Q. Is one allowed to fasten the schach mats with plastic zip-ties to the wood cross beams supporting them as a precaution they don’t fly of with unusual strong winds (ruach sheino metzuya)?

A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shit’a opinion is that if the mats can stand by themselves and not be blown by a common wind they can be tied since they are actually normally supported only by the wooden beams. The Rov recommends as is, to better use natural hemp twine, the leafs of an unused lulav or similar, that could in principle be used as schach, and not synthetic string or plastic zip-ties.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a