Help How to maintain bamboo, thatching??

Aloha -

I recently completed a tiki patio, with thatching and bamboo, and was wondering if you wonderful forum folks could give any suggestions on maintaining those items. I have seen other materials grey over time and wanted to prevent this from happening. Your help and suggestions are much appreciated. Thank you!!

Check out the build and info by the expert BambooBen

Also, putting your thatch away for winter is helpful.

I know, sounds like a, "duh!", thing, but we didn't with the first thatch roof we made for our backyard hut (We're in California, we barely have weather, right? How bad could it get) and it was unusable by Spring. We rethatched a roof onto a canvas tarp, and have rolled it up and stored it at summer's end. The roof has lasted three years and is still going strong.

When we end up making a new one, though, we'll do like Ben says and spray varnish (and fire retardant) on it.