Thread: Alternative Roofing Materials

The Chinese roof looks interesting (not sure about the mats) but what's to stop them getting eaten by whatever eats bamboo?

Originally Posted by benlovesnuk

i must be really stupid

Spot on.

How long would this last before it needed to be replaced?

The bamboo plate is a laminate which is machine pressed by vacuum with the outside being a water resistant plastic, this should lead to no fraying of fibers or unexpected leaks. In theory, even due to heavy weathering these should last an incredibly long time, and unlike iron it wont rust. But as to them being eaten they should not smell or taste like a natural bamboo because of the machine pressing so i would say this is highly unlikely as rats and other beasts would find it very difficult to eat.

thanks marmite you are as acute as you are ugly.......

so all in all as a more biodegradable but incredibly strong seal for your roof this act as a very good channel an source for collecting water for use as gray water int he home and as protection against weathering, all in all not half bad........

Of course you can actually grow bamboo on your land and after a minimum of 5 years it can be ready to use as a building material, also in between this it can be eaten or used to make any number of utensils, instruments or objects:
eco friedly an dissapointingly very hard to break for all those rockers out there, bamboo guitar!!!!!

for those of you with children im sure a ride in one of these stremlined buggies would be a lot of fun......


And of course what we are all here to see exceptionally creative design and stability for both structure ...........

privacy in the garden



privacy when you are entertaining ladies in your jacuzzi


all of this can be grown directly from your land and for free apart from seeding and maintainance...............

me thinks not bad at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that tunnel thing ahs given me some idees!

good im glad that there's something of interest for you gentlemen, here's another quick look into using bamboo to maximise efficiency and lower costs......





using more modern joints to connect mutiple bamboo poles like below:



much less bamboo can be used to create roof structures but still impose rigid strength through the connection points, this is also faster to do rather then building up with lots of different sized pieces.


An important feature in tropical thailand is the use of eaves or overhangs on roofs to allow rainwater to be dispensed away from the house to areas of garden, or to suitable drainage bamboo can be erected quickly as a way to serve this purpose adding a more naturalistic look ...............

ben are you australian by any chance? tottally unrelated i know, but im loving the pics mate keep it up

no not an aussie, im from england, why do you ask????????

it has long been a determination of mine, to understand building materials and techniques so as to best construct something as economical and as grandly beautiful as i can!
My own personal opinion about generic concrete houses is that most people use there inexperience in a way to justify the term "cheap to build" as a way of not really exploring the potential of building a house, even to a western standard (though this to me is somewhat subjective in meaning) by other such means as to make something vernacular, that stands out in its own right!

The fact that thailands climate allows us to not necessarily build 4 walls of concrete and to have outdoor-indoor living areas is something that i dont really see being used in a lot of buildings here on the forum. The need to apply, same techniques and similarly derived techniques from our own country can sometimes be too hard to shake from our heads when considering a build. However i do see a constant within peoples comments about building which mainly revolve around the economy of the build, how cheap, and also size of land and of internal space.

Some of the best characteristics of old traditional wood buildings is that they can be, at leisure or when your household grows in number, easily added to! It is one of the many benefits of building with natural materials that they can easily be changed to accompany new buildings with ease thus size grows with time and finance.

However lets keep the ball rolling with some more pics.......................

Bravo, Ben. Keep us thinking. Green on the way.

In theory, even due to heavy weathering these should last an incredibly long time, and unlike iron it wont rust. But as to them being eaten they should not smell or taste like a natural bamboo because of the machine pressing so i would say this is highly unlikely as rats and other beasts would find it very difficult to eat

Not sure about that. The climate in Thailand is going to hammer those sheets and I'd imagine that they'd be exposed pretty quickly - are they really going to last more than a couple of years? Like you, I'm interested in natural building techniques and I plan to build a place here next year using either rammed earth or straw/clay (yet to decide and it depends to a certain extent on what the land is like) so I'm interested in avoiding the tile/sheet route but haven't been able to come up with anything realistic yet. I looked at bamboo shingles but these don't seem to last more than a few years and the although the thought of redoing the roof in 5 years time isn't too bad, I can't see myself doing this when I'm 60.

There is a lot of interesting architecture being unveiled worldwide using bamboo soley as the main component to build, to connect bamboo poles with such traditional methods as;

using tied rope to secure the joints


this is done by cutting out 2 sides with a machete allowing a channel to made for the resting pole






To add roof tiles of bamboo in a traditional fashion lengths are cut flat and each pole they are then split in the middle down the two vertical sides and at a connecting point this is opened and it allows to be used as a hook to link to the cross beam.

using bamboo strip to amazing effect and sturdiness



using more modern materials to connect isnt necessarily better, however what it does allow is to create more effective and conceptual ways of new exciting structures to form and evolve;


using bolts to secure poles to beam supports;

all of these things can be combined to make building such as these;

Dan - i think you underestimate the compound strength that both bamboo and this machining gives the tile!
They are literally rock solid in terms of quality and wear and tear, i have not seen or heard of any other product that comes close to this.

However if your thinking of building a cob structure then your ability to put a roof on it is wide ranging, it depends on shape, size and therefore cost but bamboo can be easily made for the framework and tiles and is very very cheap!

If done well it will last a very long time, will be natural in look and sustainable, it is also cheap to repair.

I have a decent knowledge concerning adobe, cob (clay,sand mix) so if you have any queries feel free to ask!

The best word of advice is actually to build the roof first as this will be the most expensive single piece of building, it allows for shelter if in rain season so your cob mix does not ruin half way through building!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So are the pressed bamboo sheets available in Thailand? Do you know any suppliers here? Costs?

I had thought vaguely of a living roof, which would be fine during the rainy season but for six months of the year you're going to have an ugly lump of baked clay sitting on top of your house.

Cob isn't my main interest. I think the house is either going to be rammed earth (looks beautiful) or straw/clay (great thermal properties). Do you have any experience of either of these?

thanks everyone for their contributions.......im glad there is interest in this field!

dan - cob is clay and sand so im unsure of what you mean to not identify it by the same means?

Any kind of natural build will consist of certain particular guide lines and these are further defined by how far and to what extreme you want it to be a green sustainable build and your budget.
The same is true of rammed earth buildings, they are by matter of materials used and technique exactly the same as cobbing, so again am unsure as to why you think there would be a difference?
here is a typical example of rammed earth building:


here is the method to how it is constructed:


principally there is no actual difference to the soil content apart from a slight change to percentage where cob would typically use a 15-25% capacity and sand(more specially aggregate - larger grain) between 65-70 % with the adding of straw or bamboo strip to bind it together creating the full mix!

you still have to ram cob and cut away like rammed earth building so the two are most identical in all factors.

i hope this gives you a bit more confidence in my ability to help you by a brief explanation here, any more info dan please ask freely and i will do my best to pragmatically instruct and advise!

Originally Posted by benlovesnuk

no not an aussie, im from england, why do you ask????????

i know an oz called ben with a thai gf named nuk, thats all mate

great thread you got running here, so your thinking of building with bamboo then?

Ben - It's true that cob, adobe, rammed earth, etc all have similarities but there are important differences, both in terms of how you build and in what you end up with. Cob involves a mixture of clay and sand combined with straw, hair, animal shit of some kind or some other agent to help bind the earth mixture. It's built up in rough layers by hand. These are usually shaved to a smooth finish and it isn't rammed. Walls tend to be massive with high thermal mass and relatively low insulation and rely on the interlocking fibres for strength. Rammed earth is quite different. As your diagrams show, it's basically building a kind of quick setting rock. Because the walls are - unlike cob - constructed in shuttering, the appearance is quite different. Structural properties are also quite different - I believe rammed earth is much weaker than cob in lateral movement. Also, the walls usually contain no organic material. Straw/clay is different again. Using cob and rammed earth you end up with monolithic, load-bearing walls. Straw/clay is infill for traditional beam and post structures. Straw is mixed with a thin clay slip and packed between shuttering. Once it's dry, the shuttering is removed and the walls plastered. Unlike the other two methods, it has low thermal mass but high insulation (your walls are largely air), making it more appropriate for tropical climates. Unfortunately, the technique involves building almost all your house out of organic material and so you run of the risk of having the whole thing eaten by termites. The differences between the three methods are significant in terms of the interior climate of the finished house and in terms of the skills necessary to do the building work (rammed earth being the most technically difficult).

Anyway, I'm still kind of curious about the bamboo sheets. Are these available in Thailand , do you know?

Bamboo compressed sheets are available, in all thicknesses from 4mm up, same as any sheeting

cost of a 8' x 4' sheet is about B350 for 4mm, maybe around B800 for a 12mm

sorry, cant remember exactly. I have used it to line my wooden house

Ben, I'm looking at doing something very similar to you and roofing is a bit of a dilemma. Our shack at the moment has old tin which we covered in thatching. It's great for insulation, just like being under a tree. But the rats love it and make houses under the thatch.

I'm seriously considering thatch, there's a variety made from wider leaves which lasts much longer (up to 10 yrs I was told, dunno though). Thatch is lightweight, great insulation, cheap, very renewable and can look great, especially when done with bamboo.

On the downside though the water collected from it is no good, rats and other animals love it, your roof needs a steep pitch and it doesn't last too long. Also, the beetles quickly attack the bamboo rods and I would be worried about them moving from the thatch into my bamboo structure (even though the bamboo would be borax treated).

The bamboo corrugated sheets are very interesting, I think we will see a lot of them in the future. As for the split bamboo culms for roofs, these won't last long at all, probably less than 12 months.

Bamboo is great stuff no doubt and mud building is becoming more popular here - cheap, eco sound and suited to the climate. I've just bought the book Bamboo: Gift of the Gods, after shipping it was $200, but considering the investment of building a home I think it's worth it.

This mud and brick school in Bangladesh has won several architecture awards

^ Found a bit more on the school on the internet - what a fantastic building. I think I may shamelessly copy some of their ideas. Thanks for the lead.

Have you found a way of preserving your bamboo yet? I saw some of your posts (or at least I assume their yours) on other forums.

Dan i would disagree with your statement, and only in the case to maybe readjust your opinion back to cob!

As you say if rammed earth has more complexity then cob, would it not suit you better...... and maybe by me explaining some of what you've said which i believe to be slightly incorrect in method, then maybe you can see why cob would be a better more preferred choice instead!

cob is rammed, like rammed earth - (which is the same mixture of clay and sand , like i said just a different percentage mix and with a binding component such as straw)

it has to be rammed for the same purpose rammed earth has to be, this is so it compacts as it has to be laid in stages like rammed earth, this is to bind the soil mix together to give it overall strength.

The ramming is done by hand with a wooden tool, it can also be done with human stamping too. however if this was not done, as you seemed to suggest, then the cob would not set well and not create a strong wall!

I agree with you on the principal of there being small differences in aesthetic, cob can be left untreated but in reality a lime render will give a nicer finish. you can also use bamboo cane and wire in the render so that the cob wall has a certain natural movement in such instances like earth quakes, it also allows for a greater overall strength in the wall.

rammed earth in particular, and as they do with concrete here, set there support or wall mix but ram it with the desired tool, however the principal make-up of soil and in building construction as a whole I still find relevant and would say that both are the same in regards to sustainable building. I dont think either technique varies so much that they require a different knowledge or skill to deal with each separately and can be covered and understood as a whole!


Both in my mind and as ive seen are simple to do, cheap and create natural living buildings. Im unsure as to your wording there-in to the end there seems to be a loss of coherence to what does what, however i will try to endeavor to reason your wording!

most cob building will have all walls typically thick that they could be load bearing, if you take into consideration that the outer wall would be somewhere in the region of upto 90 cms thick. partition walls also tend to have an increased thickness to that of modern homes built with brick, where the width would be as wide as 65cm, this is especially true with multiple stories (3+ levels). i dont really understand what you mean about eating with termites and to which technique this would happen with, if your saying that you dont render rammed earth and that this could be a threat with this technique more so a reason for going with cob.

What seems most strange is your comment on internal temperature within all structures, if we take the ones i know we're talking about rammed earth and cob, then in a tropical climate which seems a bit ambiguous a statement (as this can change substantially from southern to central and northern terrain in thailand) that i will compare purely the internal temperature.

If you use cob and rammed earth in terms of design, following techniques for cooling then both techniques would give exactly the same fundamental temperature, this is because they should in principle be thick/cumbersome and yet both absorb heat so as to reduce internal temps. the more mass the more heat will be absorbed, so in this being just one of many conditions that exact internal temps. then im confused by what you mean.

maybe it was just in the way that you had written to the end that i am mistaken but please feel free to add to this post so to discuss and get to the bottom of what we seem to both have a high regard for but have different concepts on how they are used and of benefit!!!!!!!!!

anyway thanks for the interest any more for anymore most welcome and all taken

smithson as we have talked about before, you seemt o have a great worry about your house being eaten, when you say your building out of bamboo this isnt code for


and when you say your building a bamboo house are yous sure it doesnt resemble something like this;

because frankly if you do then forget the rats, you going have more problems from kids, homeless dogs etc etc

anyway i think thatch is good for all the mentioned reasons you stated

It looks great as below




i would say that if you want to use rainwater for gray water so its free that you maybe go with something else as i would probably say that thatch would not give you the best results overall. I mean you could use something like the bamboo sheets and use a thin layer of weaved bamboo thatch this might work very well! You could just build the structure out of bamboo and use wooden shingle or bamboo shingle???? It depends greatly on size, are you having a bare roof or creating an attic?????

you can obviously stop heat from coming through your roof with thin insulating materials however have high ceilings and the proper overall design and function of natural ventilation should not make having to infer the need for great insulating properties in the ceiling itself. Indeed the ceiling has to be of two main benefits keeping water out and water away from the house, having the right sort of ventilation to increase and maximize cooling.

Having you building in a certain shape and having a configuration of inlets and outlets for cross ventilation will also secure a more cooler environment inside.

To me it is really the combined efforts of the house as a whole that will do this not just one piece.....