Thatch roof maintenance and summer rains

A reed thatch roof, like any other roof, needs to be maintained regularly to last as long as possible. The maintenance of the buildings was planned for November this year. This maintenance includes the combing of the thatch roofs, limewashing the buildings, painting of the pickets, and limewashing the garden walls and pillars.

Keith attended to the maintenance of the corrugated iron flat-roof section over the lounge, library, and bathrooms earlier this year. No leaks experienced during the unseasonal rain showers in October and November confirmed that he did a good job of waterproofing the roof.

Unfortunately, the same unseasonal downpours in November prevented the local thatcher from the nearby town of Montagu from attending to the thatch roofs uninterrupted.

The cottage thatch roof before maintenance

The same thatcher that installed the cottage roof in 1997 undertook the maintenance of both roofs. With his two sons now helping their father, it is the third generation of thatcher’s that learnt their skill from one of the renowned thatchers of Elim in the south-western Cape.

Different stages of thatch maintenance on the main roof

The roof of the main house was restored by Dal Josaphat Restoration in 2007. They undertook a careful reconstruction of the roof structure carefully following the traditional vernacular construction methodology of buildings of this date and region. Apart from roof timbering techniques changing over the centuries, regional practices made for different roof structures in different regions. In the case of Towerwater, the most obvious regional features are characterised by the fairly low pitch and squat wide dormers on the main house. The reconstruction therefore ensured a roof that was historically correct to the age and location of the homestead.

The maintenance of the thatch roof involved combing, compacting, and the removal of any mouldy thatch. Combing the roof was done by hand using a stiff bunch of thatch that was also used to compact the thatch before smoothing it with a leggett.

A leggett and fresh thatch

The ends of the thatch that forms the outer layer of the roof, slowly deteriorate from exposure to the elements. Combing or brushing is the process of removing the outer layer of thatch from the entire surface of the roof. Combing or brushing prolongs the life of the thatch roof. The weather damaged outer layer of the thatch roof retains moisture that will penetrate deeper and deeper into the thatch if it is not regularly combed.

Brushing the outer layer of the thatch before compacting it

Brushing and compacting the thatch helps ensure that the surface is of the roof is smooth and compact, allowing rainwater to run off efficiently and the roof to dry quicker.

Using the leggett after adding new thatch to the roof

Outer logs are tied to the inside structure of the roof to form steps which support the thatcher’s as they comb and compact the roof. The activity of the roof being combed and compacted, transported one back to an era of craftsmen and a way of life that the buildings on the property must have experienced routinely in their lifespan.

The art of thatching has not escaped modernisation. The quiet trimming of thatch bundles to the correct length for use in compacting the roof, has now been replaced with an electric hedge trimmer. Instead of cutting one bundle at a time, several bundles can be prepared simultaneously for the workmen on the roof. The work was done faster and with less effort, but it has diminished the charm of watching the skill of craftsmen slicing through the bundles of thatch with a spar knife or sickle.

Chatting to Sammy Botha, the thatcher, I was sad to learn that the opportunity of work for his company is becoming less and less owing to more people replacing the thatch roofs of their houses with corrugated iron or other material. With the decline in demand for their skills, more and more young people in fifth, fourth, and third generation thatchers are choosing not to continue with this skill. It is sad to see this happen. One can only wonder what the future will hold for the buildings at Towerwater should local thatchers no longer be available.

The phenomenon of thatch roofs being replaced with corrugated iron is nothing new. I am reminded of a comment in Hilda’s Diary of a Cape Housekeeper by Hildagonda Duckitt published in 1902. On page 31 she writes, “The old style of building was admirably suited to this climate, the part in which the family lived being mostly on the ground-floor, the thatched roofs, so cool in summer and warm in winter, were very picturesque, with their ornamental gable-ends. All about Stellenbosch, French Hoek, and Ceres, these pretty homesteads still abound. Mrs. Trotter’s book. Old Colonial Houses (published by Batsford), gives many beautiful specimens, but I am sorry to say that, owing to a very high rate of insurance for reed-thatched houses, the ugly corrugated iron roof is put on whenever the thatch has become too old to repair, though a reed thatch will last about forty or fifty years if carefully attended to.”

I suppose we were swimming against the tide when we removed the corrugated iron roofs of the Towerwater buildings to restore the thatch the building once had. Apart from being beautiful, the old thatch roofs are practical and perfectly regulate the climatic extremes of a Karoo climate.

With the roofs looking fresh and new with their spots of lighter and new thatch, it was time to look at the limewashing of the garden walls and buildings.

Other posts about the thatch roofs at Towerwater

Reflections of Limewash

Vernacular crafts and thatch roof repairs

Restoring Cape Vernacular Architecture  – The Main house

The reality of dreams