It would depend on what kind of bamboo is used in the construction. And the construction techniques used. The "tiki bar" type gazebos that I see on magazines appear flimsy and could get ripped apart by our santa ana winds unless they are located in a sheltered area. Just to give you an example... Sturdy: http://www.palapasrus.com/store-images/Gazebo.jpg http://www.imagesphilippines.com/images/020305_182701.jpg http://www.bamboogazebo.com/images/contact_image.jpg I really like this one :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/fragilehands/454951960/ Questionable (against Santa Ana): http://www.bamboohaiku.com/images/gazebo.jpg This looks like it has weight and substance, but I am still iffy on high winds: http://bamboo21.com/gazebo/image/gzb04-1m.jpg

I have owned two houses where I have had greenhouses built off the back but neither was a conversion. The last one was the most efficient. It had a foundation with a knee wall but no solid floor and I had ferns and begonias growing under the benches. There were cedar steps and planking in the middle that we used to access the plants. One thing that I regret not doing was adding a ceiling vent. There were two side windows and a door but still, way too much heat would build up in it, even though we used shade cloth during the summer months. Hope this helps. lisa

I am planning on building a roof over my hot tub and ran across a simple "wooden umbrella" in a book called "Build Your Own Outdoor Structures in Wood". Basically it's a roof on four posts. The roof has radial timbers (2x4s in the plan) which seem to be supported by a pair of cross beams stretching across diagonally from post to post and connected with a lap joint. A post sits above the lap and supports the roof like an umbrella (hence the name). Cover strips of 1x are used to fill in the roof. Overall it looks to be a fairly light structure. Here's my question. The plans are 6'6" on a side from corner to corner. I would like to scale it up to somewhere from 9-10 feet on a side which would give a 14 foot span diagonally. What do you think I should scale the cross beams up to? 2x8? Double up 2x6s? Actual beams? I could wing it, but an answer with some knowledge would always be helpful. I'm familiar with framing (put myself through undergrad this way), but it's been many years and I'm not sure I know the engineering behind such a calculation.

As an example, CFM of 7778 will effectiveky cool a 20x20 outdoor area and it‘s suggested to hang at 9 feet. May want to look for different speeds. Wayfair for example includes the CFM info in their product details and also advises the size of the space the model is recommended for.