farmerjohn

i'm not sure on that one, i'm too far north for thatched roof's to be used never worked on one, old buildings are mainly slate roofs with riven oak laths and iron nails that have rotted in the oak. 'nail sickness' as we call it.

Hi, This is my first post apart from introducing myself, I am not in arbo industry, but my company does a lot of traditional building restoration and I work a lot with timber. Chestnut has excellent durability against rot, one job we priced it had a specification on for a fence with either treated timbers for the posts or ‘green sweet chestnut’. This would leed me to believe it is very durable at the point where the timber comes out the ground, at this point the timber is exposed to the air and is often damp so very susceptible to fungal decay. I am not sure on the compression strength of chestnut but I think it should be strong enough for the uprights. Or you could concrete a pad at ground level and make a upside down T shape piece of steel cut a slot into the bottom of your upright and bolt it through, this would keep the timber off the ground. If you do go down that route it would be best to use stainless as expecially in oak the tanning rots ferris metals very quickly. Regarding the flooring, I would think sweet chenut would be a good option for same reasons as the upright, but on another few jobs we have looked at larch has been specified as a timber to clad or make shingles out of, I believe it is similar tannings and durability to cedar (this is what I have heard from speaking to people but if anyone has more clarity on this it would be interesting to know) and a lot cheaper as a lot is getting felled at the moment (especially around my area anyway.) Lastly, if you do go down the lime mortar route don’t attempt anything this time of year, we only do external lime work between the months of April – October as it is easily effected by a bit of frost. If you want any advice on lime work let me know. John