My Bamboo Furniture is being Attacked by Beetles

I have a serious problem with my bamboo furniture being attacked by beetles. I would be very appreciative if anyone can give me a solution…

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⭐ Best Answer:

Drill small holes in the bamboo near the nodes and inject an insecticide (Timbor). You can drill the holes under the arm rests or other hidden places so that it won't affect the aesthetic qualities of the furniture.

How to Straighten Bamboo While Drying?

I intend to use bamboo as a 7 ft pole to hold a banner at the top. I will be holding it while riding a horse. How do I ensure that I get it dried straight and sturdy enough to hold approximately 10 pounds at the top of the pole?

How Long do I Need to Dry Bamboo to Prevent Rooting?

I live in North Carolina, USA. My neighbor is cutting down a large stand of bamboo. I would like to use some pieces to make garden trellises, but I don’t want the pieces to root. The pieces are 3 inches in diameter and about 15 feet long. How long do I need to dry them outside?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Once the bamboo has lost its original green or glossy yellow color and turned into a pale beige, they won't root anymore. If you lay the bamboo outside in the sun for about a month they should be dry enough.

Drying Bamboo Below 15% Moisture Content

I am working on a project which would require the bamboo to dry to below a 15% moisture content. How long would this take in your estimation? Any ideas on low cost/low energy ways to speed up drying?

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⭐ Best Answer:

Bamboo is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs and releases moisture until it reaches equilibrium with the surrounding environment's moisture content (MC). When exposed to changes in humidity, bamboo naturally shrinks and swells. Depending on your location, especially in tropical climates, the MC of bamboo rarely drops below 15%, with dried bamboo typically stabilizing between 16-18%. It is important to clarify whether you intend to dry whole bamboo poles or slats. Slats can be oven-dried, but poles should be air-dried to minimize the risk of cracking.

Flame Curing of Bamboo Poles

I'm flame curing my bamboo poles. Do I have to remove the nodes inside?

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⭐ Best Answer:

No you do not need to perforate or remove the nodes but you should drill small holes just above the nodes (from the outside of the poles) so the hot steam can escape. Otherwise the bamboo poles may explode when applying heat.

Mold Issues When Drying Split Bamboo

This is James Khan from Northern Bangladesh, Asia. We are working with Bamboo for few years and we do natural sun drying in dry/cold season (Oct to April) for our split bamboo. But we are facing issues of mold/fungal attack during drying and even production during monsoon. So we suspect that our natural drying under direct sun did not season the materials well and moisture locked inside.

May I get your kind suggestion to drying split bamboo? Direct sun drying/ indirect sun drying/process/ techniques etc. Thanks.

Shrinkage of Oven Dried Bamboo

What % of shrinkage does bamboo have while drying over fire or in an oven?

Bamboo Drying Method in Colombia

What is the drying method being adopted in Colombia with tubes running into bamboo? Thanks in advance!

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⭐ Best Answer:

That's a technique called "el Pulpo" (invented by Jörg Stamm). All nodes are perforated inside the bamboo in order to preserve them in large tanks with boron salts. Afterwards hot air is forced through the poles which rapidly reduces the moisture content.

How to Dry Dendrocalamus asper for Making a Beehive?

I have some bamboo hives of the sting-less bee Tetragonisca angustula. I now started researching D. Asper to build homes for this species and others of the sting-less bees.

Some of my work can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvkI-WfS5332s4we892mtgg

My question is which is the best method to dry the bamboo? Some people use torches to apply heat, etc.

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⭐ Best Answer:

Just put the bamboo to dry in the sun (rotate every day to avoid cracking). Flame torching is most suited for small diameter green bamboo, not so much for large diameter bamboo. Sun drying will take about 2 weeks for small sections, but do make sure to use mature Dendrocalamus asper otherwise it will crack easily.

Do Tonkin Canes Need any Treatment if Used for Ski Poles?

I'm making alpine ski poles of tonkin bamboo. Do tonkin canes really need any treatment if they will be used for ski poles? Once they are "converted" into ski poles they will either be stored indoors (usually in a dry place together with the skis) or outdoors in cold and dry conditions on high altitude. Low humidity and not many insects, so do the bamboo then really need any treatment? Looking forward to a reply! Thank you very much!

Treatment for Rain Gutters Made from Bamboo

What kind of treatment would you recommend for rain gutters made from bamboo? Let’s assume you want to collect that rain water for your crops, so no toxic chemicals. For this application, is doing nothing equivalent to using boric acid borax?

Bamboo Surface Treatment

I want to build a bamboo structure in Maharashtra, India with a very moderate rain fall. Would somebody please suggest me relatively inexpensive bamboo surface treatment which will make my structure safe for at least 20 years.

Bamboo Turning Black with Outdoor Use

Hi, we are doing a project using bamboo as facade under intense sun and rain in summer ( subtropical climate). We did the boric borax solution treatment beforehand already, however under the rain season, some selective bamboos are blackened intensely, why is that and what other solutions/ treatments can prevent such situation from happening?

Can Dry Bamboo be Put Into Water for it to be Able to Bend?

Can dry bamboo be put into water for it to be able to bend? I am also building a grapevine trellis, am I able to cement the bamboo poles into the cement, would it last?

How do You Find the Maximum Height of a Bamboo Arch?

How do you find the maximum height of a bamboo arch if you know its length?

Making a Bamboo Fish Mouth Joint

This video from the Technology Institute in Costa Rica shows a basic technique in bamboo construction: the bamboo fish mouth joint. Notice the backslash of the drill in the beginning of the video. Guadua bamboo is a thick walled timber species, so be careful when you try this at home!

Comments:

Reece

Typical reliance on the modern speed tools rather than traditional tools, techniques and skills. This work requires a coping saw and appropriate rasps, not a bunch of hodge-podge reaming with hole saws on electric drills.

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Jason

I had a Japanese scoutmaster in the boyscouts. Making bamboo joints goes notably faster with hand tools.

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Harvey

A man who knows how to really use a machete can do far better, faster, simpler and certainly safer.

Notch the bamboo when green. There is very little waste and the kickback danger shown using power tools is avoided. There is nothing green about the use of power tools.

Hardwood round T's inserted into the dried and treated bamboo allows for expansion from dry to wet season.

As a designer architect I visualize in my work with bamboo it is essentially a post and beam construction.

Bamboo posts in wet locations are treated as if they were hardwood. Pilings are formula cement pours with welded (not wire tied) rebar cages with the bamboo column set into using rebar up through the column and also shooting a slurry of cement (different formula) into the base. This the same concept done to stabilize columns in earthquake/hurricane/tsunami construction. The piling with its rebar armature must be at least one meter into the ground/base with at least five inches of packed small gravel at the bottom of each piling. The ground/foundation area must be packed and left to settle at least one rainy season. The better the pilings the stronger for settling and earthquakes. A distance on center of pilings is = no more than 2.5 meters. Three smaller diameter (3-inch) bamboo columns together equal are the equivalent of 10-inch column if set correctly.

I like the idea of using a wine bottle and will experiment with same.

The Japanese perfected the used of bamboo in small footprint structures, fencing and wall/floor matting. Yet, I would not suggest using these tie and bind methods in a two story shelter in Latin America.

I also would never use a bamboo exterior roofing system in Latin America. The lifespan of a bamboo roof (covering) compared to a double coated metal roof one is about maintenance and safety.

I work in the Pacific southern zone of Costa Rica. Besides the intensity of the rainy season the sea air is a serious factor.

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Noah

I have found that forming a fish-mouth in three steps is fast and accurate. First I cut a 'V' shape to the correct width and depth with a handsaw. Then I use a curved chisel to remove the remaining bits and complete the shape. I check the fit and if there are some high spots I use a round rasp to remove them. This is fast, accurate and requires no electricity - something we rarely have here in Nepal.

"Improving" on traditional techniques is what brought us to high embodied-energy construction. It appears to be human behaviour to constantly modify/improve without consideration of consequences or necessity.

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Filling Bamboo Joints with Cement

I saw some info about creating strong bamboo joints when using Guadua in building construction, especially adding cement to the joints. I recall threaded rod and hardware being used, and possibly rebar as well. I would love to see more detailed info and/or videos about that. Perhaps there are some good videos on the site already that I have missed.

Comments

Paul Westberg

Can't remember where I saw it, but somewhere there was a video on cement filling of bamboo for added strength. The application was for attaching a ring to a pilaster. The PDF on the learning part of this site has the metal hardware demonstrated. The cement was filled into the joint by drilling a hole in the side of the pole and filling it with a mortar applicator (looks like a cake decorating tool). My question would be how long to let it cure and what problems arise from possible discoloration of the cement absorbing into the pole?

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Erik

Filling bamboo poles to reinforce the joints has shown very limited results. The problem arises from the fact that the cement mixture has water in it. So when injected in the bamboo cavity the bamboo sucks up part of the water from the mixture and the bamboo fiber swells up. When the cement or concrete sets it hardens and the bamboo dries. So it shrinks again. Pulling itself loose from the cement core and leaving a capillary opening between the bamboo and the cement. In addition to that, cement is very good at taking pressure-loads, but terrible at tensile strength (pulling). And it is heavy. So making a lightweight construction with bamboo does not seem to make much sense if you want to use heavy cement or concrete joints. Usually the motive for using cement is that it is cheap, and the builder (not being specialized in bamboo building but in general building) knows cement, but lacks the knowledge of using it in combination with bamboo.

There are better alternatives. One of them is using bamboo fiber with a matrix. A matrix is just a glue of some sort that fixes the fiber in place, mostly polymers made by chemical industry. Unfortunately good matrix-es usually do not come cheap and mostly are not very eco-friendly. But technically they are good and reliable. Basically what you do is building an exoskeleton of bamboo fiber held in place with the glue around the connection. Pretty much like you would make a cast around a leg when someone has a broken bone. The best results we had with a pre-woven strip of about 5 cm wide wrapped around the column in a cross overlapping pattern in MANY layers and then saturating it with the polymer. The best result are achieved when assuring both chemical AND mechanical bonding between the matrix and the bamboo. Mechanically is easy: roughen up the contact surface. Chemically is harder. But usually when you use a matrix that is properly absorbed by the bamboo fiber it should be ok. Keep in mind that the outside layer of the bamboo is not just hard by itself, but is hard because it contains a high level of silica. Making it more weather resistant, but also more anti-adhesive. Scraping it of before you apply the fiber and matrix might be a good idea.

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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.

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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?

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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:

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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.

Treatment for Bamboo Poles Buried in Soil

I have a question regarding bamboo treatment. I want to use bamboo poles as structural elements in my ranch but we have water sprinklers to keep certain crops fresh all year. How can we treat the poles in order to keep it in use at least 6 years buried in soil inside the wet ground? Poles will be buried 3 ft in the ground.

Would the bamboo lose strength with time? How do I preserve and extend the lifespan of the bamboo? What would be the lifespan of the bamboo after the preservative treatment? I was thinking to use busan 1009, do you recommend it? Thanks for your comments.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Generally speaking it is not recommended to use bamboo buried in soil for structural purposes. You could use chemicals to extend the lifespan of bamboo buried in soil, but just as most timber, bamboo will eventually deteriorate even if chemically treated.

I have no experience with busan 1009 but what we use to protect bamboo poles in ground contact is tar. Tar or creosote isn't exactly an eco-friendly product, but it is cheap and does provide excellent protection. I recently dug out some bamboo fence posts treated with tar, and they were still intact after 10 years.

The best way though is to chemically preserve the bamboo poles and to design a structure where the bamboo poles don't touch the soil directly. A concrete foot or large rock for example would work great.

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Armando

Thanks Stephane. There is no way to make concrete foundations. We are talking about agro-industry. So, we have a lot of hectares where we want to use bamboo poles. TAR is in Spanish = Chapopote?? A black oil??

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Stéphane Schröder

Tar in Spanish is "Alquitrán". To dissolve the solid tar you can mix it with diesel or gasoline.

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Keirj

I tend to bury bamboo posts then lash the structures to these footings. This allows the footings to degrade in the soil and then be replaced periodically.

Fire Resistant Protection for Structural Bamboo

I have a question for my research, what would be the best preservation technique to use on structural bamboo? It needs to be fire resistant too. Will a boric acid-borax solution suffice? Or would an additional clear external intumescent coating help? What do you guys think? Thanks in advance. I appreciate the information you guys put here Guadua Bamboo.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Yes, boron is fire retardant but for even more protection you could use the following formula: boric acid / copper sulphate / zinc chloride / sodium dichromate : ratio 3:1:5:6 Recommended concentration is 25% for indoor and outdoor use.

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Lily

Dear Stephane, how to apply the mixture of boric acid ? Must the bamboo be soaked in the mix? Or simply applied on the surface of the bamboo? Thank you very much.

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Stéphane Schröder

Hello Lily, yes the bamboo poles should be submerged. The outer layer of bamboo doesn't absorb fluids, only the inner part.

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Lily

Thanks for the answer, Stephane. I have more questions: how long should the bamboo be submerged? What is its level of fire resistance? If you have made a test, how did you test the bamboo?

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Fray

Hello, I would like to know how much protection does the formula give to bamboo. I mean in terms of time and temperature? Have you made tests?