Thatched roof homes

[Alex88]

Has anyone got any experience of living in a thatched home, or know anyone who has?

GF and I are very tempted by a thatched, grade 2 listed home. And one I say very tempted, we're mulling over putting an offer in..

Only snag for me is the roof. It looks great, was recently re-thatched, but I have no experience of one and I don't know anyone who has lived in one of these homes either. Internet seems to suggest it's either utterly horrendous or absolutely fantastic.

Current owner has had a slight issue with birds having a go at the roof. But she is in her 80's and hasn't really been able to engage in regular maintenance. She's selling to move to a retirement home.

TIA!

[Beany]

Paging @Jobbo, this is Beany paging @Jobbo to Aisle 5, please.

[Swervin_Mervin]

As Beany says, @Jobbo is the one to advise here. I personally wouldn't be put off, but it would be dependent on what has been done during the rethatch - in particular has it been fireboarded between structure and thatch?

[Alex88]

Cheers guys. Hopefully Jobbo can give his thoughts.

Good point re. The fireboarding. I'll find out.

Here's the house - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY

On the street view, you can actually see the crows pulling the thatch a thatcher is going to tidy it up before anyone moves in, but I am puzzled as to why next door isn't suffering the same issue.

[Holley]

Cheers guys. Hopefully Jobbo can give his thoughts.

Good point re. The fireboarding. I'll find out.

Here's the house - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY

On the street view, you can actually see the crows pulling the thatch a thatcher is going to tidy it up before anyone moves in, but I am puzzled as to why next door isn't suffering the same issue.

Oh not far from me (we're in Bolnhurst). Blunham is lovely, is it currently local to you now?

[Alex88]

Nice! It's fairly close to us; we're in Arlesey at the minute. But as WFH is more of a thing, being near a train station/A1 etc isn't as important as it once was.

[dinny_g]

Buy that man some Horse Brasses!!!

Lovely house Alex

[mik]

On the street view, you can actually see the crows pulling the thatch

Handy for the pub too

[Holley]

Nice! It's fairly close to us; we're in Arlesey at the minute. But as WFH is more of a thing, being near a train station/A1 etc isn't as important as it once was.

Our next neighbour used to commute to London every day which seemed a bit nuts to me from Bolnhurst. Blunham is probably better if you still have to do the occasional commute.

[Jobbo]

Alex, I loved living in my thatched cottage - have actually just agreed a sale but it's still on Rightmove: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86506008 . There's plenty I can say about living with and owning it, having bought it in 2009 and lived in it until 2017, then rented out for about 4 years and subsequently used it as a second home for the last couple of years.

- It's an archetypally English style of house and people love it. The thatch itself is a good insulator but chances are the walls are single-skinned or otherwise uninsulated. I can't see an EPC for your purchase - estate agents seem to think they are not required for listed properties which is relying on an ambiguity in the law. Mine isn't listed but 85%-90% of thatched properties are, I believe.
- You don't hear the sound of rain on the roof; acoustically it's lovely under the thatch. With an old structure you're more likely to feel a vehicle going past than hear it.
- Thatch is very good in windy weather apparently.

Generally I have found that loads of people want to view the property but very few actually want to buy it when they start to worry themselves about maintenance costs and so on. But any old property is going to need upkeep; replacing a thatched roof is probably cheaper than doing a slate one. I'd estimate a full replacement roof every 40 years or so and it might be £25-30k for yours, but do try to find the details for the thatcher who has looked after it over the years and ask him. My roof was re-thatched fully in 1990 and then just the front was re-done in 2022; I'd had plenty of repairs and a new ridge between 2009 and 2022 but the total cost of looking after the roof during my 15 years' ownership is probably around £8k, maybe a bit less. I've been lucky because mine is located in a sheltered position and the back of the roof will last way longer than 40 years but each property is going to have its own quirks due to exposure to prevailing wind and weather, trees etc.

Big points to raise:
- Insurance; it is much harder to find an insurer who will cover thatch. NFU do quite straightforwardly but you do pay more; and you will still need to get fire extinguishers, fire blankets etc and be religious about chimney sweeping if you ever want to use an open fire. Log burners do not go well in thatched properties due to higher flue temps - insurers don't like them at all.
- Selling in future. You may find it much more of a pain to sell because you need to find that someone who falls in love with it, which takes a while.
- Being listed. Possibly more of a pain than being thatched because any alterations need heritage officer approval.
- Being attached. I have been fortunate that my property was detached so I had sole control of maintenance of the roof. I have no idea how the boundary to the neighbour affects it; if they don't maintain their roof well there's not a lot you can do to force them. Sadly Streetview doesn't have an image from before this middle one was re-thatched but IIRC it looked pretty sad in the midst of the row: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zMEtr9rAGo718mu3A
You're also much more at risk of this being attached: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-58704035
- Get a finial! I never did even though my thatcher is quite adept at making them. If I'd kept mine any longer then I'd have had to get one (a cat, obvs).

You'll get used to what to look for to notice deterioration in the thatch - basically, dark lines down it which are slight dips where water runs. It only looks new for a short while then looks pretty similar for a good long time. Some people seem to get a lot of moss and lichen on it; I never have, or my thatched has cleaned it before I've ever noticed it. You don't have gutters so be prepared for drips. And you'll also start to notice old properties which would have been thatched at some point but have had that replaced with tiles or slates.

Basically, if you fall in love with a thatched property then go for it; it will cost you a bit more and it'll need a bit more attention but if it's the sort of thing that appeals, a modern box is never going to satisfy you.

Oh, and I find squirrels steal the hazel spars which hold my ridge on, and blackbirds steal the straw. I have also had a few wasps nests but they're easier to remove than if they're in a loft.

[Jobbo]

One more thing - being an older property they tend to have been built at the level of the land rather than raised up which does make them prone to flooding - do check whether any water has come into yours from the road. Mine is at a lower level than the road and run-off did come into it once. I think the issue was solved for me by the pavement being built up in front of the house but you don't appear to have any scope for mitigation.

[Alex88]

Thanks Jobbo. Some really useful info there! Appreciate it.

Your old house is just stunning. If we were further that way we’d have been all over that. It reminds me that one thing I am slightly disappointed about is the lack of off-street parking. However, the area appears to be relatively quiet and it certainly doesn’t appear that neighbours are fighting for spaces – quite the opposite in fact. I also noted that there is already a dropped kerb, so perhaps I could make a nice little space on the side of the property. Although I imagine I will need to make enquiries re. consent.

Re. the flood risk, the Gov UK flood checker said it’s low risk. However, I did dig up some minutes from a parish council meeting and someone had mentioned flooding to that homes garden due to road surface changes, or something. It was 4 years ago, and the response was that it would be looked into and rectified. I will see what that was about.

I know it’s something of a risk, but we’re putting an offer in. We love the house and its charm. The area is nice, and as Holley pointed out, it’s still convenient for the odd commute. I know the thatch will need maintenance but I’m happy to deal with that.

Cheers!

[Jobbo]

I forgot to mention that I use The Thatched Owners Group for insurance - they're a broker. Have done for about 10 years now - you need a bit more info for them to be able to quote than NFU so worth getting onto them early once your offer is accepted, so you can ask the seller for the info needed: http://www.thatched-group.com/

[Rich B]

£300k... would be a million here.

[Swervin_Mervin]

On the drainage side of things Alex, I can see you've got a gully in the carriageway right outside the front door, but also, somewhat oddly, an aco drain across the footway, into that gully. I'd be tempted to investigate what that aco drain is doing as it looks like the footway is falling towards the road anyway. That would seem to suggest that there is good reason for having an aco drain in that location because ordinarily a gradient ont eh footway towards the carriageway is enough to drain.

If the carriageway drains to that side of the road (which the images suggest and the presence of the gully also suggests) then the aco drain may be there to ensure that when there is localised flooding, anything that's on the footway has the best chance of running back into the gully as quickly as possible.

It's not normal to have aco drains across footways...

Otherwise looks lovely, and I think you'd be fine to get away with a drive/parking space to the side. It may actually provide you an opportunity if there are any drainage issues to create a sump underneath the space - the surface would need to be permeable anyway to meet planning requirements.

You're also at the advantage that it looks like the key areas where any future development might take place are all to the western end of the village. That said, I'd always recommend checking out the local planning authority's planning portal to check for any applications, and to also check the Local Plan for what sites have been allocated for development. It doesn't look like there's much in the Local Plan for Blunham, but there is an employment site allocated further to the south which does look like a big deal.

[Ascender]

Cheers guys. Hopefully Jobbo can give his thoughts.

Good point re. The fireboarding. I'll find out.

Here's the house - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY

On the street view, you can actually see the crows pulling the thatch a thatcher is going to tidy it up before anyone moves in, but I am puzzled as to why next door isn't suffering the same issue.

That looks stunning, can see why you've fallen for it! And not a bad price at all!

I take it there's no issues with mortgage lenders for houses with a thatch roof post-Grenfell? Our first design for a new house had larch on the outside of the walls and that immediately restricted us to a very short list of lenders.

[Alex88]

Cheers Swerv! I'd actually noticed the same thing when viewing it on Google Maps. I wasn't sure if that type of drain was normal or not, but came to the same logical conclusion that you've mentioned there. Unfortunately you can't really see if it was there or not in the previous dated Map in 2009.

I assumed it had been installed fairly recently, and potentially triggered after that mention of flood water in the garden. I'll definitely look into that and see what the deal is.

[Alex88]

Ascender, appreciate that! It's a lovely little place. I've spoken to the bank and it all seems ok so far, but it looks like they'll want a proper survey done to make sure all is well, which is understandable.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Cheers Swerv! I'd actually noticed the same thing when viewing it on Google Maps. I wasn't sure if that type of drain was normal or not, but came to the same logical conclusion that you've mentioned there. Unfortunately you can't really see if it was there or not in the previous dated Map in 2009.

I assumed it had been installed fairly recently, and potentially triggered after that mention of flood water in the garden. I'll definitely look into that and see what the deal is.

You're probably right Alex. I just looked again and if you go up the road a bit and then look back, whilst the image is a bit grainy, it doesn't look like there was the footway drain back then. If you're fairly handy I'd be making sure those drains stay clear - the top of the aco should just unscrew. I do the one in front of our garage annually as it gums up with silt and leaves.

I also do the gully at the end of our street which gets gummed up with leaves from the park and floods the whole carriageway, because if I didn't it wouldn't get done at all (our council are hopeless at maintenance). Only takes me 2 mins to scrape the leaves away with the side of my welly. It's oddly satisfying seeing a huge swathe of carriageway rapidly drain away

[V8Granite]

That’s a beautiful house, the features inside really add a quality to it.

The only complaint I heard about an old house was having to use lime mortar plaster as it was very expensive to do, the rest they loved and it was a shame for it to go out of the family.

Dave!