Cost of DIY Rack vs. Purchased Rack?

[Zuma22]

not everyone who owns snakes, are rich.

Thank you, Newbie...I can't really afford them easily, so I'd rather see my money go towards nice snakes than a rack that I can build myself. Plus, as some have mentioned, there's something to be said for building something with your own two hands, especially for creatures in your care. Plus, most everyone owning BPs will tell you that they spent their early days scanning Target and WalMart, etc. for odd, cheap items that would work for hides and water bowls that would help cut cost. I've turned lots of random oddball things into BP palaces for pennies.

[mechnut450]

I own both built and purchased racks. I love my wooden diy racks( no pics ) as I took them down when I moved. But u built my racks so the tubs would fit with the lids on and handle locks on ( this way no worries about escapes or injury to a snake if they started to attempt to squeeze out and I had to remove the tub to get them.
The purchased racks were great deals and lot lighter to move at new place( it got steps lol) When I build my racks I designed them for 2 weeks and finalized the build when it was set to hold 14 tubs( each rack) and had to do assembly in the room lol they measured in about 4 ft wide x 4 ft tall and about 29 inches deep)
they were made with plywood( 1/2- 3/4 inch thick sheets. and there was 2 tubs per shelf.

it cost me about 400 bucks. but I never had an escape( unless I left the lids off due to multitasking - feeding and cleaning tubs at the same time) plus I never had an RI or other real health issues ( unless I received the snakes with an Ri or such

[kitedemon]

There is a huge disparity between the diys and purchased racks. Saying it is cheaper to build a rack than to buy one and then using far inferior materials is not a true comparison. With the issues surrounding melamine substrates currently it is not a great option. The new melamine is free of off gassing is far more costly. (in my area it is a special order with a 40 sheet minimum) The cost of PVCx retail (around the 175-250 sheet range would bring a 7 level rack into the cost of 600$ I can buy a rack this size of 600$ so about the same as materials. Then lets talk about labour, your time may not be worth anything but mine is. This makes DIYs quite costly if you look at the real cost and compaire similar quality.

It depends on the way you look at it. If you build same materials and similar quality DIYs typically are far more expensive.

[Kaorte]

There is a huge disparity between the diys and purchased racks. Saying it is cheaper to build a rack than to buy one and then using far inferior materials is not a true comparison. With the issues surrounding melamine substrates currently it is not a great option. The new melamine is free of off gassing is far more costly. (in my area it is a special order with a 40 sheet minimum) The cost of PVCx retail (around the 175-250 sheet range would bring a 7 level rack into the cost of 600$ I can buy a rack this size of 600$ so about the same as materials. Then lets talk about labour, your time may not be worth anything but mine is. This makes DIYs quite costly if you look at the real cost and compaire similar quality.

It depends on the way you look at it. If you build same materials and similar quality DIYs typically are far more expensive.

Issues surrounding melamine? Do elaborate.
People have been using this stuff for many years to build racks. This is the first I've heard about it being "inferior".

You keep your animals at pretty high standards, I get that. But surely you can agree that a home made melamine rack with 7 slots will indeed be cheaper than buying one.

Its no question that the professional ones are of higher quality but we are simply looking at price. If you use flexwatt and a herpstat it works just the same as a PVC rack.


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[kitedemon]

Melamine out gassing both phenols (from the glues in the particle boards) and formaldehyde also from the glues. In high concentrations they are know to cause health issues in humans many production houses are no longer working with it due to safety concerns.

The more expensive formaldehyde free boards use phenols and as we know reptiles are very very sensitive to phenols (found in cedar for example) and PAM for that matter. This means in both cases every cut surface needs to be sealed (not to mention safety concerns to cut it) You can often smell the board and get that sharp chemical smell of the formaldehyde.

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/eve...d-outgassing#b
http://www.ehow.com/list_7169795_hea...cle-board.html
http://science.education.nih.gov/sup...m#formaldehyde
http://www.debralynndadd.com/_blog/g...d_become_safe/
Sealer
http://www.greenchicafe.com/seal-out...ecoat-products

People also have had snakes die for no reason and develop RI with out any obvious cause. It is hard to make a connection but it is a possibility.

Simple price the guy by me whom builds furniture (one of my contractors) will build a rack for 165$, I don't think I could build the same his price wholesale on melamine board is far less than mine.

I do not think melamine is a good offering at all. Poor water resistance, outgassing issues, fire hazards (lower ignition temps) poor weight to strength, difficulty cleaning/disinfecting it is not the first choice of materials. Given unlimited budget HDPE perhaps or aluminum composite panels would be the best possible materials (aluminum composite panels are not as much as most think they are.) PVCx is a reasonable compromise. I believe the cost is in the labor, my time is worth something so if I spend 8 hours building a rack that has some value.

The issue I see is it is not just cost if it were buy a plastic shelf unit. I applaud that as a cost savings method if you need to save as much as possible there is no question a cheap shelving system is far less than everything. So then compare melamine to plastic shelves melamine raw sheets are more. No comparison. Karote you are comparing apples to oranges it is not just money, if it were you would advocate ready mades. You are now comparing DIY melamine against PVCx it is hard to do to they are very different materials. To my mind the time to build is worth as much as materials so scrimping on materials is silly. The killer with PVCx is the wholesale price is far different than the retail. I pay whole sale for it so I know more than double. Why buying one and building one are not that different.

To me if cost is all that matters a ready made shelf system is the cheapest way hands down. When you step up to better quality just buy one it is cheaper in the long run. (assuming basic skills highly skilled it is debatable or if you want something not available.

[Zuma22]

I appreciate everyone's comments, especially about the melamine. I did not know any of this. Given that, I decided to go with the shelving unit from Home Depot and cut it down to customize the heights. I'm overjoyed with the final product and can't wait to get my new arrivals in there. I would love a nice, sleek, wooden unit, but it just wasn't in the cards for me at the moment. My dad's help was invaluable and I'm certain he would have been far less helpful had there been extensive wooden constructing involved. I'll post pictures in a new thread as soon as it is finally complete. I can fit 6, 12, 16, 28, and 41 qt tubs in different combinations so I have options as snakes grow, etc. By the time the San Diego Super Show rolls around I may be needing another one

THG tape and new hides on their way from Reptile Basics! Then the waiting game for the FedEx fairy...