Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I have an extra one car garage I would like to convert into a herp room. Currently I really don’t need all the extra space but may in the future so that is why I am doing this. I just had a new small door put in that seals well but the big roll up door leaks quite a bit of cold air in winter and at night. Cooling the room in summer is not a problem but I am finding it hard to come up with ideas on heating it realistically at night or in winter or any time it needs to hold temp. It is not realistic at this time to remove the door and frame it in so dose anyone have any suggestions? I would hope there is a way to fix this so it doesn’t cost me 500 per month to heat the room. Thanks in advance for the help.
My Research and Collection

Although expensive, they do make insulated garage doors.
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Do you want to use this space as a garage ever again?? The easiest thing, well for me any ways, not sure how handy you are with wood/general construction type stuff, but if it were me, I'd take out the sliding overhead door and just close it off ( standard 16 in center wall built into the opening ) Insulate with some good ole R-30 or whatever your local outside wall building code says for your area; matter of fact while your at it, might want to re-insulate the entire garage or at least the walls in contact with the great outdoors. Or, another idea just came to me, how wide of an opening are yah playing with?? Because you could install some french style or any exterior storm double door so you could still have outside access to the room itself. Whatever you decide to do, insulating the room more than neccessary with a High R value will dramatically reduce your energy cost in keeping the room warm during the colder months. Hope I didn't bore the hell out of you with my long post!!

Well there is the problem. I believe I noted in my post that changing the door and or framing the area in are not options that I am able to do at ths time, Both are just to expencive right now. There is nothing wrong with the room itself it is insulated very well its just for example with all the doores shut and the lights off you can see daylight all the way around the doore and in some spots it seem hopless. I do have a heater in there and while it dosnt work hard to keep it warm once it gets there its fairly expencive to run. I wander if an over head "day and night" heat light is the best way to go. I would think that with a reflector it would not take to high of a watage bulb to acheve an acceptable temp witch would also be much much cheeper than using a heater to heat the whole room.
My Research and Collection

What cost more???????

A) Building a false wall behind the garage door????

or

B) Paying a $500 heating bill every month???????

I think you answered your own question. Something I learned the hard way when I was younger was, if you can't afford to to do it the right way, than don't do it at all. Cutting corners aways cost more in the long run. I love how everybody thinks they can beat the system.

I really do hope you are not hinting that I am trying to cut corners or beet any system. I will not endanger my reptiles at all and simply will not do it if it cant be done reasonably Ownership of the building is another problem in that it is not mine so I can not make such changes to it.. I can not make the changes and I can not pay such a power bill that is why I posted here for advice, Not to cut corners, not to beet any system but simply to see if others had any advise for me.
My Research and Collection

I am sorry if I came off as offending, I should have mentioned in my first post that this building is leased and according to the lease I can not make any improvements to the building “Including changing door’s or framing a door in” without prior wrighten consent of the owner witch I have known for many years and can tell you without even asking that it will not fly. I am not trying to cut any corners or anything like that and do and will continue to only provide the best care for my reptiles I am simply trying to explore options for expansion and this was a good idea other than the big door that seems to leak a lot of air so I was looking for cost effective “non permanent” ways to fix the problem. If there are no realistic ways to complete this project than I will simply abandon the idea. I am currently in the building now and the temp in the middle of the room is 68F and its not even winter yet. We don’t get snow where I am but its not uncommon for this building to be in the 40-50s at night. For better detail I have attached a picture of said door. Thank you in advance for any heal and all the help that has been given thus far. I have taken this picture with the door closed in daylight hours with minimal lighting and no flash so you can see there is considerable light present at the top and bottom of the door.

My Research and Collection

You could still build a wall by framing it in but not attaching it to the floor or rafters. Or make it so that you could remove it in sections quickly. You would be amazed what you can do with a little wafer board and 2" foam insulation. Just make up panels that slide in place and stuff the cracks with insulation. Think of an office cubical.

The point I was trying to make was that I see a lot folks get into herps to only think the biggest expense is the herps themselves. Just building or buying proper cages normally cost more than the animals. I just finished a rack for 20 snakes and after all done with every bell and whistle it cost me well over $500 (still cheaper than buying a pre-made one).

I also may have come off wrong in my last post due to another thread where it was clear someone wanted to get into certain snakes just for the money and thought it was soooooooo easy, and another thread about people buying small hatchlings not thinking ahead about how big they get. Folks have to realize the commitment that has to be made and that yes there are ways to save money, but just winging it won't work.

Ok, make a vapor barrier in front of the door. Put a large sheet of plastic covering the door itself allowing for maybe like 6 inches of overlap on the edges, use Duck Tape, then put another piece larger than the last over the first one, more duck tape, and voila!! If the rooms as insulated as you say it is, just by doing that it will keep the cost of heating down. What part of the country are you?? Just curious if your dealing with a mid western winter or where ever. What about using a space heater at night??

That idea might just work. BTW I am in N. California not to far from Sacramento.
My Research and Collection

Glad I could help, took my brain a lil longer than usual to think up ideas, I'm in the process of moving, I need to update my processor I think!! lol

LOL I know how you feel. I am planing a move very soon as well
My Research and Collection

If you're planning on moving I think the Reflectix and radiant heater option will serve you better than running radiant lines from your water heater. I strongly suspect your landlords won't appreciate you tying into the water heater to run PEX lines through the garage. You might also be against local code, which varies greatly from area to area for water-based radiant heat systems.

Another nice thing about the Reflectix is that you can take it with you when you leave. I still have all of mine from that previous snake room pictured in my previous post.

Well the good thing is I am moving to a new home but I am still leasing this building. Curently I use this building as an office. You may be right however that it is best not to tie into the lines. Maybe its best to just at the most keep local species in there that can handel the low temps and keep my exotics in the house as they are now. My new home will have a whole extra bedroom so maybe I will just turn that into my reptile room/home office.
My Research and Collection

I have seen people build temporary walls in front of garage doors that worked their way around the tracks for the garage door. I saw one case where a guy did this and heated a large two car garage with two, 1500 watt oil-filled, radiator style heaters - in South Dakota no less!

But this may not be a good idea since this is a lease arrangement, although I'm also sure it could be done without affecting anything.

What I would do is cover the garage door and the surrounding area with Reflectix insulation. Just attach it with a few staples and tape the seams with foil-tape rated for this use.

To give you an idea of how effective this is, I covered the walls and ceiling of a 7' x 7' x 8' garage room that I needed to use temporarily for snakes. The room was not insulated and two the walls were exterior. The other two walls faced the garage interior, which was not heated. This was in South Dakota during the winter, no less.

The door to the room was hollow-core and was only covered with Reflectix. The gap under the door had a piece of pink insulation stuffed underneath. There were gaps in the door. Big enough that I could see light through. I left these gaps for a minor bit of ventilation.

The floor was not insulated and this is a major source of heat loss.

Here is a picture of that room before the ceiling was insulated.

I ended up heating this room with an oil-filled, radiator style heat set on it's lowest setting. I ran it though a thermostat and it did not have to run all of the time to keep the room at 80*, even when it was cold enough that there was ice on the floor in the rest of the garage.

This Reflectix really works, but you'll need to use a radiant heat source rather than a forced air heat source.

What I use now is a heater fan contraption. It takes about 2 hours to get the whole building to 80 and works nonstop to keep it there. Are the radiator type heaters more economical than this? Mine only has a small heat element and like an 8" fan but is thermostaicaly controled but like I said must worknon stop to keep the whole place at 80
My Research and Collection

The oil-filled, radiator type space heaters are supposed to be the most efficient of any plug-in heater. Use them in conjunction with a reflective insulation and they are quite impressive.

Your heater probably has a radiant heat source but you likely just need a bit more wattage. Get one of the oil-filled types that is at least 1500 watts. I think the rare brand has 2000 watts.

You might still use your heater in conjunction, depending on how much square footage you have and how cold it gets in your area.

All heaters should have an efficiency rating based on BTU’s that will tell you how effective they will be.

The oil filled for a non permanent instillation will be best for you, but if you have a hot water system in the house and can tap in with a separate heat loop it will cost you much less to run over any electric heater. (as long as fuel cost stay reasonable) You can buy a roll of PEX at most home centers and run it right through your racks and cages and put the heat where you want it rather than heating the whole room.

That makes a whole lot of sence. I do have a hot water heater in there that is functional and its all electric so it dosnt cost much to run it hmmmmm
My Research and Collection