Preservative treatment of bamboo, rubber wood and coconut palm. Simple methods for treating building timbers

Abstract

Bamboo has age-old connections with the basic needs of the people in several regions of the world. In some countries every village and often every household has its own bamboo clumps for supplying bamboo for their needs (Fig. 1). Most bamboo however grows in forests and bamboo plantations that are now common in many countries. Bamboo is used for building constructions, scaffolding, fencing, ladders, pipes, tool handles, furniture, mats, baskets and for numerous other purposes. Deterior-ation by insects and rot fungi is the chief drawback of bamboo in most of these uses. Natural durability of bamboo Bamboo is very susceptible to attack by termites, wood-boring insects and fungi including soft rot fungi. Durability of untreated bamboo is generally low and depends largely on the climatic conditions, and environment. In general, it may be said that bamboo in contact with the ground, e.g. posts, are destroyed by fungi and termites in 6 months to 2 yrs. Bamboo under cover but not in contact with the ground lasts from 2 to 7 yrs. Some variation in natural durability between different species of bamboo has also been observed. For example, Dendrocalamus /ongispathus is slightly more resistant to termites than D. strictus. Guadua angustifolia of Ecuador apparently