Pre-Engineered Bamboo Homes Enter The US Market
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.26.07
Bamboo Technologies, previously noted on TreeHugger for sponsoring a design competition, has moved their bamboo. And we want one. Favorite design, of those pictured on their website, is the Pavilion (pictured). 'Dad, can my friends and I have a sleepover on the porch, without the air conditioning. Dad... please?' Fabulous idea to put the pavilion on stilts - bamboo bending in storm winds, above the flood flow, people smiling. From the BT site specs: "Interior space is 707 sqft. [Bigger than a FEMA trailer.] An optional cupola or vented skylight adds extra light." "The 9' Extended Porch covering a 6 ft deck area is optional and provides 717 sqft of outside deck area." Insulation options are laid out here. Our second favorite (pictured below the fold) is the "EcoHome," with lower floor designed for integrated straw bale wall construction. Now we just need to grow some structural BOO here in the US and figure out how to termite-proof those uprights.
It's lovely! But where's the plasma TV? The game room? The reclining chair with the built-in NASCAR mini-fridge?
Looks like the finished product with the porch and everything goes up to $150K.
Sounds like a hell of a lot to me, at least for this kind of prefab house.
Is that because the US is importing the bamboo, I wonder?
My nieghbor is putting the finishing touches on his bamboo bungalow (say that 5 times real fast), 2 bd rms +++ and it is Saweeeeeet. $5K
Bamboo has some longevity issues to accept.
I'm a proud owner of one of Bamboo Technologies homes and I can tell you that it's an absolute joy to live in. Mine was the first bamboo house on Maui to get a building permit, home insurance and a mortgage and others have followed. All of which advances the concept of a house built out of bamboo from just a great idea into a provable success.
And the response from visitors is extraordinary; every single person who comes to visit this house comments about how warm and inviting it is, how friendly and comfortable, which is what I wanted in a home.
I also wanted affordability and flexibility and I got both. My house cost no more than if I had used the cheapest locally available building materials and methods and what I got looks a whole lot better than an econobox and it's enormously eco-friendly as well. Also, because of the modular design, I was able to start with one structure and over the course of a few years add two additional connected structures that tied together seamlessly.
We had a good size earthquake here last year too and the house performed perfectly.
Bamboo Technologies treats their structural bamboo with a Borate solution to harden it and to make it unattractive to insects and that too has performed beautifully - absolutely no insect damage. The exterior bamboo is painted with Cetol, a marine grade varnish, and that too has weathered perfectly, I don't see any degrading in that protection at all. So there's no reason to think that this bamboo house won't outlast my neighbor's.
Like I said, my Bamboo Technologies home was a great idea and it's proven to me to be a fabulous choice.