Old Economy Village has a little round rough stone building, the
Grotto. The inside is highly finished and classical. It had a thatch
roof last time I saw it. Originally it had a thatch roof, (1825),
replaced within a few years by a wood shingle roof. The framing and
sheathing for that roof remains. The wood shingles were replaced by
copper sheathing with thatch. The thatch deteriorated, and it spent a
long time with the copper exposed. In the late eighties, PHMC (me and
others) replaced the copper with new copper and rethatched. We grew
the rye for the thatch at Landis Valley, and installed it with our own
maintenance staff. (Out-sourcing had not yet reached its current
favored status, and did not seem practical, since the next best
alternative to training our own staff seemed to be to bring a crew over
from Ireland.) The last time I remember dealing with that roof, ducks
were nesting in it. Mr. Fugelso, if he is currently lurking, may have
more up to date info.
But, thatch is an interesting and very medievel alternative. But, wood
shingle is more durable. Copper is kind of nutz for a utility
building.
-jc
On Jun 21, 2004, at 6:45 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Pump house ,.......the new frontier
>
>
> My pump house is 12 ' ft high and built in a circle of 17' dia. on
> center
>
> it is all built out of heavy stone
>
> and I must say has a medieval quality to it
> Inside is the holding tank from its own well (very good water ).
>
> The problem now is the roof ; at first I wanted to go primitive with
> laying a series of 4x4 's
> in a conical pattern putting sheeting on top them with water proofing
> , then bamboo which I have alot of
>
> Then an architect friend suggested
> a flat metal roof on tilt up angel ( tilt up metal over heavy stone
> cylinder)..so .there fore build the roof at an angle in light metal
> and then bring the walls up to meet
> it.
>
> I liked this idea because it was cost effective and simple
> then another friend suggested a stone roof ,
> but the engineering for stone requires more work than the walls
> besides corbelling and use of heavy steel ( which is out)
> ....I am still looking for a good , affordable roof idea
> Py
> Ps
> I have alot of material to do a skim coat with but on what?
>
>
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