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Bamboo clears
building hurdle
A Maui firm hopes the material
will catch on for home construction
across the country
WAILUKU » A Maui-based firm hopes wood often used for fishing poles will hook thousands of prospective home builders nationally.
Bamboo Technologies has obtained approval from a national testing firm to use Vietnamese bamboo, known as tregai, in construction. This clears the way for its use for the first time as structural housing material in building codes throughout the United States.
The certification means the bamboo, known scientifically as Bambusa stenostachya, could be used in the construction of structures following the standards of the International Code Council.
Maui County building codes administrator Ralph Nagamine said he had not received formal word on the certification, but once approved, the use of the bamboo would be applied in all jurisdictions that employ ICC standards, which is the majority of the counties in the United States.
"It's not just going to be a Hawaii thing," Nagamine said. "It's going to be throughout the country."
The International Code Council has about 6,000 members in the United States, including counties, states and cities that will be receiving formal notification of the use of the bamboo standard in a few weeks, ICC official Kurt Stochlia said.
Stochlia said under the specifications established by the ICC, the tregai bamboo could be used as structural components for the walls and trusses, in place of traditional timber.
"I think the time has come for it to move a little further to the forefront as a building material," said Stochlia, vice president of external operations for the evaluation service. "I think it's a great product."
Stochlia said while bamboo as a building material is considered a novelty item in the United States, it is used extensively to build homes in Asia. He said the evaluation service conducted a variety of tests on tregai bamboo, including its ability to endure weight stresses.
The tregai bamboo, about 3 inches in diameter with a thickness of three-quarters of an inch, is embedded in some places by bolted L-shaped steel plates to meet required hurricane and earthquake stresses.
"This is incredibly thick-walled bamboo," said Robert Henrikson, the firm's chief executive officer. "The hole in the middle is quite small."
The firm funded research for nine years to certify bamboo as a home-building material in the United States, in conjunction with the Maui-based nonprofit International Bamboo Foundation.
Before the certification, Bamboo Technologies built about 20 bamboo structures on the Valley Isle but was required to receive an exemption for each dwelling from the county Board of Code Appeals.
The bamboo is treated in Vietnam to eliminate termites and beetles.
Henrikson said the firm began building bamboo homes 10 years ago, the first in Huelo in East Maui, and the structure still looks good.
"We know there are structures in Japan made 200 years ago, so it has the potential of lasting long," he said.
Firm co-founder David Sands, an architect, said the compression and bending strength of the bamboo is about twice as much as the Douglas fir.
"It's quite a high-quality material," Sands said. "It's just never been used in the West."
Sands said the bamboo, which is a grass, grows to harvest maturity in about three years, compared with 40 years for fir trees.
Sands said the bamboo also takes up less space in cultivation than fir trees.
"The amazing thing about it is it's grown in tropical climates," he said. "It has the potential to be grown in Hawaii."
Henrikson said the firm provides prefabricated kits and technical consultants for the construction, which takes about three to five days.
Henrikson said the homes are comparable in price to traditional Western dwellings and that the kits range from a 100-square-foot dwelling that sells for $12,000 to a 2,000-square-foot house for $97,000.
The firm also offers prefabricated guest houses, vacation rentals, pavilions and gazebos on its Web site at www.bambooliving.com.
