i am now in the planning, and saving stages of building a reptile shed.

a few questions that i have.

-i intend to use treated "tongue and groove" for the outside, and thin MDF/hardboard for the interia. between these layers i will be insulating, should i use foam, or that "pink cotton wool stuff"

-if i can, i will use a clear top, that minimally filters UV. this way i can have mesh top vivaria, and the animals can get natural sunlight, and in winter, i can employ bulbs. is there a good material, and how can i insulate the top.

-anyoneknow of a good, easy to use, and free planning program, to make blue prints ect

thanks

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The best insulating material is celotex - this is a polystyrene board with a foil backing. Alternatively you could use plain polystyrene sheeting or rockwool.

Im not entirely sure what you mean by the clear top but it sounds a bad idea to me. Firstly there is no real way to insulate it and you will lose a LOT of heat.

Secondly the room will become very hot on a sunny day, meaning you will need air con running 24/7. Even in the dead of winter a sunny spell will make the room unbearably warm. This is why many reptile sheds dont have any windows!

You will also be unable to regulate the humidity properly within the enclosures if you use mesh topped vivs.

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I built myself a workshop a few years ago and used "tongue and groove" (shiplap) planking on the outside of the 50mm stud frame, and 18mm OSB on the inside which is cheap, strong, and far more insulative than hardboard. If the gap in between is 50mm or less then it insulates quite well without any further insulation, the gap is too small for a convection current to start which is what causes the heat loss. You do need a plastic vapour barrier in there otherwise the place will be permanently damp in winter, it needs to go under the floor too, the roof will be waterproof anyway. And don't forget underfloor insulation, I used 100mm foam under two layers of 18mm OSB.
The roof is 12mm exterior ply and has a layer of that silver "bubble wrap" insulation inside, because I just happened to have a roll lying around. There are two double glazed windows with roller blinds to keep the sun out in summer.
In winter it's warm and dry and requires only minimal heating to keep it at 20C, and in summer with the tops of the windows open it remains comfortably cool when it's 30C+ outside. Oh and it's painted white on the outside, it makes a big difference!

thanks for the suggestions.

looks like i will be using a wooden roof, with 2 or more glass skyights.

as for the walls, i dont know what OSD board is (google after i post), but i would be making a frame from 2x4, so the gap will be 5cm, or 2inch...
i dont intend to have windows, but thining about it, one above the sink may be nice.

i will get some plans on soon, so you know what i mean.

thanks again, Dan

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OSB = Oriented Strand Board, it's made from wood shavings compressed to form a sheet, looks a bit like chipboard but with very big chips! Here's a pic of my workshop under construction showing the OSB interior cladding.



An 8' x 4' sheet is about £10 and it's strong, which means you can use a much lighter framework of 50mm square studding, cheaper and easier to handle than 4" x 2".

And the finished building...

If you get skylights then get the ones with roller blinds build into them. Velux do them at pretty reasonable prices.

That polystyrene insulation with foil backing is also called Kingspan aswell.

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1.0.0 Jungle Carpet Python, Brian (CB 06)
1.0.0 Lodger, little Bro (CB 81)