Corrugated bamboo roofing sheets are an environmentally friendly alternative to metal or plastic roofing sheets. They are made by weaving bamboo strips into mats, soaking the mats in adhesive resin, and pressing them together under heat and pressure to form sturdy, water-resistant sheets. Research showed that bamboo sheets provide better thermal insulation than zinc, plastic, or asbestos sheets. Bamboo also has higher bending and impact strength, making it a durable roofing material. Several government-funded projects in India have promoted the use of corrugated bamboo sheets for construction.

1. Corrugated Bamboo
Roofing Sheets
SUBMITTED BY-UTKARSH
DWIVEDI
B.ARCH SEM III-B
ENROLMENT NO.-
A8304013046

2. What are Corrugated Bamboo
Roofing Sheets?
Corrugated bamboo roofing sheets (CBRS)
are an excellent alternative to corrugated
metal, plastic or asbestos roofing sheets.
They are produced from a natural and
sustainable resource and can be used to
cover homes, storage facilities, animal
pens and many other temporary or
permanent structures.

3. How are Corrugated Bamboo
Roofing Sheets Made?
• CBRS is made from several layers of
woven bamboo mats. These woven mats
are impregnated with an adhesive resin
and pressed together between two
specially designed corrugated pressing
plates. The sheets can be produced in a
range of sizes to suit particular
requirements and can easily be trimmed
for special applications.

4. • The main materials used are bamboo slivers
to produce the mats, and adhesive resin in
which to soak the mats. A resin applicator is
needed, and a drying chamber is optional.
Corrugated pressing plates for the hot press
are of course essential.
The process of producing CBRS involves 6 steps:
• Bamboos are split into thin slivers.
• Slivers are woven into mats.
• Mats are soaked in adhesive resin.
• Mats are allowed to drain and dry.
• Mats are glued together under high
temperature and pressure.
• Sheets are trimmed to shape.

5. PRECAUTION
• An important precaution to be taken in
making mats for BMCS production is that
slivers with the glossy (epidermal) layer
should be avoided as they are resistant to
bonding. Such slivers can however be
used in basketry etc.
• The moisture content (m.c) of freshly
woven mats is in the range of 40% -50%.
On drying them in sun, the m.c is
generally about 12% - 15%. If transport
and or storage is more than one month it
is advisable to undertake prophylactic
treatment. The simplest and significantly
effective treatment for mats, provided
they are not exposed to drying, is
spraying with 1% solution of mixture of
boric acid and borax in the ratio of 1:1.
Spraying can be done by hand or
knapsack sprayer. This will not have any
adverse effect on bonding. The mats
should be dried after prophylactic

6. Joinery details
BMCS are anchored to
bamboo purlins
Using J bolts
Detail showing how
BMCS are joined to
bamboo purlins using J
bolts at the crest
BMCS should be bolted at
crest not trough. Detail showing overlap of
BMCS .

7. Accessories can be used to resolve corners
and joints problems.
Complete house with BMCS roofing

8. Main advantages of CBRS
• Bamboo roofing sheets are
environmentally friendly and a safe
alternative to plastic, zinc or corrugated
asbestos roofing panels.
• They have the same standard
measurements as conventional
corrugated roofing sheets.
• Bamboo roofs are quieter in the rain and
cooler in the sun than conventional metal
or plastic sheets. A study has shown that
cows in sheds roofed with bamboo yield
more milk than those under corrugated
zinc sheets because of the cooler
environment.
• Bamboo sheets are durable and strong
with excellent internal bond strengths and
a high resistance to weathering, fire or
insect attacks.
• They have an attractive and natural
appearance and are easy to work with

9. Comparing CBRS Materials
How do bamboo corrugated roofing sheets
compare to zinc, plastic or asbestos roofing
sheets? The following study compares the
mechanical properties and performance
differences between the four different
materials.

10. 1. Thermal Transmission Performance
MATERIAL THERMAL
RESISTANCE(m²K/W)
Coefficient of
thermal
transmission
W/(m²K)
Bamboo 0.030 5.2
Zinc 0.012 6.2
Plastic 0.007 6.4
Asbestos 0.019 5.9
Bamboo has the highest thermal
resistance and the lowest thermal
transmission coefficient, therefore,
bamboo has the best thermal
isolation properties compared to the
other three materials.

11. 2. Density and Water Absorption Properties
Material Density (g/cm³) Water absorption
ratio (%)
Bamboo 0.71 36.7
Plastic 1.56 1.7
Asbestos 1.60 21.1
Bamboo has the lowest density and the
highest water absorption ratio compared
to plastic and asbestos which may
influence its durability in exterior use.
However, this characteristic is easy to
overcome when using better resins in
the production process or by applying
a coated outer layer.

12. 3. Bending Strength
Because zinc and plastic sheets are too thin
to determine its strength properties, the
determination was done with bamboo and
asbestos sheets only.
Material Flexural
strength(MPa)
Bamboo 39.72
Asbestos 31.91
The results have shown that bamboo has a
higher bending strength than corrugated
asbestos board, and would be greatly
superior to plastic sheets. This means that
corrugated bamboo roofing sheets can
endure larger long-time loads in
employment.

13. 4. Impact strength
Material Impact strength(MPa)
Bamboo 9.93
Asbestos 2.55
Corrugated bamboo roofing sheets
have an excellent impact strength.
They bare a much higher instant
striking force compared to asbestos
sheets.

14. Building Materials & Technology
Promotion Council (BMTPC)
• Under a project funded by BMTPC a
technology for manufacturing BMCS
has been developed at IPIRTI(indian
plywood industries research and
training institute) where pilot
scale/experimental BMCS production
facility has also been established and
commercial scale of production has
been established at M/s. Timpack Pvt.
Ltd., Byrnihat, Meghalaya.
• More than 2000 BMCS made at the pilot

15. Some of them are;-
• a rain shelter at the National Zoo, New
Delhi;
• specially designed terrace café at the
DFID India office, New Delhi;
• pantry near Glass House at Karnataka
Raj Bhawan, Bangalore; (Ar.neelam
Manjunatth)
• Bamboo houses constructed at
Bangalore under DFID funded project
“Bamboo Shelter Demonstration of
Best Construction Practices”
implemented by IPIRTI in
collaboration with TRADA Technology
of UK.
.