Although bamboo is a great sustainable material, it has a number of disadvantages. One major disadvantage of bamboo is its poor resistance to fungi and bacteria. It is sensitive to attack from insects. So it must be treated against them, otherwise, the material has a very short life. The second disadvantage is joint, although there are a number of bamboo joint techniques, their structural efficiency is low. There is a lack of design guidance, the structural calculations and construction permits are difficult to obtain. There are some principles to pick bamboo. The first one is do not use green, fresh cut bamboo. Bamboo has to be completely dry before using it in construction. In addition, air dried is the best way to dry bamboo. During the drying process the bamboo diameter shrinks, so if incomplete dry bamboo is used in joinery this will result in losing and weak joints after a few weeks. Furthermore, bamboo which is less than 3 years of age should not be used. Only use mature bamboo of 4-6 years. Bamboo that has flourished should not be used. Rest assured bamboo only flourishes once in a life time (60-120 years). It is important to use bamboo nodes because it is the strong point of a bamboo pole. If a bamboo column or beams do not have a node at both ends, the bamboo may crush.
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