Nippa hut woven cane-sealer

[Onemore52]

Any suggestions what to seal the woven cane on the Nippa hut to stop it from rotting?

[Dave Hounddriver]

I asked my lady, as no doubt many have done when asking how the Filipinos do things, and she said her people go into any hardware store and buy a can of varnish that they paint on the Nipa.  Sounds like a good plan to me so I thought I would share that with you. 

[sonjack2847]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

buy a can of varnish

Yes I was told of this years ago.

[Jack Peterson]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

buy a can of varnish that they paint on the Nipa. 

 

[jimeve]

Varnish will drop off in time and the "cane" will rot over time. You need to stop the woodworm with solignum (sp)

[Old55]

PM member Tim. He has a video detailing his wife using a local sealer on their home.

[Mike J]

The locals here wanted to use a mixture of used motor oil and malathion.  I told them no and went with solignum followed with varnish.  Add thinner to the varnish so it can really soak into the nipa.  This will reduce the pealing and act more like a sealer.

[JJReyes]

At the family farm, before the construction phase, all the bamboo, nipa and grass roofing material are placed in a running stream for 3 weeks. To prevent the materials from floating away, large stones are place on the top. The running water removes the starch which is what insects, termites and wood borers feed on. An additional, more modern step, is to soak the bamboo using borax salt. The embedded salt acts as a fire retardant and as a preservative.

Rather than nipa or grass roofing, which is not permitted in western countries because it is considered a fire hazard, there is an artificial grass made fromr a polymer that will last 30 years and is fire resistant. It is manufacturer both in China and Indonesia. 

Traditional Japanese farmhouses last 100 to 200 years. Because they had a fire pit in the center of the room for heating and cooking, the smoke "cured" the wood (bamboo). You can receive a large sum of money owning one of these old farmhouses. Prices per pole are incredibly high because it is then reused for arts & craft. I have seen a small bamboo basket with the most beautiful patina made by an artisan. The price was nearly $900. Too rich for my blood

[bastonjock]

There a guy doing a blog on farming and he recently noticed that his bamboo furniture had termites starting ,so on the advice of a third party , he took the furniture down to the sea and immersed it in sea water to kill the bugs 

[Gary D]

1 hour ago, JJReyes said:

At the family farm, before the construction phase, all the bamboo, nipa and grass roofing material are placed in a running stream for 3 weeks. To prevent the materials from floating away, large stones are place on the top. The running water removes the starch which is what insects, termites and wood borers feed on. An additional, more modern step, is to soak the bamboo using borax salt. The embedded salt acts as a fire retardant and as a preservative.

Rather than nipa or grass roofing, which is not permitted in western countries because it is considered a fire hazard, there is an artificial grass made fromr a polymer that will last 30 years and is fire resistant. It is manufacturer both in China and Indonesia. 

Traditional Japanese farmhouses last 100 to 200 years. Because they had a fire pit in the center of the room for heating and cooking, the smoke "cured" the wood (bamboo). You can receive a large sum of money owning one of these old farmhouses. Prices per pole are incredibly high because it is then reused for arts & craft. I have seen a small bamboo basket with the most beautiful patina made by an artisan. The price was nearly $900. Too rich for my blood

The grass roofs here in the UK are usually good for 30-40 years.