I have a client who wants a tiki hut with a thatched roof. I have found bamboo poles up to five inch dia. available online.
Has anybody here done this? What is the best way to make the connections? I was thinking hole-saws and using smaller dia. poles maybe glued into the larger poles.
This is in a northeast climate, and we are both wondering about durability of the bamboo. We will probably go with a synthetic on the thatch, as natural only lasts 3-5 years, apparently.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks
Bear
Replies
The traditional bamboo building uses wet twine wrapped around the joints. Google on <<Building with bamboo tying knots>> for some links to various sources on that. Here's one that gave good references: http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-211.html
There's a colombian architect named simon velez (sp?) who builds amazing structures out of bamboo.
iirc, he drills a hole into a cell, fills it with grout, and bolts through it to the cross piece, which is similarly filled. (the cells are hollow between the growth rings).
k
Why not lash all the connections together?
It'll look good and be plenty strong.
Many years ago in the boy scouts, we used to build 30' tall observation towers with nothing but logs and lashing.
We even built a small, functioning ferris wheel this way! Logs and rope, period.
Because it'll be out in the weather for years, I'd use a synthetic rope.
If you need info on lashing techniques, look up a boy scout manual...buic
Thanks for the replies. Lashing seems like a good way to go. Time to finally learn a few more knots!Bear
There is a professor at NC State, Will Hooker, who builds all kind of structures and art pieces from bamboo, and he mostly uses zip ties from what I have seen.His email is easy to find if you google for him (I'll not put it here for fear of causing him a deluge of spam) and he has been responsive to me in the past. He has traveled around the world and worked on some really interesting projects with bamboo.My (uninformed) thought is you could use zip ties to get everything together and then put lashing over that for both appearance and strength.
Good idea on the zip ties. Thanks.Bear
another artist who uses sculpts with branches is Patrick Dougherty (you might peruse his site for tips or inspiration)
http://www.stickwork.net/installations.php
"Tiki" huts are made here all the time. The structural members are peeled cypress poles about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. No way would I take the time and effort to thatch a bamboo frame.