Great idea! Been looking for some old sliding glass doors myself to enclose the pool area so I can use it all year round. I recycle all of my grey water into my garden and it is thriving. My hot water is solar heated and I am looking into gradually moving off the grid as far as electricity is concerned. FTR the solar hot water system is going to pay for itself in savings in just 30 months instead of my original estimate of 5 years. Just makes fiscal sense to go green.
For small scale solar power....look into 12v storage in marine battery banks with an inverter....you can build a super cheap and effective system.
Maybe they use stainless steel or copper nails. I imagine those roofs are already expensive because of the skills involved so a few thousand dollars on costly nails wouldn't be so unacceptable. Especially if they extend the life of the roof.
Lead is also a traditional and long lasting roofing material. It doesn't degrade and is easily bent into shapes that accommodate chimneys etc. Churches have been using lead for centuries. In a call back to my trebuchet obsession, besieging armies would strip the lead off churches to use as the counterweight for their siege engines due to its high density.
Have to be careful mixing metals because of the galvanic corrosion effect. Copper is soft and does not make good nails. Stainless is best because it never corrodes so yes, that it probably the best option for all roof fastenings.
Copper is not as soft as many people believe. After all the Egyptians had a wide range of copper tools. There is even speculation (unsupported by archeological evidence as of yet) that copper saws were used to cut the stones used to construct the pyramids.
Just found this video of Farmer Paul's threshing drum in action at a local steam rally from a couple of years ago. I'd not see it before. You can hear a bit of the local accent in places and even I struggle to understand everything that is being said.
Here in the South, our thatch is cabbage palm roofing. Actually "Sable Palmetto". AKA 'swamp cabbage'. If you cut out the heart of a tree, maybe no more than 7 ft tall, it's a passable substitute for cabbage. Nothing to write home about, kinda bitter. These trees are everywhere. The dead fronds, can stoke a campfire, in a hurry.
Me and a friend cut one once, he was on the axe and i was on the machete. It took us 10 minutes. I have a stand of 4 in our yard, looks alot like the above pic. Probably 10 or more on our acre lot. Birds love the seeds.
As tall as 60 ft. I like the wild look, here is a big ones. And here is the 'skunk ape' about 15 miles away, can you spot any cabbage palms? (edit, posting video without checking, this is Florida, bet my last beer some are in it)
The big ones dont fair well in hurricanes, especially if standing alone, in the open. And they dull a chainsaw, to beat hell.
Is it sandy soil there? I have been told that soil with a lot of silica will produce timber which is hard on tools.
Pretty much, it can vary but yes, in general, Fl is sandy I know it's not a soil map but you may find this interesting. Mostly ag land, where I am in beautiful Arcadia Fl. I'm west of lake Okeechobee, smack in the middle between the big lake and the gulf of Mexico. OK, relative to the north tip of the lake
So, I had to go into town to go to the bank today. There's a very convenient council-run pay and display car park right by the high street which costs £1.20 for an hour's stay. I was standing in front of the machine when a car drove up (the wrong way around the one-way system), bibbing his horn and waving a ticket. He offered it to me saying ''it's got 20 minutes on it''. I replied ''you know that's illegal don't you?'' He said ''is it?'' I said ''of course it is it says non-transferable on it'' He then got abusive and started calling me names so I bought a ticket and walked back to my car without responding. A bystander sitting on a barrier then joined in saying ''he's only trying to help'' to which I replied ''theft is still theft''. ''he was trying to give it to you that's not stealing'' ''yes it is it's stealing from the car park operators'' ( de-frauding the taxpayer). He then started getting abusive so I turned my back, put the ticket in my car and headed into town. He continued arguing with me and I put my case politely without raising my voice. The car driver was now exiting at the same time as me and asked ''are you the police?'' I said I might be and he told me to piss off and sped off in a hurry. The bystander continued to shout ''some people are just #rse holes he was only trying to be nice''. As I walked away. So who was the biggest #rse hole, bearing in mind there were cameras everywhere and both myself and the car driver could have faced fines of up to £100. I stayed calm throughout while the other two both got heated and resorted to swearing and insults. The car park helps to support the struggling high street by providing short term parking. On the other hand I could have simply said ''no thanks'' or lied and said I'd already bought my ticket so as to avoid any confrontation or bad feelings.
I wasn't going to let it escalate to the point where it got really nasty and I'm a quite big ex-rugby type so I don't think either of them would have thought about it anyway. We were all of a similar age. I was just a bit shocked that both of them thought I was the bad guy.
I guess there are a lot of variables. Much quicker and cheaper to re-thatch than a straw roof anyway. 5 years would seem to be perfectly practical, even every year wouldn't be so bad.
On my other forum which is American by a large margin the consensus was scr#w the state you stool pigeon, my argument is that the car park is a public good and supports the struggling high street by providing cheap, convenient short term parking. I probably came across as patronising though.