Good thatch is made from reeds, not straw as commonly thought. Good thatch might be hard to find in the upland steads. This is the case in my campaign.
> If the snows are really heavy, then
> those roofs will probably have to have a fairly steep slope to shed
> some of the load (especially with a 20 foot span from centre beam to
> walls). I'm not too sure how well sod works with a steep pitch?
...
The advice I've seen is for turf roofs to have a shallow pitch, no
more than 30 degrees.
http://www.cat.org.uk/catpubs/tipsheet.tmpl?sku=17
Turf roofs were the norm in Viking Iceland, so evidently supporting snow is not impossible. I guess the turf would weigh more than the snow.
For some more ideas about house construction, see:
http://www.regia.org/houses.htm http://www.sazp.sk/parabow/contacts/ribembuil.jpg http://viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/house.html http://www.wordplay.com/tourism/viking.html
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