"Greenhouse"Remodel

sibi

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
6,486
Location (City and/or State)
Florida, USA
Yeah it is pretty noisy. When I was installing this one piece to see if I liked it, I wondering how loud it was going to be when I bring them all back inside. But it's definitely more cost effective and durable than wood in such a wet humid environment.

I use durarock for walls, and cement blocks for dividers. It works :)
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
Some updates. I've almost finished painting(I don't like painting btw). I've installed the poly pipes for the soil to be heated in the winter. Pretty neat little idea. This will be hooked up to a 55 gallon water heater and a circulator pump will keep hot toasty water in the lines to heat the soil. Going to take some time and fine tuning with thermostats in the soil to figure what the perfect temperature. My hopes are that it will actually heat the entire greenhouse through heat coming from the ground. I've also been pretty successful in leaving many eggs in the ground and hatching, but this should make it even more successful(hopefully)


image.jpg

I only densely added heater cables on one half starting from the exterior. Lateral heat should heat the remaining half with the one cable. Also the areas closest to the sidewalk will have concrete ponds and concrete feeding plates. So not much of a need to heat those.
image.jpg

It's a cloudy blue sky day. Ha
image.jpg

image.jpg


These are what the pens will look like. Of course the dirt will be raised up about 12" to cover the soil heater cables.
image.jpg
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
Some more progress. Almost ready for some soil to be put into the pens.

These are for the bigger species like Redfoots, Yellowfoots, elongated and erosa.
image.jpg

image.jpg




And these are going to be sub divided for smaller tortoises. Here will be savanna and humidity required species but not tropical. So the misting system will be completely different in the portion of the greenhouse to go off when turned on.

image.jpg
 

pfara

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
1,252
Location (City and/or State)
Maryland
That's looking fantastic, Kelly! I definitely dig the heat pipe layout. I've kinda noticed that my heat cords (of course this is on a smaller scale) don't really raise the air temps in my enclosure, but it does keep ground levels at perfect temps even if the air is much cooler. It's still peace of mind of providing warmth on an otherwise "cold" day.
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
That's looking fantastic, Kelly! I definitely dig the heat pipe layout. I've kinda noticed that my heat cords (of course this is on a smaller scale) don't really raise the air temps in my enclosure, but it does keep ground levels at perfect temps even if the air is much cooler. It's still peace of mind of providing warmth on an otherwise "cold" day.
I hope it works. Seems to be done a lot up north in basements, and works well. We shall see what happens. I'm curious if the percentage of hatching in ground inside the greenhouse will rise too.
 

pfara

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
1,252
Location (City and/or State)
Maryland
I hope it works. Seems to be done a lot up north in basements, and works well. We shall see what happens. I'm curious if the percentage of hatching in ground inside the greenhouse will rise too.

Looking forward to your results. I may end up bugging you again if it works really well. My husband and father-in-law might not be too happy since they're the ones that'll be copying your greenhouse, but my reds will be ecstatic come winter with a super large house of their own :p
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
Looking forward to your results. I may end up bugging you again if it works really well. My husband and father-in-law might not be too happy since they're the ones that'll be copying your greenhouse, but my reds will be ecstatic come winter with a super large house of their own :p
No problem. I'm a superintendent in multifarious/commercial construction. So very use to it.
 

pfara

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
1,252
Location (City and/or State)
Maryland
No problem. I'm a superintendent in multifarious/commercial construction. So very use to it.

Okay. Is there anything you DON'T do, Mr. Build-a-zoo,-run-a-non-profit-organization,-gardener,-painter,-construction man-at-30ish-years-old? :p
 

mikeh

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2013
Messages
1,050
How warm will the water piping get? How many inches of soil are you planning on top? What if the tortoise digs a nest reaching to very close proximity of the hose? The temperature will be quite in variance in proximity of the hose then let's say a foot away. The moisture content in proximity of the house will fluctuate greatly as well depending on watering frequency. Curious on your thoughts.
 
Last edited:

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
How warm will the water piping get? How many inches of soil are you planning on top? What if the tortoise digs a nest reaching to very close proximity of the hose? The temperature will be quite in variance in proximity of the hose then let's say a foot away. The moisture content in proximity of the house will fluctuate greatly as well depending on watering frequency. Curious on your thoughts.

Good questions. To be honest I don't know. The circulator pump will have a thermostat in it from the longest run of pipe. I'm going to have to trial and error the temperature of the water going into the pipe. Right now I have a gravel bed of 2" covering the pipe. My thoughts on the gravel will help with lateral heat dispersion too. Then I will place 8" of bedding mix on top of that. Followed by 3-4" of peat mixed with mulch to top the top layer off. The deepest nesters in there will be the Redfoots which is a good thing. They nest rather shallow 4-5" max from the past 3 years they have been kept in te greenhouse. I Will definitely update ounce the temps drop and see how well the poly will heat the soil. I'm hoping to achieve mid 60s to low 70s soil temperature. We shall see.
 

Flipper

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 27, 2014
Messages
715
Location (City and/or State)
MO, USA
Looks wonderful! :cool: If you put cable tv in there I'll live in it too :D
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
Looking good, Kelly! Big change from the start.
Thanks. It sure is. The building has Adapted to it's inhabitants. Just wait a year or more until the new big bad boy on the new zoo property is built.Mmmmm can't wait.
 

lynnedit

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Feb 25, 2011
Messages
5,730
Location (City and/or State)
Southwest Washington
Amazing! So well thought out, though we all know you decide you need tweaks as it goes along.
I love your pictures.
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
Here is the gravel bed covering the poly heating pipes.
Another stage almost complete. Should be putting in the dirt this weekend.

I'm not doing a good thick gravel coverage of the area closest to the sidewalk. Because there will be concrete ponds and a concrete feeding plate for the tortoises on the side of the enclosure. So didn't think I needed to utilize much gravel in this area.
image.jpg
 
Top