The Evolution of a Herp House

[Ravnos]

A friend of mine recently started designing a herp house. To start off with, we had a 20x20 building designed to be a workshop. So it had a single car garage door and was wired for power tools and arc welders. The roof was falling apart, and it was piled four feet deep with 16+ years worth of junk. First thing was to repair the roof, a tin roof was added - the garage door was removed and new windows were put in all around.



Then the interior was emptied and then gutted. Apparently numerous lifeforms were living in it, from raccoons and possums to rats, mice, and enough spiders, pill bugs and other creepy crawlies to make anyone ill. Of course, there was a lot of damage from the leaking roof and chewing rodents so we basically trashed the old drywall and much of the insulation. Some joker thought it would be funny to put a 20lb rock in the ceiling... and there was so much poop up there that we swore an elephant was squatting in the building for a few months.



Once we got the drywall down we realized that much of the wiring needed some serious help. We tore out the extra 220v lines that were intended for an arc welder. I got fried by one that wasn't wired through the breaker at all. Ouch. We left only one for the AC unit. Then we tore out all the existing outlets and ran new wire. Instead of single outlets, we replaced most of them with double outlets. One side on a master timer and the other side hot.



In the middle of the room we put a drop down outlet with the same thing on it. For an octagonal display case that will go in the middle of the room, or anything else... like running the vacuum. We also put in a few only hot outlets, like for the fridge, the water heater, and things like a ceiling fan.



The building has a small room in the far corner from the entrance. That room will be heated and cooled seperately from the main room, to serve as an incubator/hatchling room. Or just a place to keep anything that isn't going to be cooled in the winter.



Since this building is intended to hold hot stuff, an entry way was built. Framed entirely in glass. So you can come into the building and look around the room before ever stepping foot into the "danger zone".



We realized that we needed some serious ventilation in the building, in the Texas heat a single window AC unit is not going to draw enough air to vent smells and it won't really be useful in the winter to move the air. So we wired a large fan in the attic to a thermostat. So it can automatically come on in the winter to cool the building without using the AC. It also has an override switch to turn it on at any time to vent the building. We ducted it to a vent in the ceiling.



All the lights in the building are wired to a photocell on the roof. When the sun comes up in the morning, the lights in the building come on. When the sun goes down in the evening, the lights inside go off, and the exterior security lighting (porch light and motion sensors) comes on. It has an override switch so you can have the lights inside on at any time. This is the box with the second photocell (the one on the roof turns on the little lightbulb to the bottom left, which activates the second cell that powers the room) and the master timer.



Once all the wiring was done, we started putting up drywall - and came to the realization that having 6 friends help all at once is really no faster than just doing it yourself for this type of work.




We built a little catwalk in the attic so I could get up there and do the ceiling insulation, stabbing myself on the fresh roofing nails poking through. I have to work on my tetanus somehow. The ducting for the fan is visible in the pic.



Right now, we're still finishing up drywall... so I'll keep you posted, but I thought I would just write up a little bit of our journey so far.

Rav

[toker]

sweet!! looking good. I wish I had the time or $$ to do a project like that.

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[BWSmith]

Very well planned. Is it anchored, or can I get it on a flatbed to haul back to GA?

[MTB Mamba]

Yeah thats cool. I'd like to come by and see the finished product with all the HOTS in place, but that just won't be possible. Do you really live in Antarctica?

	Venomous Reptile A term commonly used to refer to a venomous reptile. Most commonly used in reference to venomous snakes.

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[Ravnos]

Its well anchored, it has its own foundation and won't be going anywhere.

We're hoping to have it completed Very Soon(tm). I'll post more pics as we get further along.

And Antarctica is only my summer home.

Rav

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[haroldo359]

is the electrical fed underground? got plumbing? were permits expensive for such a building?

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[captainmorgan]

I APPLAUD YOU, AND IF YOU EVER WANT TO BUILD ME ONE I'M ALL FOR IT!!! Unfortunately I'm not Tim the Tool Man Taylor!

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[Ravnos]

No permits were needed, as we're not in a city limits. Though we did have an electrician come in and make sure everything was up to code anyway.

It has no plumbing yet, but we are going to run a single water pipe, and we have a small water heater that will be installed for cleaning cages and bowls, etc. Hopefully we won't have to do anything to up the pressure, but that remains to be seen. There will be a utility sink and stainless steel countertops installed.

Electrical is fed underground from the house, a 60amp main line basically off the primary breaker and then split at the building via a secondary breaker box.

Rav

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[AnAcOnDaMaN]

What are the average winter temps in Texas?

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[Ti]

What a great project!! Thanks for taking the extra time to snap the pics, and then post here with the whole story. Should be pretty gosh darn cool when it's all completed, congrats!!

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[schatzie001]

Man, that is some awesome work. I had better not let Herm see this or he may get ideas for our shed out back
Ever figure out what that big rock was for?

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[eddie]

Man, what a project!
Looks great so far

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[Stormyva]

That is an awesome building! I wish I could do a setup like that

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[Wrasse]

Majorly impressed. Well done. Great ideas going into the construction.

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[NicoleRussell]

I am so impressed...I'll be next soon.....

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[John_White]

GREAT job! - The Tazmahal of herp houses!
Did you include GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) protection?

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[trinitywolf]

WOW!
Great job. Very cool project Rav. Thanks for sending the pics, I am looking to do something like this myself in the next few years.

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[Ravnos]

The temps here in central TX rarely get below freezing. The coldest part of the winter is usually in the low 40s, high 30s and that doesn't last very long. Most of the insulation is to keep the AC in, not heat. In the summer the temperatures can easily exceed 110 degrees and with a metal roof, the building would literally cook. Just while working, the attic has been getting into the 90s while the rest of the building is in the low 70s. We bought a fan to vent the attic, we just need to install it.

No idea what the rock was for, apparently a sick joke by one of the roofers. I'm just glad it didn't come down on anyone (or the dogs) while we were tearing the ceiling down. As is we destroyed the stereo with a big chunk of drywall.

The building has its own circuit box, and each line of outlets has its own breaker. We didn't include GFCIs at the outlets because I have them in my house and hate them. They never work properly, popping for no reason sometimes, and wear out fast if you have high loads on them. Just not worth the effort, especially when most of the outlets are going to be covered by caging anyway. If anything serious goes wrong the breakers in the box will shut everything down... and if that doesn't work, the main breaker coming off the house will. So its still well protected.

Rav

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[C. hortulanus bites]

Great work Rav.

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