the way out?

We have thatch and I love it, always wanted it since a child. Wake up to seeing it each morning from the window and lots of singing birds.

There's several different types of thatch, we recently replaced the back half of the thatch and that was £25k, last done in 1980s but ours is the type that lasts the longest. The house prices are about £100k cheaper than an equivalent house here which is like ours beamed with no thatch.

Fire never been concerned about - we only have radiators and an electric wood burner which we don't use. The incidence of fires in thatched isn't any higher than the incidence in any other type of property though obviously if you do start a fire its worse.

Insurance including contents is around £900 a year so higher than normal and ours needs a specialist thatched broker. It rises more if you have real fires.

We do get tourists photographing it and also when we had the back done the kids were very happy we were front page news on the newsletter here. They are normally grade II listed and ours is conservation area as well which means more forms to fill in but also means everywhere looks beautiful.

Yes we have spiders, about an inch big, sometimes, no rats though had around one mouse a year but he is very cute, just pops his head up through a tiny hole then I say down Rodrigro and he goes back down. I'm not sure if its the thatch or our silkie chickens or DH feeding him cheese Our cat is very happy though just occassionally bats him.

We also get a squirrel on it.

Our NDN cottage is thatched. It’s about 120 years old arts and crafts.

I remember it being rethatched 25 years ago when I moved to the area.

Current owners haven’t I think kept up repairs on the ridges, and it is due a rethatch.

It’s safe to say they don’t have a clue. They asked our roofers to do it. They politely said, sorry we aren’t thatchers. They had a couple of right cowboys on it the next week.

I’m wondering if covid means they can’t get a thatcher. Thatch is v unusual where we are.

But it will look lovely when they eventually get it done, there’ll be lots of disappointed crows though who have been taking straw for nesting.

I love thatched properties, just gorgeous. Lots of thatched properties in our county. Really lovely to see, drove past a thatched bus shelter & village chip shop last week.

@beebeabee

Depends on size, £25K does not sound over the top. You will pay around the same for a standard roof replacement in London... but anyway, it's beyond the point as you are not going for it anyway....

Well maybe... the house is quite run down and we were totting up costs, whether we could put a lower offer as it needed so much work then I realised the thatched roof itself would also most likely be neglected and cost all that money again just to maintain

We'd be stretching to afford the property as is, and adding the extras likely involved in the roof it does seem well out of our range. DH has of course completely fallen in love with it!

We have a thatch and had very similar concerns to you. We’ve been here 4 years now and love it.

Insurance is no problem, you just need to use a specialist, there’s lots of brokers and many people use the NFU. Insurance is cheaper if you don’t use fires but we do, all our chimneys are lined and swept every 6 months.

Fire is a concern but you just have to be sensible, we have a flame proof skirt under the thatch and have our electrics checked regularly.

The thatch is great for keeping the house cool in summer and warm(ish!) in winter.

I think people are scared about thatched houses but if properly done, and maintained, they’re great. Most have been standing for a couple of hundred years so are pretty sound.