A straw roof – a step towards living nature

Envision a roof that integrates seamlessly with the surrounding environment, balancing your house with it. A straw roof, which is sometimes disregarded in contemporary building, is a return to environmentally friendly building methods that have their roots in ancient customs. It’s a symbol of coexisting peacefully with nature, not just a covering.

Built from renewable straw, these roofs provide exceptional insulation qualities that keep houses warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Builders who care about the environment will find this natural insulation to be a compelling option because it lowers energy use and carbon footprint. In addition to being functional, a straw roof has a charming rustic appearance that goes well with old-world buildings and rural settings.

Selecting a straw roof is a statement about values rather than just being about efficiency or looks. It exhibits a dedication to sustainability and a wish to reduce negative effects on the environment. Straw is a biodegradable roofing material that, unlike conventional roofing materials, returns to the earth in a harmless manner at the end of its lifecycle.

Adopting a straw roof is about adopting a lifestyle of minimal environmental impact, not just a building material. By choosing natural materials like straw, homeowners support the preservation of traditional building techniques that have supported communities for generations, in addition to creating healthier living spaces.

"A straw roof provides more than just shelter; it is a beautiful fusion of tradition and sustainability. It represents a return to naturally occurring, energy- and environmentally-friendly building materials. By adopting straw as a roofing material, we lessen our carbon footprint and foster a healthier environment, which is a big step towards living in harmony with nature. This age-old method preserves cultural heritage and helps local agriculture in addition to offering superior insulation. Selecting a straw roof is a commitment to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future in which our houses enhance the ecosystem, rather than just being a practical choice."

Characteristics and features of straw as a material for the roof

Straw, or more commonly rye, has been used for fuel oils since the beginning of time. It is also used for roofing. Large bricks were manufactured in Europe and Central Asia from a mixture of straw and clay, which allowed for the construction of walls with superior functional qualities. And all around in the villages of Russia and Ukraine used to be straw roofs. The least expensive roofing material was straw.

The cost of the problem has now increased significantly. Harvesting rye straw with long stems requires manual labor only; crumpled and damaged after compression, combine straw is not suitable for making roof sheafs.

Even though businesses producing and installing roofing straw have already emerged in our day and age, there are still relatively few excellent master masons in the field (and they charge a high price for their services). This is an excellent opportunity to install a straw roof on your own.

A straw roof device

The straw coating roof consists of:

• Carrying design (rafter frame) – a clamping bar (Mauerlat), vertical racks, rafters, stiffness rods and ridge beam;
• The supporting layer is a continuous (oriented-bruise stoves of the OSP or board) or a rarefied crate mounted on rafter legs;
• roofing pie, having its own characteristics for different roof materials.

Roofing

The roof is the one that faces off against all outside forces. It needs to meet the following specifications:

• moisture resistance and water resistance;
• resistance to aggressive precipitation;
• opposition to solar radiation;
• resistance to heat and cold, deformation and cracking.

Not all straw roofs are constructed of straw. With a sickle, it is rarely possible to extract enough stems from the bread field for planting. However, there are wild cereals like reed, wheatfoot, meadow, jerking, fox, oatmeal, thymothev, and others that are comparable in length and other qualities. Reed, though ruder and longer than other cereals, covers the roofs most of the time.

Upon closely examining any meadow during the summer, we will notice clusters of these herbs’ panicles that are either purple or lilac in color. By winter, brows are turning white. This is the time to burn them precisely.

If the roof is made of reeds, then the remaining reeds and soft cereals are still required in order to bind the sheaves and the skate device.

The design of the straw roof

The ancient Slavic roof device looked like this: on the beams of Mauerlat, a steep collapse of rafters is covered with thick poles – tower. There is a straw coating on the tears, pressed by blower or shelgles-long, thin (three or four centimeters thick), straight poles from willow, alder or aspen. Ideally, their length should be equal to the width of the roof plus 30 centimeters per overhang on each side. The first row – Strech – consists of sheaves, planted on tiring, which are pulled together with tears of thin rods – Vitsy. Vitsy – usually not less than a meter long – is made from willow, without removing the bark from the rods. The hobby is formed by goats (chains), which are chopped on the ground and fixed on the roof with heavy tiring, and on the very skate – blind.

The arrangement of a modern roof follows the same principle; the only difference is that the materials used in construction are now more practical. The intermediate layer’s design, known as a "roof pie," was split into closed and open sections based on the kind of crate: sparse or continuous.

1. In the open design, the crate is sparse, and the straw flooring serves the ceiling of the interior. It is more often used in restaurants, arbors, houses like a bungalow. In private residential buildings, such a solution is used less often. In terms of strength, the sparse crate is strongly inferior to the flooring, and the structure should withstand the weight of the thick roof of the house. It is believed that for the house the thickness of the coating should be about 30 centimeters. A unit of dry straw mass of such a thickness of 1 m 2 in a dry form weighs about 40 kg, and in the wet – about fifty.
2. In individual construction, a closed structure with a solid crate is more often used. A layer of vapor barrier is visible in the figure, but it is not required.

Experts guarantee that adding more thermo-, hydro-, and vapor barriers damages the straw roof because inadequate ventilation causes the straw to wither and rot, requiring rafters and a crate in the process.

The straw pie for roofing consists of:

• straw sheaves, fixed in different ways;
• I chat on the skate;
• reinforcing mesh on the skate or other fixing structure (optional);
• High skates from straw, tiles or other material.

In this instance, the roof’s shape is completely customizable; it can be semicircular, round, or even the typical gable or tent (quadrangular). The only thing that is changing is how the skate is covered.

Basic requirements for roof design

They are fairly basic, and there aren’t many of them.

1. The angle of inclination of the roof should be at least 35 °, and the recommended – 45 °. The water will roll well from the straw, and the roof will dry out quickly.
2. The section of the rafters should be at least 150 × 50 mm, the step of installation of rafter legs is no more than a meter.
3. The thickness of the board or OSP for the flooring should be selected at least 25 mm and fix it to the rafters with nails or, which is preferable, with self -tapping screws at least 50 mm long. A beam of 50 × 50 mm or a wider board called the wind is nailed around the perimeter.
4. Fasten wire (better – galvanized) should be at least 5 mm in diameter, attractive – about a millimeter. The latter is attached to self -tapping screws with a length of at least 25 mm, screwed into the flooring.

The advantages and disadvantages of the straw roof

Straw has a lot of wonderful qualities.

• exceptional environmental friendliness – does not cause allergies, does not contain pathogenic bacteria and does not emit harmful gases, like synthetic coatings;
• unsuitability for the settlement of insects and parasites – straw distinguishes phytoncides that repel even rodents, and sparrows, sometimes living in such roofs, do not damage them;
• resistance to any precipitation, wind, temperature changes;
• Good thermal insulation-due to the structure of hollow stems and the intervals between them, remaining even with the most dense styling, in winter in such a house is warm, and in the summer it is cool;
• excellent ventilation at home-due to the same properties;
• High sound insulation – no rain, hail, wind is not heard;
• resistance to fire – even without impregnation with antipyrens, straw is so tight that the risk is small;
• the ability not to accumulate static electricity, so such a roof does not need a thunderbone;
• resistance to decay, the appearance of mold and fungi – it is only necessary to comply with the requirements for the location of the house in an open place;
• Durability – does not rust like a metal, does not beat, like ceramic tiles, does not break, like Ondulin, is not afraid of heat and cold, with proper dense styling, serves up to half a century;
• Ease of operation – does not require serious care;
• Simplicity of repair – you only need to lay several additional sheaves, and the “patch” will soon merge in color with the roof;
• strength – on a new roof you can walk without restrictions, according to the old one – carefully;
• The economy of construction- does not require special drain, ventilation system and additional heat and vapor barrier, and due to its excellent qualities saves heating and air conditioning costs.

However,therearesomedrawbacks,albeittheyarelargelycontingent:

• The darkening of the straw over time and the overgrowing of the northern slope by moss – but this only adds individuality, and only the ends of the straw blacken, the stems remain golden;
• limited use on roofs with attic and bay windows due to their smaller slope;
• quite long installation – even professionals sometimes do not fit in a two -week period;
• The high price, which is partially compensated by the lack of costs of steam, hydro- and thermal insulation.

Imitation of a roof from straw

These days, everything that is natural can be replicated thanks to technology. Straw does not differ. The roofs are also coated with artificial straw imitation ("ersatz-salt," "polymer-salt"). Numerous manufacturing firms already exist, both domestically and internationally.

It is even possible to customize the color of this material: gray, dark, fresh straw, two-year-old straw, and even potential flower colors. The "straws" are identical and combined into small dies that are easily sewn onto the crate to form the roof’s edge. These dies are the best at dialing in the water form.

Artificial straw roof

The following benefits of an artificial straw roof:

• the possibility of laying on the roofs with a small (up to 30 °) angle of the slope and any, the most bizarre, shape;
• Absolute fire resistance without additional processing;
• resistance to decay and change in color;
• high strength – you can safely walk on such a roof the entire service life;
• resistance to any precipitation, wind, temperature changes;
• noise and thermal insulation qualities are slightly inferior to natural straw;
• complete unsuitability for the settlement of rodents, insects, parasites, birds;
• Durability – lasts much longer than fifty years;
• ease of repair and operation;
• lower cost than natural straw.

I conducted a small marketing study, and I was struck by its results. For any region, the price of a square meter of natural straw is about two times higher than an artificial. For example, in the Moscow region, the average price of material for a straw roof in a square meter was about 1700 rubles, for artificial – about 800. The cost of laying varies by an order of magnitude and higher: for artificial straw, it is about 300 rubles, for natural – from three to four thousand. Despite this, the number of companies operating on the market that supply and laying natural material – straw, reeds, reeds – several times the number of companies engaged in artificial analogues. This directly shows the increased interest of people in natural materials, their desire to live in homes, from the foundation to the roof of impeccable from the point of view of ecology. And such statistics are also fair for all regions of our country.

Artificial straw has obvious drawbacks: its roof appears thin, flat, and "combed," and it is merely a plastic imitation of natural material.

Video: Artificial straw for roofing

DIY roof

Start by purchasing the materials needed to build a roof. Although straw sheaves can be purchased already made, you have the option to prepare them yourself. Straw, reeds, rogoz, and other materials of this kind all use the same workpiece method.

The harvesting of straw

For centuries, people have known when compression works best. The stems of the straw should all be roughly the same length and in the proper moisture condition. This is accomplished in the late fall, when it is simpler to travel along the ice-covered earth.

Cut stems need to be sorted, rejected, cleaned, and made into big ligaments from the best stems. Next, they need to be arranged into neat, identical sheaves.

A sickle is the best compression tool, but a motorcycle ward and an oblique, sharply-sharpened shovel can also have their stems cut.

Knuckles of sheaves

Returning to our ancestors’ experience, we observe that the sheaves’ thickness was consistently measured in "handfuls," or bundles that are small enough to be held in the hand. Sheaves of eight to ten handfuls, or twenty centimeters in diameter, were used for roofs, and four to five handfuls were used for arbors and verandas. The sheaves are now knitted with a sword or wire, whereas in the past they were knitted with straw—sprout from a damp straw with a handful’s thickness—which is more practical because the material is always on hand and offers other benefits.

Even after lying in the roof flooring for many years, the straw does not fall out of it because it is holding the sheaf so tightly. However, you can use a single hand motion and continuous flooring technology to untie it. The wire does not provide this kind of chance.

This method of twisting was feasible: take a handful of straw (1), cut it in half (2), fold it using a "walet" (3) to ensure that the thickness is uniform, and then twist (4).

Knitting sheaves on goats or with specialized frames is preferable.

Sheave knitting technology

Following production of sliced, they must bandage sheaves.

1. Preparing a straw bundle in 8-10 handfuls.
2. Closed around the bundle (5).
3. The ends of the sliced ​​are twisted together (6).
4. We bend the twisted ends in half and slip under the wrapping (7).

Double sheaf knitting technology

Double sheaves are necessary to reach the edge, or streha, because they are stronger and more effective. We carry them out as follows.

1. We knit an ordinary sheaf, but not tight (8).
2. We put on the ground, disassemble the straw in a sheave for two parts and turn them relative to each other by 90 o (9).
3. We turn in exactly the same way at 90 o (10), lumps and panicles are again combined.

It turns out to be a double sheaf with very tight connections. Neatly stack related sheaves in a dry location until spring, at which point you can construct a roof.

When preparing the sheaves, the stems can be chopped off, or they can be cut right on the roof with the flooring installed.

The installation process of a straw roof

You will need specific tools to manufacture a straw roof.

The instruments for the installation of a straw roof

For centuries, the assortment and kind of tools remain largely unchanged:

• comb or brush (1);
• bent jagged knife (2);
• Sickle (3) with teeth corrected as needles (a) or shoulder blades (b);
• thick working mittens (7);
• blade (8);
• Now in the arsenal of masters there are also garden scissors for cutting the broken straws.

Preparation of the roof structure

Any method used to install a straw roof must adhere to a number of important rules.

1. Chimneys must be made in accordance with the safety rules, their height should exceed the height of the ridge at least per meter. To reduce the number of sparks into the chimney or a metal grid or a deflector with a sparkle is mounted on its heads.
2. Technological openings for auditory windows and ventilation should be prepared before the installation of the roof.
3. The straw should be in good condition, in sufficient quantities, not mint, not rotten, the ends of the sheaves are leveled.
4. If a timber for a rafter frame was not treated with anti -piren and antiseptics before assembly, then you need to treat the finished frame in front of the straw flooring.
5. If desired, you can treat with antipyrens and sheaves. Antipires are divided into internal and external, both need to combine both.
6. It is necessary to prepare roofing stairs or special ramps, because you should not move around natural straw without them – slippery and you can damage the straw.

Principles of laying different roof nodes

Although the straw roof’s components are laid in slightly different ways, this technology is generally very straightforward.

Board laying

The sheaves on the roof are always oriented in the same way. Panels are up, and they are lowered. The straw layer’s thickness affects how much of them are consumed. A layer that is 30 m thick is expected to require 10–12 sheaves with a standard diameter of 20 cm per square meter. The rows are arranged in 30-cm increments. Either sheaves are released to form a level layer, or they are not.

Strechi device

Single or double sheaves are formed by strehu. The Old Russian method involves wearing them on the curtain, pressing them with tutugs (a), and fixing them with vits (b).

These days, strehu is made by simply pressing the sheaves on top of a steel mounted wire that has a 5 mm diameter and is fixed in various currently accepted ways, as opposed to placing the sheaves on the tower.

Laying straw on the skate

In any case, just like in the past, the roof’s straw on the skate is bent or severed. Moreover, the horse is constructed in multiple methods.

1. It can be covered with a straw bundle or obscenity, laid horizontally.
2. Sometimes it lies with braided bundles of straw.
3. For greater confidence, the horse can be covered with tiles. A reinforcing mesh and horizontal straw bundles for better ventilation are placed under it.

Video: traditional performance of the skate using natural materials

However, the primary distinction amongst straw roof types is how the straw is secured. They’re not just one, there are several.

Installation using nails

Using a long, specially made steel rod of "nails" with a hook or ring bent into the shape of a hook or ring is the simplest way to secure straw. They are jammed into the flooring or crate beams with another pointed end, and then the sheaves are pressed down by a thick fastener fixed with a hook. In this instance, attractive wire and screws are not necessary.

Benefits of nail installation:

• the ability to work on a continuous flooring without an assistant;
• The strength of the structure.

• the need for preliminary manufacture of nails;
• the need to additionally have a heavy hammer on the roof.

Installation using self -tapping screws

The thinner, which has a diameter of 0.8–1 mm, is used to wrap and fix the steel mounting wire, pressing sheaves, which protrudes as a 50–80 cm long "mustache" through straw. Prior to that, it is affixed with 25 mm long galvanized screws into the crate’s bars or flooring.

Occasionally, self-tapping screws are screwed through the straw coating and have a wire attached to them with a long magnetic sting screwdriver.

Numerous guidelines state that this is the approach that professionals most frequently employ.

Benefits of installing using screws:

• high installation speed;
• the ability to work on a continuous flooring without an assistant;
• The strength of the structure.

• requires the presence of a screwdriver on the roof;
• requires additional time to prepare – cutting wire and winding it on screws.

Installation with a needle and loop

When designing an open roof without continuous flooring, this technique is employed. In modern terms, the needle and loop are technically two long, handle-equipped steel instruments.

There is a ring (loop) on one end and a sting (needle) on the other.

Next is the sequence of work using a needle and loop.

1. They are pushed through the roof on both sides of the mounting wire at an angle to each other.
2. The end of the attractive wire is also stuck through the roof, with the help of a needle and loop wrapped around the crate barrier and returns to the surface.
3. Both ends are twisted on top of the mounting wire.

Advantages of this fastener technique:

• allows you to work without an assistant;
• provides high speed;
• Provides the strength of the structure.

• requires special skills;
• requires an open roof design.

When I started researching this fastening technique, I was surprised to learn that it is practically extinct. However, this proved to be just for the Internet community in Russia. This approach is far more prevalent in the West than. I had to research videos and recommendations in both German and Dutch as a result. Despite the method’s great convenience, I strongly recommend it to all masters, particularly since it only requires minimal training and no tools are available for it.

Video: two methods of fixing fasteners – using self -tapping screws and using a needle and loop

Fastening of sheaves "grandfather" method

This is the most popular method that doesn’t require any special tools, self-tapping screws, or nails.

This method is very similar to that of needles and loops, with the exception that one partner pushes a thin wire through the roof, the other clasps the crate’s beam and returns the end to the first, who then twists both ends over the fasteners or tears. All of this is done with the help of an assistant who stands in the attic.

• does not require special skills;
• Provides the strength of the structure.

• requires an assistant;
• requires an open roof design.

Video: laying a straw roof

Benefits of a Straw Roof:	Natural Insulation, Sustainability
Challenges:	Fire Risk, Maintenance Needs

Straw roofs are a sustainable option that help us re-establish a connection with nature. They are not just beautiful or traditional. Homeowners who choose a straw roof are embracing an environmentally friendly and renewable material. In addition to efficiently controlling interior temperature, this natural insulation technique lessens the building’s environmental impact.

Straw roofs are aesthetically pleasing and functional at the same time. They have outstanding thermal performance, keeping houses warm in the winter and cool in the summer while still looking cozy and natural. Straw roofs are an attractive option for eco-aware builders and homeowners due to their blend of natural beauty and practicality.

Selecting a straw roof signifies a deeper commitment to sustainable living than just the obvious advantages. By using locally sourced materials, it supports local economies and encourages the use of time-tested traditional building methods. Straw roofs provide a practical way to lessen reliance on energy-intensive materials and embrace a more harmonious relationship with our surroundings in a time when environmental consciousness is crucial.

Video on the topic

Home Farewell / Farewell to the house | 4k |

Miracles of nature: life on the edge of the Earth | BBC documentary

Mounting roof installation