How to Build a Basement Bird Room
A basement bird room should be en extension of your living space where your feathered pets can stretch their wings and play in a safe environment. Simply tucking them away in an old basement storage room or garage will produce unhealthy birds with an attitude. Start creating your room-sized bird cage by having a cleaning party. All furniture and stored items need to be removed before building and renovation can begin.
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Things You'll Need
- Cleaning supplies
- Sealant and latex paint
- Hard flooring
- Fans
- Air filtration system
- Air purifier
- Heat vents
- Baseboard heaters
- Humidifier
- Lighting and fixtures
Instructions
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Select a basement room. Look for interior walls to provide warmth and insulate the bird room. Choose a room with at least three interior walls and one exterior wall that has a window or sliding door that provides natural sunlight for the room. Avoid rooms with any type of water seepage or drainage concerns.
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Prepare the space by removing any toxins or allergens. Clean the walls with solvents to reduce mold and mildew. Seal the walls. Use formaldehyde-free sealants and latex paints over particle board, plywood or concrete walls. Birds have sensitive respiratory systems and cannot live in an environment with mold, dust or chemical-emitting appliances such a clothes dryer. Allow the room to air out and allow time for any chemical smells to dissipate for at least 1 week before bringing birds into the basement room.
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Install easy-to-clean flooring. Remove old carpet and replace with hard flooring that can be swept and mopped. Paint the concrete floor of an unfinished basement or install laminate flooring. Glazed ceramic tile can also be used. Choose paints and tiles with a low volatile organic compound rating to ensure the health of your birds.
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Provide ventilation in the basement room. Install a fan, air filtration system or air purifier to remove dust and dander from the air. All three systems are not necessary, but more methods of purifying the air will lead to continued health of the birds. Ceiling fans create gentle air movement in the room.
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Heat the bird room. Install new vents in the room, or add baseboard heating. Place a humidifier in the room, since furnace-supplied heat is dry heat. Radiant heat panels can be mounted to the walls of the basement bird room to distribute the warmth evenly.
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Add light to the room. Full-spectrum fluorescent lighting keeps birds healthy by aiding in vitamin D-3 synthesis. Use ceiling-mounted fixtures, standing lamps and small individual cage-mounted fixtures fitted with safety bulb-cage covers. Allow the room to also be illuminated with natural sunlight from a window or sliding glass patio door in a walk-out basement.
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Tips & Warnings
Thread all electrical cords through electrical PVC pipes so they are not accessible to the birds. When possible, choose ceiling-mounted lighting fixtures, wall-mounted filtration devices and window-mounted fans to reduce the number of exposed electrical cords in the basement bird room.
Every piece of furniture added to the bird room must be secured to the floor or walls so they don't fall over and injure the birds. This includes bird play stands, branches, storage cabinets and fans.
