Sukkah Roof Construction Alternatives

Wood

• One alternative for the sukkah's roofing mateiral, or schach, is wood, a perfectly organic material. Keep in mind, however, that any utensils or items manufactured to serve set purposes, are not counted as "organic material" and cannot function as sukkah roofing. For example, you cannot use wooden pickets, designed for use as fencing. Neither could you use pure cotton sheets or the wooden handles of rakes or brooms. You can use milled lumber on the roof, provided that it has been milled to a width of less than 16 inches, or four tefachim. A network of long, thin wooden dowels or strips serves well to support smaller pieces of wood or other organic material.

Vegetation

• Instead of selecting milled wood of set dimensions, you can also go closer to the source, building your sukkah roof out of vegetation of unlimited dimensions. Bamboo poles, evergreen branches, reeds and grasses all serve well as sukkah roof coverings; laid close together, they effectively block sunlight and still allow gaps to view the night stars. However, live vegetation that is still attached to the ground, cannot serve as a sukkah roof. Therefore, you cannot build an open-roofed sukkah directly below the wide, low branches of a tree. Neither can you use a live trellis as the sukkah's roof.

Schach Mats

• If you prefer to purchase ready-made roofing, a number of retailers sell schach mats that meet Jewish law. Judaism.com sells bamboo mats, appropriate for sukkah roofs, in a range of sizes, from 6 by 8 feet up to 8 by 12. The mats roll away for convenient storage. You may select from standard or mehadrin mats. "Mehadrin" refers to anything, such as foods, ritual objects or household items, that meet the most stringent interpretations of Jewish laws. Judaism.com's mehadrin mats feature different lashings, meeting the requirement that only simple string, not twisted strings, be used, and that they bind the roofing material loosely. If you decide to invest in schach mats, remember that while you can leave the rest of the sukkah structure up throughout the year, you must remove the schach mats except when celebrating sukkot.