Friederike Seedorf, thatch roof manufacturing

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Since 2007, Friederike Seedorf has been thatching roofs in Upper Franconia using the traditional thatching technique (“Schabtechnik”). This makes her the only craftswoman in her region to have the necessary material and process expertise for a type of roof that has become rare today, but was once characteristic of the region. Thatching was particularly widespread among Franconian weavers due to the low-cost raw material.

Name of Craft in the local language
Strohdachdeckerin, Friederike Seedorf
Type of Craft
Traditional thatch roofing, production of special thatch sheaves (‘Schaben’), sale of long-stalked winter rye, part-time upholsterer
Knowledge Holder
Friederike Seedorf
Location, Website
Nentschau, Germany; Link to website
Contact
info@schabmacherei.de
Type of Business
Neugegründetes Unternehmen
Year of Establishment
2007
Successors
No successors

Workshop and sales space
100m² barn, no sales rooms, work on site at the customer's premises
Materials
Long-stalked winter rye straw from regional cultivation
Technology / Tools / Machines
Comb binder (sheaves), flail, threshing machine, straw comb, straw cutter
Techniques / Processes
Harvesting (machine), binding sheaves (machine), threshing (hand/machine), combing (hand), tying with straw rope (hand), shaping (hand), cutting straws to the same length (hand), roofing
Members / Employees
Friederike Seedorf, short-term helpers for harvesting, threshing, roofing
Apprentices
Thatching is not a vocational training programme, however, Friederike Seedorf passes on her knowledge in workshops.
Education of the Craftsperson
Learning by doing, first by renewing the thatched roof of her own house (from 2007) and then by working for an association that thatched the roof of a neighbouring old weaver's house using the sheaf technique. Due to the increasing demand, the desire arose to turn this into a profession.

Best-selling product
Thatched roofs
Average time of production
Two years from sowing the rye to processing the straw sheaves on the roof. Most roofs require two complete harvests, so a roof can sometimes take four years to complete.
Average price per item
€50.000 per roof
  • Germany_Seedorf_Straw-roof covering_Portrait_3

    Friederike has lived in a farmhouse since 2007, first in a shared flat and later with her husband, where the roofs are traditionally thatched using the bale technique (Schabtechnik). At some point, these began to leak and Friederike started to teach herself the technique of trough roofing. She is probably the only person in the region who has mastered this type of roofing and the necessary processing of the raw material, winter rye.

  • Germany_Seedorf_Straw-roof covering_Process_9

    Born and raised in Karl-Marx-Stadt/GDR in the 1970s, she moved to rural Upper Franconia to work in the aforementioned farmhouse. After working on and learning from several thatched roof projects, she decided to offer thatched roofing professionally in 2017 and set up her own business. Her clients come from all over Germany, mostly owners of existing thatched roofs or open-air museums who utilise her services.

For Friederike Seedorf, the smell and colour of a thatched roof are a very special quality.
  • Germany_Seedorf_Straw-roof covering_Process_3

    The complete production of a thatched roof consists of various stages that follow one another with longer breaks which are mainly determined by natural processes. Firstly, the raw material, the rye, must be sown and harvested by the farmer. It is then tied into sheaves in the field and, after initial drying, taken to the barn for threshing. The entire harvest is threshed over the winter, which takes around four months.

  • Germany_Seedorf_Straw-roof covering_Process_7

    The following year, the straw is tied into bales ( “Schaben” - special straw bundles). The finished straw bundles are then used for roofing using the so-called scraping technique (Schabtechnik). No further aids such as fastening wire or similar are needed for the scraping technique, the individual scrapes are pushed into each other so that they hold themselves on the roof. The roofing work itself is then no longer very time-consuming.

A thatched roof lasts around 25 years. The raw material, winter rye straw, is actually “waste” from cereal cultivation. By using it as a roof covering, the entire plant is utilised and, thanks to the scraping technique, there is no waste. Even on the roof, the straw “Schaben” hold each other in place and do not require any nails, wires or the like for fastening.