Building With Bamboo - Structural

i searched for this general topic, but guess what you get if you search "bamboo" on tc? about a kijillion hits! :)

i'm toying with the idea of building a bamboo lanai in my back yard this summer. some initial googling came up with these way cool structural bamboo pages:

http://www.bambootechnologies.com/bbhomes.htm

http://www.urbanaddiction.com/archives/000160.html

http://www.nippon-kan.jp/making/new_040625/p4_e.php

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9588156068/002-7767291-0619240?v=glance&n=283155

http://tribes.tribe.net/1d31d72b-7549-4051-a399-c7354c81d79a/thread/e4cac5a4-61d6-4a8a-9070-66fa5824a0d9

anyways, if anyone could direct me to any drawings about how to construct a bamboo structure [arrrrr!], or provide any experiential insight, that would be very cool. thanks!

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar 2006-02-07 11:03 ]

WOW, I want that giant one in my back yard. COOL

Great links and book, though I see what you mean: they tend to be pictorials of the finished products rather than a how-to guide. What are the main issues involved in building bamboo structures? Lashing knots? Structural support? I came across these links; I don't know if they're useful:

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/gvt033.asp
http://mygardenguide.com/tutorials/tut.html?id=297
http://www.scouting.org.za/resources/pioneering/Lashing2.pdf
http://www.bamboogardenswa.com/construction.html

sweet!

also,

http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/3wdev/VITAHTML/SUBLEV/EN1/BAMBOO.HTM

and

http://bambus.rwth-aachen.de/eng/PDF-Files/Bamboo%20Connections.pdf

I like it! That last PDF file looks definitive! The first site looks more historical, and the pics are harder to see, but is also cool.

None of the documents mention the possibility of threading the bamboo poles like beads, I don't think, although that would require putting a hole through the center along the length of every pole. I'm thinking of those plastic fold-out toys (Hoberman Spheres) that look like geodesic domes that can be compressed into tiny balls. Also, I didn't see any recommendations about overall structural shape that would prevent such accidental folding/collapse in say a high wind. Surely that's a topic modern architects & engineers must have considered many times with regard to frame structures. Geodesic domes are supposed to be extremely sturdy, but they aren't very Polynesian-looking!

collapsible Hoberman Sphere

sturdy geodesic sphere/dome

http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/dome/dome.html
http://anthony.liekens.net/index.php/Misc/GeodesicDome
http://www.earth360.com/math_geodesic_dome_education.html

Around 1975 my sister told me about taking a drive through the Bonsall area of north inland San Diego County, back when that area was mostly green rolling hills, and of a large bamboo frame structure being built there, just off the road, like a project by college students. I think it was only temporary, and maybe was an architecture/engineering class or an arts & crafts festival. The people were climbing all over it like monkeys as they were building it, she said, and I think anybody could join in the building. But when I recently asked her about it, she couldn't even remember having seen it, much less any details. :( Anybody have any clue to what that might have been about? That always stuck in my mind as an extremely fun project, a great social event, fun for kids and all ages, and somewhat educational, too. Educational monkey bars, so to speak. Add to that my puerile desire to someday recreate the Enchanted Tiki Room at my own residence, and my love of bamboo in general, and my interest in building with bamboo becomes significant. :)

P.S.--One caveat: I once gathered some bamboo poles from somebody's front yard in Florida, set out by the trash, after they trimmed their stand of bamboo. I let the poles sit in the corner of my living room for a few months, waiting for them to dry out. I noticed the culms seemed to keep dropping a lot of sawdust onto the carpet. Then one day while in the living room I heard the sound of light rain but it wasn't raining outside. Upon investigating the source of the sound, I discovered it was coming from the bamboo poles. Apparently there was a profusion of bugs inside the wood, eating it away, and producing all that sawdust I'd been seeing on my carpet. Needless to say, those poles quickly found themselves in the trash again. I hadn't heard about that problem before or what (if anything) can be done about it, but it's something to be aware of. Maybe they were ordinary termites (although I lived in a cinder block apartment then), or maybe some garden pest, which is maybe why that gardener cut those culms in the first place.

P.P.S.: Per Internet references I just found, I think they were powder post beetles.

Links about powder post beetles, especially in bamboo:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2090.html
http://www.inbar.int/publication/txt/tr13/POSTright.htm
http://www.nobuggy.com/powderpost_beetles.html
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/powdpostbeetl.html

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-07 12:30 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-07 15:56 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-07 16:07 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-07 22:07 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-08 17:34 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-13 18:40 ]

Hey J$ - I just harvested 520 feet of bamboo poles from 2-4" in diameter cut into 10' pieces from my mom's back yard and carted them some 150 miles home, wrapped up in 2 tarps like to 2 giant burritos strapped on top of the Jeep.

I have plans for about a hundred or so feet but been wondering what to do with the rest. I'll be interested to see how this thread progresses cause I too am looking for some ideas and construction methods.

Some of the links you provided were helpful if not daydream inducing (bamboo homes link, for example--I wanna live in a Thai Pod!)

Sorry-I know this is not helpful info for you, but I'll be checking back.

A little off-topic, but I just had to share this oddity I came across today:

http://www.americanbamboo.org/GeneralInfoPages/BambooBicycle.html

check out this bamboo pioneer from the last pdf i posted - arrrrrrrrrrrr!

hahahaha

Thanks for this post J$

On 2006-02-08 12:05, Johnny Dollar wrote:
check out this bamboo pioneer from the last pdf i posted - arrrrrrrrrrrr!

hahahaha

now that's just creepy

-Z

here is a cool bamboo mountain bike frame with carbon fiber joints.

Here is the builders website.

http://www.bmeres.com/bambooframe.htm

Here's what i built over the summer,i used bamboo,pine round post,synthetic thatch and rope it did take awhile to construct

wow!!! thanks for sharing! 8)

Yes, that's a nice, practical example, scaperman. Nice photos, too. You ought to think about drawing up some diagrams to show how it was done, at least if somebody else is interested in copying it. It looks like you have cross-like beam structures whose horizontal beams help support the sloped bamboo roof, correct?

It looks to me, after looking over all of Johnny's links and scaperman's structure, and thinking about bamboo structures I've seen, that bamboo structures could be considered to fall into two categories: pure bamboo, and mixed bamboo-and-timber. The larger pure bamboo structures appear to always use the largest poles for vertical support (an obvious strategy) or else cluster several smaller poles into the needed pillars. Smaller structures like trellises and gazebos tend to be purely bamboo, probably because they don't need heavier support.

It looks like there are no real architectural guidelines for bamboo: you just build whatever shape you want--rectangular cross-section is the western world's default building shape--and make sure the main beams are all held together strongly enough to be sturdy. Once the main supporting beams are in place, the bamboo lattices just fill in the reamaining spaces incidentally. At least that's how it appears to me. I'd like to get some of those books to find out. That was the strategy behind scaperman's structure. I guess I'm extra concerned about architectural support because everything I used to build like that as a kid would soon twist, fold, and/or collapse. Nowadays I would like to know in advance that such collapse can't physically happen.

That artificial thatch is a good idea, for fire and water issues. I didn't know artificial thatch existed.

P.S.--This link I just found about artificial thatch says it's not flame retardant, which surprises me, since to me that would be the main motivator of using artificial thatch in the first place:

http://www.tropicalexpressions.com/showcase7.html

P.P.S.--Another link, this one having Fire Retardant Thatch (and showing the Swiss Family Treehouse, besides!):

http://www.autographfoliages.com/images/lrg_cat_pages/p_006.jpg

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 14:05 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-14 16:52 ]

Thanks mbonga,I got my thatch from this placehttp://www.endureed.com/it wasn't cheap but it has a twenty year warranty on it and looks very real even up close,i didn't want something that i would have to replace after a year or two like the real thatch it wouldn't hold up to the snow that we get around here.I had my friend that is roofer help me with the rafters which took some time to cut and notch out,the biggest time cosumer on the project was varnishing the bamboo so it doesn't split and tying them on to the rafters which i used copper wire to secure them, about 8,000ft of it.I really like using a mix of materials it adds interest to any structure,my next project is going to be a cabana 24'/24'with a bar and has the same type of look but on a grander scale.