Home & Garden...

In my last post we looked at the Pros of Bamboo Building. What are the negatives? Well, yesterday I mentioned the look; which like I said is a little too tropical for me, but it might suit you. Visual issues aside (that's so personal), there are some other bamboo negatives to consider before you dive into building an entire bamboo house.

Green Home Building notes that joinery can be an issue since, "Its strength comes from its integral structure; it cannot be joined with many of the traditional techniques used with wood." You can get around this issue by working with a bamboo building expert though.

Bamboo can dull your tools due to large amounts of silica found in it.

Wet and bamboo don't go as well together as you might think. If you stick bamboo into wet soil it can cause big problems. Special care needs to be taken during the building process.

Bamboo will go up in flames super quick. I.e. it's a highly combustible building material. Uh oh.

Bamboo is unique. This is why I love some bamboo floors and furniture pieces so much - it's unique. However, that's not so great for home building. Because sizes of bamboo vary so much it can cause building problems.

You'll need to use chemicals to protect bamboo from weather extremes.

Bamboo is not as straight as timber or even logs. It can taper. It's hard enough to build with perfectly dimensional lumber so, it's going to take extra care and skill to build well with wood that won't always stay flat.

As with any material, you should research bamboo fully before deciding to build with it.