BUILDING A CHIN ROOM!!!

[Paradise Chins]

:woohoo:

I am so excited. Reading everyone's posts on their chin rooms made me have a serious conversation with my husband about us having one ourselves. We currently have 20 cages of chins in my office inside my house. They have now ruined my wood floors in that room, no matter what kind of protection I put down... the pee somehow always gets in there. Plus just the constand dust and hair in computer and on my entire desk at all times.

This is the first thing I have ever done that my husband has ever been into. The chins that is. So he too thought this was a good idea and we have decided to turn over 1/3 of the garage into a room. We already had people come in and give us quotes on cabinets for the other side of the garage so we can first clear it out. Once it is cleared of all of our junk then we can start building. I would love anyone's input on materials or what we should use. I too am going to leave the single garage door with access so that I can just open the door and sweep everything out, or hose it out! I know we need really thick and great quality insulation too. Any other ideas or input would be appreciated. I would love to know what brands of a/c you all use as well. We thought about having the air ducts branched out into the room from the house, but I don't know if that would stay cold enough. If we have a seperate unit for them then I can keep that room as chilly as they want and not worry about us freezing in the house. It gets very hot here in the summer, up to 115 or so, so I need a unit that works well and stays cold, maybe even two I don't know. Thanks so much and I will keep you all updated.

[AmandaDi]

Congrats! I bet you cant wait! I cant help with your questions but Im sure others here can!

[Chrisanne]

I would go with a good name brand a/c. I'd also go at least 10,000 BTU. JMO

I don't know about the other stuff. How exciting. Can't wait to hear the progress.

[MistyMeanor]

Audie is the one to answer these questions! She is so creative it makes me jealous!! LOL! Sounds like you are off to a good start though!

[tonib809]

Im SOOO happy for you!! Best of luck with everything!! Im sure you will do it all right & it will be perfect!! I cant wait to see it all complete :)

[AudieV]

We got our a/c unit at home depot and I love it. It was the 3rd (if not 2nd) to the smallest they had there. It is a Hapton bay and I think is only 3,000 BTU, but it cools great. I think it was around $120.00-140.00 and has a remote control which is nice. We installed it high on the wall so it wouldn't be inreach of teeth or pee! LOL!!! The box said it would cool a room 12x20 but our room is only 10x18 so even set at 72 it is pretty cold in there. When I am cleaning cages I have to turn it down to 68 but if I leave it on that the chin babies and foxes freeze their botties off!! I do have to vaccuum it every week when I clean cages or it will get blocked with all the dust and hair and not cool as well. I just have to take out the screen and clean it off.

We did insolate the heck out of the room tho. We used the 2'x8' pre-cut Pink Panther foam sheets. That was the most expensive part of the room (aside fromt the a/c). We used one pack for around $60.00 and it did the new wall and the attic right above the room.

We also got the 4'x8' sheets of dry erase board from home depot for $10.00 to cover the walls behind the chinchilla cages and in the foxes half. After we moved the cages from upstairs and I saw the walls behind there, I was grossed out LOL!!! It was covered in pee and hair. This stuff will just wipe down and it is white so no color reflects on the chins when we take pics. It also keeps the animals from chewing or scratching the walls and putting huge holes in the sheet rock.

Because of my old chin room, we also painted the floor with high gloss enamel floor and deck paint. It looks great and soooo easy to clean. But beware... it took a good 3 days to dry! If you don't seal the concrete, urine will soak in and you will never get the smell out. It only took 1 gallon so not bad. The entire room was also painted with less than 5 gallons of white paint. I think we have about 1 gallon left. It is kinda hard to tell cause we just got one of those 5 gallon buckets.

I have most of the discriptions and pics on my thread about 2 weeks ago. If you have any questions or need help I will try to find it for ya. Have fun, you will love it when it is all done!

[nwernig]

One thing to maybe consider is..... You might need to insulate around the garage door. Most garage doors aren't even water tight, much less air tight. You could possibly lose a lot of that cold air. Also, if you duct off from your air conditionaer in the house you will end up spending a lot more money on electricity because you will need to keep the house colder than needed to compensate for the garage. I would check with your electricity comnpany about window unit A/C's because some elec. comps. will give you a brake on your electric bill if you by an A/C with the energy saver feature on it, even if you don't use it........ I am rambling on now... Hope this helps

[MistyMeanor]

I do somewhat agree on the running the air ducts. My bedroom/chin room used to be the garage. During the summer our a/c bill is outrageous but it would be without the garage too. I will say that when our a/c unit was in better condition we had no problem with cooling my room. In fact my room was a lot cooler than some of our other bedrooms. Mostly cause I only have 1 small window too. But we also put ran two vents into my room. Our garage was what they called a garage and a half. Not a two car size, but bigger than a 1 car.
Now a days my room becomes way too warm and I have to fill my room with fans to circulate the cool air. But that is because we need a new a/c unit for it isn't strong enough to cool the house down like it used to.
So it's kinda just as broad as it is long...

[titania]

I am so glad I found this post. We are in the process of moving our chins to a new room. They have been sharing space with my youngest, but we keep getting more chins and he's getting squeezed out.
They will be moving in to the back bedroom which is always the coolest in the house. I love the idea of the dry erase board.
We have been wanting to create a seperate space for them for quite awhile. It's going to be so much easier this way.

[Paradise Chins]

This is so helpful. We found alot of a/c units but they all are the window type and like my husband said there is no place for the hot air to vent out. So what type are you all buying, because I will have no window to sit it in. How is this working? He said if it doesn't have the back venting somewhere it is just going to keep the room hot. My cabinet people are coming on the 14th, we have the 15th to get everything in the garage away and then the construction company will start the wall on the 16th. I did tell them about the insulation and I am going to double check that when they come and make sure it is double thick if needed. Also we have the roll up garage doors and I am going to fill those in with insulation and call a door company and see if they have panels to cover it. I know we had the option of an insulated door when we bought and didn't do it, now I wish I had.

The panels are something the builder suggested too and I hadn't heard of it until he told me. Glad to hear you used it too, it sounds perfect. My home office wall is also very disgusting. Not only that but they peed on my hardwood floors, even with plastic covering them and they are totally ruined. ONce they are out we have to have our floors ripped out and redone. Talk about these guys costing me a pretty penny.

On the floor, we thought of using that epoxy flooring? Anyone know if the urine will soak into that? We thought that would be the nicest looking and easiest to wash out. We have the floors painted now, but when it gets wet it lifts and peels, it is garage floor paint too, but a complete mess.

Thanks again guys. It is all starting!!!!

[AudieV]

We just got a plain ol window unit. At first we were going to add a window for it to sit in, but then decided to just install it right into the new wall. That way we didn't waste money on a window that would be looking at the inside of our lovely garage roll up door LOL and we installed it almost ceiling level do I can put stuff on that wall still. It was a huge space saver in that respect. We didn't even need brackets because we built the wall to fit with 2x4's to support it. Then we sheet rocked around it like you would have a door or window. It vents out the back of the unit into the none climent controlled half of the garage. When I am out there working with tools I just open the roll up door slightly to vent the hot air and then go in to do what I need to.

We looked at the appoxy flooring too but weren't real sure what kind of effect urine would have on it. My biggest reason for not using it was the foxes tho. They love to dig and I didn't want to chance them gouging out the appoxy and eating it. They have already scratched part of the white off the dry erase board LMAO!!! I never in a million years would have thought that possible! It looks like someone took a sheet metal sander to it and just smoothly rubbed off the paint in one spot!!!

[Paradise Chins]

Thank you so much. The guy building the chin room suggested to do the same thing but my husband was so afraid that would make the garage terribly hot. I am going to do it! :) You both have had the same ideas, he had the one with the whiteboard sheets too. He doesn't even know chins yet he is coming up with the same ideas as you. I will start taking pics to share with you all on the before and after. HEHE... so excited.

[Paradise Chins]

So far the room is built, a/c in and it is keeping it down to 68-70 degrees. Chrisanne is going to post some pics for me of the work in progress. We still have to paint/do the floors and make it look pretty. Thank you for all your help and I will send more pics when it is done. SO far it is awesome.

[oneillrk]

I just had a guy out today and thanks to this thread I am basically doing the same things with my room. I do have a question though, the AC unit that you put in, the back of it goes into the garage, correct? I know window units do tend to drip water out, how did you handle this problem, or do ya just let it drip, say into a pan???

[LisaB13]

This is a great thread!!! I have been trying to decide what to do about additional air conditioning. Just something interesting that I have found...

For smaller rooms to supplement current airconditioning, you can get a portable airconditioning unit that has a built in dehumidifier, which is great to get Texas humidity out of the air, since it is bad for Chins. You can get them on EBay from $300 to $500. They can roll on casters from room to room, and have vent kits that vent out any window.

I am still trying to decide between the window unit and the portable unit. I like that it comes with a de-humidifier.

I am a newbie! Hi everyone!!!!

[AudieV]

hey Lisa, great to have you here!

We knew the window unit would drip as well, but it comes with a plug for the drain hole and we attached a long strip of clear tubing to it and then ran it out the garage along the wall and floor. However, it never seems to drip!!! LOL So we took it off. Sometime you can hear the fan hitting the water in the units pan but there is a button on the unit to dry it out. We never knew what that was for because the instructions didn't say, but after pushing the button I figured it out cause the water was gone. Who need instructions when you got trial and error?

I also thought about the portable units, but they were way out of our price range at the time after spending so much on the room just to get it built that we decided to wait on it. I liked that it had a dehumidifier as well. Now that we have the room set up I love the window unit and wont be getting the portable one now. I like that it is up off the floor and can't be chewed, peed on, or knocked over. Plus that would be one more thing in my way LOL!! Now that summer is here and we have had lots and lots of rain, I thought the humidity would be bad, but the ac unit dries out the air as it is running. Cool air normaly wont get too high with humidity anyway. Regular dust baths helps them with that too.

[Chrisanne]

I'm working on the pics now. Slacking, yes I know. I promise i'll get them up for ya Jen.

[Paradise Chins]

Well the window unit we got is by Whirlpool and it has the dehumidifier in it as well. It is wonderful because it is up high and out of the way, it also has not yet leaked water, we thought about that. So far no water is coming out. I will have to read the directions and see if it is going somewhere else. :) If it does though we were going to put a tube on it as well and send it out the garage door on the other side. Good luck with your room!

[Chrisanne]

Ok, so I am done procrastinating. Here are the pics of Jen's chin room she sent. Here are the first set... the start up.

[Chrisanne]

Here is the next phase... looking good.

[tonib809]

Looking GREAT!!! :):)

[Paradise Chins]

Thanks. I will take more after this weekend when it is finally finished with cabinets and shelves and thoroughly cleaned!!! Thank you Chrisanne for posting. It is so much more work then I thought.

[AmandaDi]

look great!! looks like too much work for me! lol

[tlc_md2004]

What temperature do chins need to be in?

[MistyMeanor]

I am not sure what the low is... but the high is 78 degrees.

[oneillrk]

Wow, I cant wait to see the finished product!! I have a guy coming out this Friday to build my walls, and I am soooo excited, I cant wait to have this finished!!!!

[Paradise Chins]

Gary Neubauer told me that ideally the room should be between 55-68 degrees. My a/c is set on 64 at all times and it stays around 68 in there. I have a 14,000 BTU window a/c by Whirlpool and it is working great. Just make sure that you clean the filter daily and even get something like cheesecloth to cover the vent and change every day to help your a/c last longer.

Chrisanne has the finished pictures.... so everyone bug her to post them for me. Thanks Chrisanne LOVE YA LOTS!!!


Jennifer :heart:

[Paradise Chins]

CHRISANNE NEW COMPUTER AND I THINK I CAN DO MY OWN PHOTOS NOW, TRYING IT YEAH!!!

[Paradise Chins]

yES I DID IT HERE ARE THE REST

[Paradise Chins]

THE LAST OF THEM FOR NOW

[oneillrk]

Wow Jennifer, it looks great!! Where did you get those water bottles? I have a watering system (that I have yet to hook up) but I would love some of those bottles!!
Congrats on all of your hard work, and hopefully the new setup will be very well taken by the chinnies!!
Kim

[Chrisanne]

YAYYYYYYYYY for the new computer. Not that I mind doing it, but I'm sure you'd rather do it yourself than wait for my slow self to do it.


The room looks awesome btw, but you already knew that.

[AmandaDi]

The room looks great!!!

[Paradise Chins]

Thank you everyone! The water bottles are Edstrom bottles and can be ordered at www.agselect.com

They are the 32 oz water buddy and run around $9.50. They ship them for free if you order $15 worth or more, so that is easily done!!!!

[tonib809]

It turned out soooo awesome!! Congrats!! :)

[MistyMeanor]

It definately looks like a very nice setup!!