Bamboo as Reinforcement in Concrete

I am working with others developing a new kind of town and it would be consonant with the sustainability goals of the project if bamboo could replace some or all of the steel rebars in the concrete construction planned for all the buildings in such towns. Is there any experience, research, testing, or certification of bamboo concrete reinforcement?

Comments

Julio

It has been done before, so I gave it a chance while building my house in Colombia, I am thrilled!

• 5 times less man hours, working with bamboo is fast and doesn't require great skills or machinery.

• 30% less sand, gravel and concrete because guadua bamboo creates more volume.

• A fraction of the cost compared to steel.

• Solid as a rock, the result is stunningly sturdy and sound isolating.

• Seismic resistance is a given.

• Immunised bamboo doesn´t corrode.

I can only recommend guadua bamboo for all sorts of construction uses, especially for roofs.

---

Yohan (John) Morgan

Thank you for your info about using bamboo in your house in Colombia. Can you share any more about the design you used for the bamboo concrete reinforcing?

Like:

1. How thick we're the walls?

2. Did you do vertical and horizontal reinforcing with the bamboo?

3. What diameter bamboos did you use, and at what spacing?

4. How were they treated?

5. Split or whole?

6. Do you have any plans or drawings of these construction details?

7. Did you need or get any engineering on the design?

I have BTW come across some detail on such use of bamboo on a text book on soil cement construction I recently acquired. Do you know any other texts that are useful?

---

Stéphane Schröder

There are a lot of test results available online for reinforcement of concrete with bamboo, here are a few of the most important references:

Image © Professorship of Architecture and Con- struction Dirk E. Hebel, ETH 3) Zürich / FCL Singapore

• Study on Bamboo as Reinforcement in Cement Concrete

• A Comparative Study of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beams 

• Research and Development on Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Structure 

• Experimental Investigation of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Slab 

• Bamboo as Reinforcement in Structural Concrete Elements

• Building Bamboo Reinforced Masonry in Earthquake-prone Areas

• Investigation on Behaviour of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Member

• Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Construction

• Bamboo Composite as a Reinforcement in Structural Concrete

We also had an interesting discussion about using bamboo for reinforcing concrete on our Facebook page:

---

Michael Meredith

Did anyone ever make walls with whole bamboo in aircrete? Seems to work with a test model I made. Aircrete is a great insulation and it floats so a boo aircrete boat is in order. Asphalt makes the crete stick better but I am not sure that it is necessary.