Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I was just wondering how many of you guyes have converted your garages to your snake rooms. I will be turning my garage into my new snake room soon and am conserned about it. I am looking for pointers. I am conserned about the cold since I live in Chiago but was thinking that insulation over the garage door and possibly putting insulation over the walls.It is only a once car attached garage so it isnt a very large area to heat. I am also planning on picking up a nice space heater and I figure that the heat tape from the cages will help warm the garage. I am just looking for ideas on how you guys maintain the temp in the garage.
thank you
Ken

Build a room in the garage, insulate etc. I live in Michigan, and that is basically what I did. The building I rent is basically a big garage, and I built a room in it. An electric heater might keep a small room warm enough, but if power goes out even for a little while it can be hard to get it warmed back up without good insulation. Craig

Yeah - I would agree. Even though it's a one car garage, you can't count on the cages' heat tape to heat the space. The cages might never get up to temperature period, because all that heat will be heating the garage. Insulation is definitely the way to go, and you may need a space heater, as you said. I live in Buffalo and would not probably put my snakes in the garage. Just the cold emanating from the concrete floor would be tough to overcome (but in your case, you could probably build a false floor and put insulation under there as well). Building a small room-within-the-garage sounds like the way to go. Remember, most of the heat will try to escape through the ceiling, so insulation up there will be important. Framing and drywall (or panelling) isn't as hard as you would think.
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