How should I heat the floor of my future snake room

I'm looking to pick up a large burm and want to place her in a room of the house. The space I want to heat is about 12' x 12' I want to make her floor heated as I would a cage without spending an arm and a leg. Just wondering how some of you guys/gals out there have done it.

I haven't ever heated a whole room but I believe that flexwatt is used to heat floors outside of the reptile community. It would require a good bit of work and $$ to get working and be safe. Another option is to use oil filled heaters regulated by Ranco thermostats to heat the whole room.

Tile and Flexwatt actually. Shouldn't be that difficult. I'd consult with an electrician to make sure it gets done properly and to your areas code.

Regards,

B

That's what I was thinking. Or just linoleum with Flexwatt. I just don't know the amount I would need in order to keep he temp up

You don't want a Burm pissing all over your floors!!! You'll have a very hard time keeping her husbandry right in a 12 x 12 room without spending a whole lot of money...

Just get a nice 8 foot Sentec cage and the Burm will be happier because you will be able to control her environment properly!

http://sentecreptilecages.com/features.php?id=1

They do sell heat cable designed for floor heating thoughout the home. Its not cheap to do and time consuming.

http://www.builddirect.com/Flooring-...+Product+Lines

Thanks guys but I'm converting the room. I know I can keep temps and husbandry well. False floor going in to make for easy up keep as well. Just need someone who's used Flexwatt and linoleum. There's gotta be someone out there.

I wouldnt use flexwatt to heat a whole floor. Use the Floor cable kits to heat entire floor to 80. And set up a radiant Heat Panel for a part of room to be 88

I wouldn't use FlexWatt, either. Use something like this:
http://www.wayfair.com/WarmlyYours-T...FcVrKgodYipdCw

It's designed for that purpose, it's sturdy, and it's not prohibitively expensive when you're talking about tiling a room.

If the room is well-insulated, you might not need any additional supplemental heating, but you should put in 2 separate pieces of the floor heat, then, so you can set different temperatures on different sides of the room. I would check air temperatures after you have the floor heat installed, and see if you need any heat panels.

For the walls, you may want to consider using cement board. Green board is moisture-resistant, but cement board is moisture-proof and won't mold. Don't forget about the ceiling. Standard sheet rock isn't designed for constant high humidity.

Are you going to install a floor drain? (This idea is one I've put a bit of thought into as well, lol).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I wouldn't use FlexWatt, either. Use something like this:
http://www.wayfair.com/WarmlyYours-T...FcVrKgodYipdCw

It's designed for that purpose, it's sturdy, and it's not prohibitively expensive when you're talking about tiling a room.

If the room is well-insulated, you might not need any additional supplemental heating, but you should put in 2 separate pieces of the floor heat, then, so you can set different temperatures on different sides of the room. I would check air temperatures after you have the floor heat installed, and see if you need any heat panels.

For the walls, you may want to consider using cement board. Green board is moisture-resistant, but cement board is moisture-proof and won't mold. Don't forget about the ceiling. Standard sheet rock isn't designed for constant high humidity.

Are you going to install a floor drain? (This idea is one I've put a bit of thought into as well, lol).

---

Thats the same stuff i posted above, just your link comes in a kit for easier installation.

With all the money your gonna sink into basically making a room into a cage you might as well just get a killer 8ft caging system and be done with it. The hassle of this project and the upkeep is going to be overwhelming. Think about the humidity issues your gonna have to your walls and ceiling unless you you redo everything. Hell ya might as well through linoleum on the walls and ceiling lol. Just seems like way too much of a hassle then anything else. Would be awesome if its done right but done right is gonna be a fortune

For some, getting an 8 foot Sentec is fine for housing 16 foot, 200 lb. snakes.

For others, making a space that their snake will actually LIKE is what they want to provide. I use large enclosures, and I have a friend who used a whole room before. The room was awesome, and housed a retic and a burm.

Obviously, the expense and work involved is not as important to the OP as providing the best environment possible. If he wanted a tiny box for his snake, he would have gotten one.

Chris

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mumps

For some, getting an 8 foot Sentec is fine for housing 16 foot, 200 lb. snakes.

For others, making a space that their snake will actually LIKE is what they want to provide. I use large enclosures, and I have a friend who used a whole room before. The room was awesome, and housed a retic and a burm.

Obviously, the expense and work involved is not as important to the OP as providing the best environment possible. If he wanted a tiny box for his snake, he would have gotten one.

Chris

---

Price seemed to be an issue cause the op mentioned this. I know how expensive heated floors are. I am a contractor and have done heated floors in custom bathrooms and pool houses. It is very expensive to do. Now i think a room would be killer. But to do it the right way to be able to keep the husbandry in check it would be very expensive. I did a job last fall for a guy who wanted a heated floor system in his basement. We ended up doing a hot water system that has a raised floor system with pipes under the floor that circulated hot water. It is very effective and very easy to do. But very expensive. It all runs off its own hot water heater and taco circulation pumps.

here we go. Now were getting some where. thanks everybody. price isnt much of an issue i would just like to do a quality job as cheap as possible. Just like when buying anything. the whole room will be gettin finished. its an attic space so with just rafters and some ply wood on the floor. its gonna be perfect

Well heres what i did for the heated basement. We did basically a floating floor over the hot pipes and used 2x4s laid sideways as nailer strips. Over top of that was luan then a hardwood laminate. You obvioslly would want to do linoleum instead of the laminate. The plumbing is hooked up to hot water heater with an inline taco circulating pump. Basically the same system as a heating system that uses circulating hotwater found in alot of newer apt complexs. Now theres also a heat panel system you lay like tile but its a stone. I would imagine you could seal it to make it water proof. I knew a guy who had a pair of big asian water monitors that devoted a room for them and he used flexwatt under luan with linoleum over top and for the ceilings and walls he hung luan and then stained it with sikkens oil base stain. It looked awesome and held up great. Sikkens is an awesome exterior product. The best product you can find for decks and fences. It runs about 40 bucks a gallon. Now for basking with the monitors he used a radiant heat panel that ran of propane that hung down from the ceiling. His setip was killer. Problem he had was no floor drain. Therefore it was a chore to clean. He did have a french door that led outside so when he would clean he would squeegie to outside then hose down. Sounds like your gonna have a good project. Good luck with it. Make sure you take pics through the process. Be awesome to see the progress.