Best Lighting? Heating? Floors?

[lilchinchilla]

Anyone know the best kind of lighting for a room for chins? Some of you may know, I am getting new rooms made just for chins. I was asked yesterday by the guy who is doing it, what kind of lighting I wanted. And I was stumped, so just wondering what everyone thinks may be best? Also what would be best for heating? Right now my chins have electric heat, but should I continue to use electric or go for something else?
And last thing, lol, I have hardwood floors in my chin room now, but do you all think tile might be better or too cold for the new rooms? Any ideas on better flooring? Right now the rooms just are plain cement till I can figure on what I want. I was thinking of going with tile but a family member thought cork would be better. I'm not sure, as I have never seen it nor walked on it. I just want the best rooms for my chins possible, and want it done right the first time. :winkanim:

[~Leah]

I like fluorescent(sp?) lighting in the chin room. It doesn't make everything look yellow and it's awesome for taking pictures :lol: I think electric heating should be fine. As far as floors go I like linoleum......it's easy to sweep and mop and if you drop a water bottle on the lineloum it doesn't break. On concrete or tile of course it would. As far as cork goes....I don't know...never seen a cork floor. How cool!! New chinnie rooms!! Congrats :clap:

[Chrisanne]

I agree with Leah, I would go with flourescent lighting. Makes for great pics. I would also stick with electric heating. For the floors I would prolly go with the linoleum (sp) as well.

Can't wait to see pics.

[lilchinchilla]

Okay good, I was thinking florescent lighting too but not precisely sure. Right now am using those GE lightbulbs(the blue ones).
Linoleum flooring sounds good. I didn't want anymore hardwood really, it starts getting expensive to get re done all the time. I usually end up with a leaky water bottle or something that makes the floor go black if I don't dry it up right away. I wasn't really sure of cork myself, haven't seen it but if it is li ke my cork platforms, well it would have little bitty holes in it, right? Don't really want that.
Thanks so much for the help. Everyone will get to see when it is finished. Doug(the man who is in charge of doing the work), is kind of worried at the time that it might be delayed in finishing when I wanted it. The inspectors who have to make sure it is up to standards, might want a whole different roof on it now(should have asked before we got to doing all the other work :duh: ). We have to wait 2-3 weeks to hear back. :crossfingers: I want it done as soon as possible, but don't have say over the government inspectors, lol.

[MistyMeanor]

Oh how exciting! Can't wait to see!!! :outtahere:

[AudieV]

The vita-lights are very good for chins and clear like the floresent.

You need to be extra careful with the flooring. We are going to redo our room too and I just want to use the plain cement. We will paint or stain it to make it pretty but it will be easier to clean and keep the chin room nice nd cool in the hot summer.

With linoleum you have to watch and make sure that if you nick it then chins don't chew on it. It also makes it hard to move cages or heavy supplies for fear of tearing the flooring.

Cement is the easiest to clean and over time if you don't like it you can always add to it later.

[~Leah]

I agree that the cement is cool and easy to clean. Half my chin room is cement and the other half linoleum.......the only thing I don't like about the cement is broken bottles lol If I happen to drop a bottle on the cement side(usually that's where I drop them!) it shatters. arrgh

[lilchinchilla]

Well maybe I will go with the tiles then. I don't really want to go with cement because where I live, it is very damp and cold(we have a falls right behind the house, so in the winter it is very cold and damp. In the summer it is hot and damp from the humidity in the air.). I just don't want anything becoming too cold for them. I do have a huge de-humidifier so I mean the humidity won't be a problem. But I even find in the house here, the floors are cold from the tiles alone. I don't want to think what it would be like with cement. I've heard of heated flooring, but I think it would be costly maybe alot more than what I would like to pay for flooring, lol. I have electrical heating in the house too at like 70 degrees in all rooms. Still ice cold floors. Even when we had carpet it was the same thing. I do agree though, that it is nice and cool in the summer. :)
I will check out and see if we have vita lights here. Anyone know what the lights are, used in shows? Not wanting it for the main room, but I will have two other rooms to play around with. I might make another one as I will still have plenty of room to have 4 rooms if I wanted. My mother was suggesting getting another room made too since there is enough space for it. We were looking around earlier. Don't know what the use would be for though, but maybe just for miscellaneous stuff if I got it. I'm just trying to figure out what is best. We've got vinyl windows on the rooms and steel doors.
Anyhow, babbling, what a long post! I really appreciate all the help and suggestions. I'm just being overly picky right now with what to do, as I want everything to be p-e-r-f-e-c-t. No flaws.
:winkanim:

[ChinsAreMe]

Vita lights are also used for aquariums to show the true color of aquatic fish, I used vita lights for my birds too when I bred birds, I plan to install a light fixture in my chinroom ceiling for vita lights, they give off very little heat and they show a chins true color, its like natural sunlight for them. The bulbs are not cheap either but I love the way an animal looks under them.

Jenny & Chins