Safety first: a few helpful hints

As with any building, a few simple precautions should be taken to safeguard your thatched property – especially in connection with its chimneys. For example:

• If you use wood, burn only dry, seasoned wood.


• Fit an insulated inner chimney flue all the way up to the chimney pot.


• Have your chimney/flue checked for tar deposits and get the soot swept away regularly.


• Remove the hat/cover on chimney pots. Burning particles from an inappropriate stove start-up tend to bounce off them and damage the thatch rather than rise clear of the roof.


• Get the mortar/brick condition of your chimney checked by a thatcher before  starting any re-thatching work. Where it’s hidden by existing thatch, especially, the chimney may need repairing – and a fire barrier installed between the chimney and the thatch.


• Consider buying a new generation clean-burn solid fuel appliance, or better still a 90% efficient masonry stove, to replace an old inefficient log burner.


• Avoid using too much paper and kindling to light fires; and ensure the paper is  placed safely under the kindling and not on top. Do not cause the fire to roar.


• At evening’s end open the air baffles on your appliance/flue wider, and allow the fire to burn out to avoid tar deposits forming overnight.


• Be sure to get your electrical wiring checked. At the same time, install sensitive electrical breakers in the consumer box, and, to avoid rodent damage, have the wiring channelled through steel ducting in the roof space.


• Do not burn bonfires near the property.


• Finally - make flat roofers aware of the thatch before they begin using their blow torches.