In article ,
Janet Baraclough wrote:

Decide if you're going for primarily an extra living room, warm with
lots of light, a couple of pot plants and a nice outlook; or a place
where there's just enough space to sit among the green jungle of plants.

Agreed :-)

The first will be dry enough for upholstery, rugs, filled bookcases etc;
the second will be very humid.

Not necessarily! There are lots of good dry terrain plants, and they
neither like it humid nor evaporate much. Anyway, if you have rattan
furniture, you need SOME humidity.

Go for upvc or coated aluminium....no maintenance except washing.

For a few years, maybe. The main disadvantage of those is that they
can't be adjusted or repaired. If the ground heaves at all due to
wet or dry years, the glass may crack, windows and doors jam and even
leaks start - and there is NOTHING you can do about it! Wood is much
more flexible, and can be trimmed as need arises. Even steel is more
adjustable.

But I agree that you must go for wood that is properly chose and
treated for the British climate. And that doesn't come cheap.

Allow for more ventilation than you think you will need, preferably
set up so you can arrange a natural through draft of air, and have a
waterproof floor if you're going to be watering plants. If possible
don't site it facing due south..it will be much too hot for people and
plants in summer.

Ours is OK, but even the amount of ventilation I was describing is none
too much. Ideally, you want 20% of the floor area to be opening top
vents, and perhaps 1/4 of that to be bottom vents. Cambridge University's
old glasshouses are like that, and so are many others.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679