So following in line with Adam Jeffery's earlier post in regards to a Herp shed and Snake Hunter's post on Reptile House essential's, I really got my wheels turning.

Now I totally agree Ryan's post in regards to having the facility not in-conjunction with your home, the likely hood of a lapse in husbandry is increased. I also concur with the back up power generator.

Ultimately I'd prefer a high efficient structure, as a contractor I'm trying to lock down a contract with a building system company to be listed as a builder with their product. Their product being SIP (Structural Insulated Panel).

Keeping those in mind as potential drawbacks from a Reptile dedicated house I tried to compare them with the benefits.

First off as most keepers my wife is understanding but not compassionate. Moving the collection to a dedicated building does all the following;

-opens up a room for use by the wife, if not totally at a minimum additional space.

-when we do list the home for sale we won't have to worry about the negative viewpoint towards reptiles (building is movable)

-is far easier to heat/cool a single facility on a single HVAC unit vs constant adjustment of the main home

The building shown below is 10'x25'x11'H, when placed on a low pro 30' goose-neck, she will be under all the requirements at the point in which a permit is required.

In addition because of the SIP construction it is stronger, lighter, and allows for more interior space than the traditional stick built structure. Weight when complete is roughly 8K vs 21K with traditional methods.

The cost is relative, if I build the SIP's myself the cost goes down about 50% over the stick built home, however if I have them engineered the cost will most likely be higher than the stick built. Right now I estimate the viewed structure at $2500 using DIY SIP's.

Lastly an earlier post mentioned the effects of entering the building during cold weather and the dramatic effect of that on the inside temperature. If you notice in the picture their is a wall 6' inside the main door. The intent is the back portion of the building be dedicated to reptiles, the front will be a rodent room. This will improve but not eliminate the effect. As a comparison I heat my garage 19'x20' to 60°F in the winter, even at -30°F the temperature in the garage doesn't fluctuate more than 1°.

I post this as food for thought, I may start in the spring I might not. We will only see. It will take 2-3 days to build the panels and another 2-3 to assemble them. Almost the same time as traditionally built structures of equal size, however in this case the structure is ready for vapor barrier and already sheeted in the interior.

Cheers





-----
Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.0 Morelia Clastolepis

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