How to Estimate the Cost of a Bamboo Building

Welcome, welcome. And if you have been dreaming about building with bamboo, about sustainable design, or you just love learning how to build with beautiful things, with nature, let me tell you what, you are in the right place. So, welcome to Bamboo.

My name is Luis and today we're going to talk about numbers because many times our community ask how to estimate the cost of a bamboo building, how we get those numbers, how we cost, what's the price on that, what's the price on the materials, how you estimate the labor and all of that. So four years in Bamboo, we've been sharing what we have learned about bamboo construction. We've uh shared it in person. We've shared it online and now we are sharing it here with you. So um if you're ready to learn, build and be inspired, tap the subscribe button and join us. Let me know if in the chat you have um ever worked with bamboo before.

So, how much does this cost to build with the bamboo? And honestly, honestly, there's no uh quicker answer. I will walk you through the steps to estimate the cost of the construction. So, I'm going to share a few lessons also that I've learned the hard way so you don't make the same mistake I did when coasting bamboo buildings. So building with bamboo is completely different from building with concrete, building with steel or even timber. Have you ever tried um estimating a bamboo building per square meter? For example, we used to cost that with concrete and steel. People and contractors will get here and and they will say like, "Okay, give me the price per square meter. give me the price um just like that so I can calculate it." But really it doesn't work like that. So calculating and working with a bamboo construction you can't really calculate it per square meter like a conventional way. Um because there's many reasons uh bamboo is um natural material. Every pole is unique. Every design um has its own personality and that's what makes bamboo so special.

So you might be wondering how do I even start with costing? Well, let's break it into three different steps. First one will be material. The second one will be labor and also planning. But let's think about why we were saying that it's not that easy to calculate per square meter. So let's say for example that you have a floor plan a very simple floor plan that you will have just a square and we will take an example for example the back of house that we have here. So if you have this um this project that then you will have like a some spaces and modules here. Yes, you can calculate the dimension that you have here. Oops. By the dimension that you have here also and then calculate the square meters. But then imagine that you have an organic shape and that organic shape it has some elements and some columns here. And that organic shape here if you sort of unroll the shape the square meters are going to be way more. So also by understanding how this floor plan just the square meters that you have in the floor plan then overall the shape will be even bigger. So that way you can't really calculate per square meter. You can enroll the surface. Yes. But also just think about how you start uh understanding the surfaces.

So the first step that we were mentioning is to work with the bill of materials. So think this as a cake. For example, if you're planning to cook and to bake a cake, you can just start without knowing how much uh flour, how much how many eggs or sugar you need, right? It really depends on how big you're going to do it. And it's the same with bamboo. So, first you will need a clear design. And from that then you will create a structural and scale model just like this one that I can show you here. This scale model of back of house is a clear example of how you scale this project and understand how many pieces you will get from this. So there are going to be like some questions regarding the material that you will use. So what species of bamboo will you use? That will really depend on the dendrocalamus asper. So those four pieces you will count for each pieces to every single column. That's going to be like just one material list and one element that you will calculate. Always try to um calculate a little bit more. So we use central calamos asper in this case the middle section of the of the bamboo as columns also we use for the ridge and for the main a-frame here we also use the middle part of the bamboo. So all these elements are dendrocalamus as per the same uh diameter for all of them. Same thing if you see like all this rich beam that's also made out of dendroamos asper. The idea was to calculate all the pieces. And one tip that I can give you is always calculate 20% more. So if you're taking notes, uh this is a very important one and write it down 20% more at least on your bamboo count. You might ask why? Because some poles might arrive with unexpected curves um with some cracks or even split and they won't be usable. So also the idea is that once you learn about how to build with bamboo, you notice that we always try to use um elements that has the notes. So you will have like some pieces of bamboo that uh that you will not use. Let's say that for example you will work you you will need a length usable length of the material of 4 meters but then your bamboo pole you will try to have a certain knot here always trying to use the knot. So if you pull down this line then probably you will lose all this part of the bamboo and also your bamboo pole can be here and then you will cut this part and then you will lose this one. So what I can suggest is having 20% more on the count of the bamboo that you are using. But also if you're going to use 4 m long bamboo poles order there and try to get that in six mters or standard measurement because again you will start losing this both sides. Remember also um to work with the nodes. That's another very important thing.

Then in terms of the material that's just related to bamboo but also think about these layers of the cake, these layers of the material that you will be using because you will also need some foundation points. You will need rebar. So start like just understanding and reading from below from below to to the top the project that you're going to be uh working on. Let's do a quick exercise here. You're looking at this shape. Let's start from the ground. How many concrete foundations you will use? That's one concept that will be part of your bill of materials. The bill of materials will include the rivers, concrete, cement, sand, and gravel for each of the foundations. If you count that you have four poles, then is four rivers for each column. The rebars mostly come between 6 m or 12 m long. So calculate how many rebars you will use and that's another part of your bill of materials. Once you come up out from the foundation then we already count all the bamboo poles. In this case for the bamboo um for the construction of this bamboo back of house we see that we have all these interlocking joints and interlocking columns that we have been talking about in many other videos. So all the ends and the cut ends that you will be kind of losing then those elements are the ones that you can use here. So you don't really need to calculate and to count it. Then you calculate all the A-frames the length of that and for example here in just one side you can count three different pieces. Each of those pieces are around 4 m long. So let's just calculate that you will have three six m long pieces for one side of the A-frame and three and six mters long three pieces on the other side. Always run the material up so you can have always extra material for the rest of the things. How long will be your reach and then how many pieces you need to put them together. Now the next step is looking at the substructure which is all the rafters. The rafters um in this project they are around 3 mters and one meter in this skirt. So the idea is to use just one bamboo pole from the ridge to the lower part of the skirt. So then if you're calculating how many pieces you will have, you can actually just by counting one by one from this um scale model every 40 cm or 60 cm then count them all and that's going to be another concept from your bill of materials. At the end you will have the splits that will carry the clay tiles in this case. So calculate them all. How long will your material uh be and then calculate and count them all. So you will have at the end a long list of material. ask to your supplier what's the price on that and then you can start having a very uh accurate number in terms of the material that you will do.

Now let's jump to the second step of how to cost your bamboo construction and this is related to the labor. Labor is like all the people that you will be using and the people that will be working for the construction. You might want to divide that also from the different stages of the construction. You can have a team working on the foundation. You can have a team working in the bamboo structure and also a third team for the roofing. So if you're working in a very simple construction, those three elements are going to have different teams. So calculating the labor estimates is where many people get surprised. labor cost and trust me underestimating labor cost once made me lose a whole month in the in the job site. In other words, pay for that. So, um, drop an emoji in the comments in the chat if you ever underestimate uh the labor cost. Let us know in the comments. Um, because it's always something uh and a good experience to learn from. So, let's think about that. It always depends on the techniques and the level of details of uh your design. A simple structure just with bolts with threaded rod, it might be very simple. And if we compare that to a complex geometry, a complex bamboo building with handcraft joinery, it might be very difficult. So just to put you in perspective, use this rule of thumb like a simple formula. If we try to do a bamboo construction, the cost of the labor will be very similar of the 100% of the cost of the material. In other words, you can also try to calculate how long will that take for construction in terms of each of the um of the contractors. Calculate the numbers of days. Calculate um the number of carpenters or workers that you will have. and then the estimate rate per carpent. For this case, uh in the back of house that we built at the kokul farm during the in-person course, we use a very simple and quick construction techniques. We just use bolts uh for the interlocking columns and the A-frames. So basically that goes back to the bill of materials that we were just using threaded rods and bolts to drill all the pieces together and calculating that. So it's very simple. You can calculate the time or estimate the time for each of the intersections and then get the cost. Hire that specialized contractor only for the foundations and the roof. that's something uh very important for you. Um, or you can just uh invite your friends and uh and build it as we do usually here in the 11day course. So this will allow a faster and more efficient and more affordable building. But if you're really um working on a professional level, all these little elements from foundation to the roofing, you will have the bill of materials for each of them and also how many people will be working on that.

Now once you have the amount of time, the amount of carpenters that you will use or the amount of labor, then you will start planning and you will start calculating the time for the entire construction that will take you to the third and the final stage or the third and the final step which is the construction planning and the site management. Now um sometimes we overlook that sometimes we overlook the planning to um once we are in the construction site. So there are few questions that will arise for example will you have enough space to work meaning how the how the space how the site is it big enough? Do you will need to use a crane to carry the material or to carry the structure? Where uh will you storage the bamboo material? And is it going to rain during the construction? And this last question is very important. One time I completely forgot to plan for the rainy um delays and guess what? Yeah, we lost three days of work and uh we spent extra time on putting tarps last minute. So, always try to add and think about the weather conditions. You want to raise the bamboo um that you will store it in a platform with a tarp to protect it from the rain and the sun. So all those preparations you need to consider that and you need to start working and thinking about how long uh that will take. So how would you plan um to build if your site if the site of the project has no road access for example here in Bali sometimes we face that. So then you need to think about that. You need to think how you're gonna plan how you're going to get to the site and then also counting that in terms of materials in terms of labor. So then you can plan it. Um and then during the 11-day bamboo course student built um the entire structure so also plan when the bamboo students and the participants will show up during the construction site. So if you start having like all those elements for example let's think about that you have just the first part that will be in terms of foundation before that there's going to be a lot of preparation work after the foundation then you will have the structure after the structure maybe the substructure and by the end the roof. So let's say that you have one, two, three, four, five simple elements. I'm just narrowing down like very simple way. But then you can uh make them bigger. Then you will start thinking how long and how much time will the construction uh will be. Let's say that you will have maybe five months there. So I'm just drawing like these columns as every single month. So then you've seen I'm sure that you've seen the grant chaff uh charts. So you can start with some preparations at the same time with the foundation working the structure can be done and you can ma maybe uh do some preparations and then the structure will take x amount of time then the substructure when that will come but also some preparations in terms of the material for the substructure can happen before and then finally the roof but also by breaking down each of these um concepts then that's the way that you can understand and see how you're going to start working your project.

So the important thing here is to have these three different steps how you're going to manage and plan um your construction how much and how many people you will use for the construction and based on the cut list on your bill of materials. So it's not a linear process. I don't want you to think that it's just like starting from the material and then add the labor and then the construction planning. Sometimes construction planning is more important because that will define also the amount of material and the amount of labor that you will need. So building with bamboo is um not an exact science. It really requires a lot of experience and just to put hands on and see how it goes. There is not a fixed formula. So it's more like again like cooking with wild in ingredients. So each of them are unique. They behave different and yes it can be very challenging to estimate the cost of the buildings. But with a little bit of experience, careful planning and the right mindset, it becomes a beautiful creative process. So building with bamboo is not easy, but is one of the most fulfilling things you can do. And now um now that you have all these tools to estimate your cost to avoid some of the mistakes uh that are classical in every every construction and also if you're really serious about learning more about bamboo join us to in our new online course bamboo carpentry and construction that you will love it. login, look um reach out to us, look at in the website um bamboo.com, you will see the new courses that is already available for you and keep in touch. Stay tuned and let us know how it goes with your estimating cost. Bye.