A December wedding in the TIKI BARN

My son Austin decided it was time to legitimize Kona's love for Ally. A wedding was planned by the Simotics and DeWitt Clans to take place in the Tiki Barn.  Though not completed it served as a perfect Hupa for the ceremony.  The Wedding took place on December 17th.  Here are some pictures documenting the joyful event. Enjoy

The happy couple

All the kids in the nieghborhood attended

Preacher man Frank aka Tiki Rancher performed the ceremony

Progress Continues in November

After getting my supplies from Safari Thatch and Southern Bamboo, I was itching to get work done, but my job and other commitments only gave me a few more hours since I last worked on the project. Within those precious hours I have reached a milestone. I've engineered the roof cross beams with 1/2" oak dowels.  With this simple design I was able to put up all these beams by myself.  I used manila rope to hold the joints temporarily until I get the right nylon ropes from Safari Thatch. I'm going to try and go see Garth while I'm in Florida. After getting them in place, I drilled holes and hammered in oak dowels to make all the parts of the structure one piece now. The sun started to set and we had to pack up the car and head to Delray Beach.

Ends of the upper cross beams the nodes are sealed

I did  a simple 1/2 inch oak dowel so the poles could swivel

From the inside the crossbeams really makes it seem like a structure now

The center beam has a 3' overhang

The outside corner and middles are all pinned with dowels

8" oak dowels works for the size of bamboo I'm using. The manila ropes are just temporary until I get better ropes.

Once all the corners and ends were tied the whole structure became rigid

I put our teak outdoor set inside and had dinner outside the other night. Tiki torches and candles worked great, we already love it.

Walls are next

Backyard November 19th, 2011

Weekend progress shots

 Main beam is set. 19' Guadua bamboo from Columbia, South America. The corner posts are Tre Gai from Vietnam and the Center posts are from MS. Kona my 95lb chocolate lab is inspecting his new dog house.

I had some help from my neighborhood kids this weekend, Bradley, Alicia and of course Austin helped with holding the measuring tape, lifting poles while I was placing the bolts in the footing pipes.  Dr. Chris Scoma (Bradley's Dad) helped me set the main beam and side wall top beams.

 I notched out the verticals to set the main beam in place,
also filling cavity with expanding foam to create a saddle.
The 1/2" oak dowel is to help hold the lashing

in place and tighten it to the vertical.

 View from top deck of my house

 Tre Gai corner post - almost solid bamboo from Viet Nam -

a 3" pole is stronger than a 6"x 6" pine post!

 Main center beam from inside structure

 Bamboo architecture

 Backyard November 13th 2011

 Tre Gai bamboo wall thickness is intense. 

This is from Garth at Safari Thatch in Ft. Lauderdale

 Stockpile of bamboo from GA and MS - Southern Bamboo

was my source for the kiln dried (brown) bamboo

 Main beam

 View from inside the structure

Firepit made from the pine tree I had to cut down

More progress pics / foam and sealer

 I took off the corner poles and side poles so I could change them out

with the Tre Gai (vietnamese) bamboo I bought from

Safari Thatch and Southern Bamboo....both great companies and guys.

 I've sealed the pressure treated lumber with a cedar stain that both

weatherproofs and makes it beautiful

Thanks to the advice of Garth from Safari thatch I used expanding foam (great stuff) to seal the bamboo on the open end. Besides sealing the open end it fills every nook and cranny and adheres to the 1" galvanized pipe I have mounted in the cement footing.

Progress photos

Austin my assistant

stockpile of bamboo

building site after bushes removed

backyard from barn POV

Backyard across from Barn

I dug 6 hours to try and level the site

Roots my boy Roots!

These are just a couple of roots I found digging

I cut down this 30 yr old pine tree - not fun

view from my deck of ranch

hole in the GA clay.....hard clay

Deck materials

Supervisor taking a juice box break

corner 4x4s installed

deck starting to be built

corner post with footing notice the 1" galvanized pipe...the bamboo pole will 

go over this and bolted through to keep it from updrafts lifing the barn off the deck.

So it has begun!

Welcome to the Tiki Rancher Blog! I created this blog to document the construction of a tiki barn in my backyard using bamboo and thatch materials. The "barn" will act as a clubhouse for my kids and a tiki bar for dad when he's feeling the need to get his tiki on.  Enjoy the progress pics and please feel free to give advice, criticism and encouragement to me the rancher as I attempt to build with bamboo for the first time.