Can I affix 2mm bamboo herringbone 'plywood' directly to joists?
 

Greetings all!

My wife and I are in the process of turning part of our unfinished
basement into a 'tiki-lounge' themed billiards room. The ceiling of
this space is currently the unfinished joists of the main floor
(spaced 16" on center). I was going to nail up some kind of
playwood...maybe 1/2 inch...onto the joists and then cover it with a
matting like lauhala (woven material from pandanus palms). However,
my wife recently discovered something described as "bamboo herringbone
plywood" on the web which accomplishes the same look, without the need
for additional matting. However, it appears to be quite thin -- the
material we are interested in is described as being only 2mm thick, so
I think of it more like panelling than what we normally would consider
'plywood.'

Bamboo 'panelling' may indeed be stiffer than regular panelling, but
still I am wondering if this material is likely to sag if I nail it
directly to joists that are spaced 16 inches on center. Any thoughts?
Of course, if I went back to the original plan of putting up plywood,
and then matting onto the plywood, there will still be sporadic
drooping here and there where the lauhala stretched or something, but
it would look natural. Sagging panelling, on the other hand, looks
really lousy, in my view.

In case you are interested in what this stuff looks like, there is a
picture of it at http://www.safarithatch.com/pages/in...MatGallery.htm

Note that we are not talking about the 3/4 and 1/2 inch 'vertical
core' plywood that you get from high-end distributers like
www.plyboo.com (though plyboo indeed seems to have some great stuff);
this is the stuff that is usually found at the same places where they
sell lauhala matting and other tropical textiles.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Chuck