![]() ![]() McGhee hopes people will see these small-scale thatched items and order up bigger things. He's been making bird houses, gazebos, 12-foot-high "playhouses" and garden benches, topping them all with thatched roofs. To make ends meet, McGhee has been thatching anything that'll sell. While there are 55,000 thatched homes in the United Kingdom, there are only eight in the United States, McGhee said. And many people don't even know what a thatched roof is. At an average cost of $25,000 for a home roof and with an installation time of several weeks, thatching is much more expensive and takes longer to install than conventional roofing. So far, McGhee has not been inundated with customers in the United States. Thatch, he said, is so tightly bound, it's hard to set ablaze. McGhee also tries to counter the widely accepted view that thatched roofs are fire hazards. And if constructed properly, he says, the roof won't leak and will last up to 75 years. He says that the natural roofs of straw or reed not only are aesthetically pleasing but also provide four times better insulation than regular roofs. Go to any of the weekend craft shows around Warrenton and you'll probably run into McGhee, manning a booth where he preaches the virtues of thatched roofing. "I loved the big cars, the jukeboxes and the Harleys." When I was 10 years old, I was the only one in our village who listened to Johnny Cash," said McGhee, who now has a Chevy truck with a license plate that reads "I-Thatch." Since then he's been doing everything he can to kick-start the U.S. After returning to England for a few months, McGhee came back to Virginia and decided to set up shop on this side of the Atlantic. ![]() Two years ago, a contractor flew McGhee to the United States to put a full thatched roof on a Warrenton area house. The British-born McGhee says he is one of only two professional thatchers in the United States and bases himself in Warrenton to be close to clients in north and central Virginia. "I'm the Johnny Appleseed of the thatching industry," quipped McGhee as he repaired the thatching on a 19th-century Irish barn reconstructed in Staunton by the Museum of American Frontier Culture. Meet the man who hopes to bring the practice of covering roofs with straw and reeds back to America, almost 400 years after the craft all but died. McGhee was practicing an ancient craft - thatching - in an unlikely corner of the New World, Staunton, Va., not far from Charlottesville. He made his way from side to side across the steep slope with amazing speed laying, brushing and trimming the tan straw with his tools. With his head slightly bowed, he then skipped up a 20-foot ladder until his plastic kneepads hit the slippery roof. Colin McGhee grabbed a stack of straw and threw it on his back like a favorite old coat. ![]()
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