Building Material 8: Bamboo

Decorative bamboo has long been fashionable in home design, and bamboo floors are beginning to become popular in the United States. In Asia and South America, houses are frequently made out of the wood. Bamboo is an extremely strong wood, so much so that it's being used for highway and bridge construction in Asia.

This strong wood is a renewable resource because it's one of the fastest growing plants. It has a shorter growing cycle than timber, and harvesting bamboo does not affect the roots of the plant. Bamboo does have to be treated with some chemicals in order to ensure that it's waterproof and insect-resistant, and it requires some different building methods, particularly in joining different pieces of bamboo. However, bamboo is an extremely flexible building device because it bends, and it's immensely durable.

Bamboo isn't the only wood solid enough for building houses. If you use the natural building material described on the next page, you'll wind up with a home halfway between a castle and a log cabin.