Many housing builders in an attempt to finding a lasting solution to high cost of building materials have resulted to embrace bamboo instead of iron rods for the construction of houses, especially bungalow and other construction with minimum loads.
Nigeria is a third world country with a massive population of 200million and a per capital income of less than 3000 us dollars. As a result of the above mentioned factors, majority of Nigerians cannot own or live in a well built home especially now that fores has made all building materials go up.
The problem of affordable housing may also be traced to lack of mortgaged scheme and lack of locally available cheap materials but thanks to bamboo, the wonder plant of the 19th century.
Bamboo is a giant grass with a very rapid growth rate, it is structurally sound because of its hollow nature and a renewable building material which can also prevent the environment from difforestation.
bamboo is used extensively in south east Asia countries and south America to provide affordable and aesthetically pleasing houses.
Nigerians have again shown they can adjust to any situation in life especially when the country’s economy is in bad shape. Food and other necessities are hard to come by.
However, no matter what turn the economy takes, Nigerians, by their flexible nature, will always find survival alternatives.
That is why although it sounds unthinkable to see, anywhere in the world, where bamboos are used in place of irons to cast pillars and decking of building constructions, Nigeria has found in convenient.
The high cost of building materials is making many homeowners go for cheap alternatives for construction.
While many Nigerians whose buildings are under construction are abandoning them, waiting for when prices of materials will go down, most frustrated ones are selling off their uncompleted properties to interested buyers.
But others have decided to invent conventional means by replacing iron rods with bamboo.
Newsmen discovered that home construction engineers now use bamboo, laced with construction wires to cast decking and pillars of buildings.
Usually, for such buildings, Iron rods are used in these areas to create rigidity and firmness.
Bamboo, a woody plant with hollow stems is in the grass family. It is always used for scaffolding in tall buildings replacing steel irons merged together with screws.
According to Mr. Andrew Asaga, a building engineer, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, 25mm, 10mm, or 8mm iron rods are recommended for building apartments depending on the strength of the material and the designs specified.
He added: “Bamboo can also do the job of an iron rods to an extent. “Some persons now use only bamboo for the pillars. “Some mix bamboo with iron rods for the decking to save cost. “Others now use only bamboo for decking. “An iron rod costs between 30,000 to N40,000 depending on the size. “This was twice the price it was sold for last year.
– Isaac Abimbade
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