Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yes dear, of course I will move my collection to the garge. I know that we need our third bedroom for our new baby...

here's the deal. we are expecting our second child in late may and I currently have my BP's in our office/3rd bedroom. The only place that I can think of moving the little rascal's to is the garage. I live in the midwest so the winters are very cold (unheated garage). I am thinking about building a 10x10 room inside of the garage. My questions...what would be the best way to heat this particular room? Any Ideas for construction/insulation? Reulating temps? I thank you for your replys.

Nick

I would use 2 oil filled space heaters hooked up to 2 seperate johnson control thermostats. I would not use any of the heating element heaters for risk of fire. But then again on the flipside its very risky regardless because if the power goes out and its that cold it could be devestating to your collection.

I live in northern IL. an it gets cold. I thought about a walkin incubater in my garage. You might want to raise the floor. I would put down a vaper barrier(plastic sheet)on the concrete then 2x4 framed floor with fiberglass insulation.Then topped with 3/4 Plywood. Don't forget the door threshold. I like the two oil filled heater idea. Have one temp set just a little lowwer than the other one in case of a failure. One should be plenty if the room is insulated well.Two heaters set at the same temp would go on at the same time and thats alot of amps. If you blow a fuse that would be awful. Good luck

Hey... I converted 1/3 of my garage into another boa breeding room last summer. The room has heating and ac, 6" to 12" thick insulated walls, etc.... drop me an email and I'll tell how its working for me and $$ involved. Dan

thanks for the reply dan....

I would love to here how you made the conversion and how it's working out for you. My email address is nboles1215@hotmail.com

Nick

Why not move the new baby into the garage? lol, j/k

kelly
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1.0 CB Boyfriend (Gregory)
1.1 Burmese (Gravity, Niran (turns out hes a she!)
1.1 Albino Burm (Rodimus, Typhoid Mary)
4.9 Ball python(too many to list)
1.0 Green tree Python (Scotty Don't)
1.0 Amazon Tree Boa (BigE)
0.1 Hog Island (Jane)
0.1 Nic red tail (Bonita)
1.1 Central Amer. Red tails(Pugsy, Odessa)
0.1 Ambon Retic(marilyn)
4.3 King snakes (various phases)
1.2 Rat snakes
1.1 Blood Pythons(Taint, Dee)
2.4 Leopard Geckos
2.0 dumb-estic cats (nugget & pedro)
1.0 Pit Bull (joker)
0.1 Jack russell/chihuahua (Harley)
1.0 MinPin (Bishop)

I did the same thing when we bought our current home in our detached garage. I live in No Utah, so it is also very cold here too. I built a room inside of the garage (4 new walls inside of the existing garage walls). I put down styrofoam on the cement floor and covered it with soundboard and then put lanoleum tiles over that. The roof of the herp room is very well insulated, as are the walls, and the room holds heat too well. I have to use an air conditioner (mounted in the wall to an external air source) almost year round because the heat from the cage and rack heating heat up the room very well. I used an external door with weather stripping and have a deadbolt and a normal lock on the door. The garage gets pretty cold in the winter, (half of the garage is used for the mice and rats) but the room stays nice and toasty. It has been the best thing for me and my wife, and now there are no more complaints on the reptiles and rodents stinking up the house.
Good luck,
Justin

Jason...do you have any pics?

Nick,

My snake room is in the back part of my third garage stall. It's 9' x 17'. I would have liked to make it deeper but I felt like there should be room for a small SUV on the garage side so I limited to the 9' depth.

The walls were 6" thick poured concrete so I framed out the entire area, leaving a small space between the 2x4 wall and the concrete wall for ventilation. They I carefully cut 3/4" foil-faced, poly-iso insulation board to fit in between each 2x4. The foil face was set back from the wall enough to allow the electric to be run. This also provides an air space which is important so the foil face can act as a radiant barrier.

I basically did the same thing with the floor and installed an exterior entry door.

I heat the room with 220V radiant cove heaters. They are a bit expensive but also remarkably efficient when used in conjuction with the foil-faced insulation.

I live in South Dakota and can get that room to 80* with less amperage than seven, 100 watt light bulbs.

I am very impressed with the heaters but with hindsight wish I had at least researched other options. I already have a gas line in the garage and feel like a gas-powered radiant heater would have been cheaper and more reliable in the case of a power outage.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

thanks

nick

I don't think an oil heater would be a good ideal, unless they are set up to vent outside of the room. Oil heaters can put out alot of carbon monoxide which could poison your animals. For a 10x10' room that is well insulated, you may not need additional heat, if you have heat tape or whatever, heating all the cages individually. Unless you have winters like I do up here in Canada, where it can go as low as -35C before wind chill factors.

Good insulation, floors and walls, with a vapor barrier will help with keeping heat in and humidity (providing heat source doesn't dry out the air a lot). The real barrier is your building skills and how much money you have to build the room. You may be able to cut costs a bit if your garage shares a wall with your house. Building the room so it also shares a wall with your house will mean one less wall to build. The house side should already have good insulation as it would be considered an 'outside' wall (with a non heated garage).
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PHLdyPayne

thank you for your reply...

what would you use for a vapor barrier?

Nick

a vapor barrier typically is a sheet of plastic or tarred paper. Any home hardware type store will have that, just as for vapor barriers for home building. The works should know what it is. If I recall correctly, you put the vapor barrier between the outer covering of the house (ie siding, bricks etc)and the insulation/frame but i am no expert, just trying to remember from half built walls of houses I have seen in the past.
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PHLdyPayne