Perfect low cost custom pet houses

You know I have been building things to improve my bunny house.  The last time he was living in a concrete block bunker with a big grass yard to himself.  That didn't solve all the problems.

I was going to custom made an acrylic house with all the easy to maintain gadgets.  It would be perfect for indoors and outdoors and while we are on vacation.  It was never done because the more I think, the more it's impractical.

Acrylic is expansive and you have to be precise to glue pieces together.

I have been building small PVC gadgets for a while and it suddenly dawn on me why I don't try to build a pet house from scratch.

I have been building very precise PVC pipe structures using only standard tee's at less than 30 cents a piece.  PVC pipes are virtually free - less than $2 for 10 ft.  With the help of a spread sheet, I can build very complex structures.

For pet house, the first problem is the floor.  You can use pipe grids as the floor but still you need something to cover the gaps.  You can use pipe grids for the walls but the total cost of tee couplings can be high, even at 30 cent a piece.

Wood is still the best choice for the floor.  This bunny house is for indoors so I paid for a premium board, so I can nail ready made side guards on it to prevent spills.  The board has to look smooth for indoors and can be painted if needed.  For outdoors a flat particle board will do.  The wood pieces are of standard dimension so I don't need to do any precise wood work (I can't as I only have a jigsaw).

For the walls I use 24 gauge galvanized steel wire forming a 2" grid.  It turns out to be a great idea and looks neat too.  It's easy to drill small holes into PVC pipes with a plastic bit.  I sand the holes briefly with an oscillator tool.

It turns out that it's easy to tie the wire onto the pipes and tighten them.  If you go around the same holes twice or more around the pipe, it will be securely attached.   Add a Cirus clip on the endpoint and you can secure it further.  After you tighten a length of wire, you can keep the tension by Crius clips as in the last post.  Then you continue to wire and tighten the next part.  You can wire the entire structure without one single wire without breaks.  But for modularity I wire only one side at a time, and use separate wires for vertical and horizontal.

This bunny has been known to attack chicken wires and succeeded.  He had a go on the steel wires but can't do anything to it, yet.  Because the wires are hand tight, he managed to put his head through the grid, but fortunately not his feet at the same time.  So, the cage is secure.

This cage is open top with walls two feet high.  But I decided to put in a door so the kids can do the daily chores too.  What you see in the middle is a toddler-proof door.  I still have to add some legs so the vacuum cleaner hose can get under it.  Also, it will be ideal if I don't need to bend down to feed him or clean the cage.

This is 20" by 3'.  I'll build a 2'x4' for outdoors.  It will be higher than the sprinklers can reach so we can put it in his yard without turning off some of the sprinklers.

You can clip anything on the pipes like sunscreen, rainproof sheets, blankets.  The outdoor one will have a roof structure.  You can see the Crius clips in the picture, near the lower left and right corners.

Crius clips - attaching anything thin or flexible to any pipes securely and economically

This is my new awesome "invention" - Crius clips.

You can secure a thin or thick gauge steel wire to any pipe securely without slipping.  There's no slipping.

You can attach a towel or a plastic sheet on to a length of pipe for shelter or projects.  Not even high winds can detach it.

Say if your pipe is 1/2" PVC, pick the next size PVC pipe, which is 3/4".   Use a pipe cutter to cut out about 1/4" length of pipe.  From this O-ring, cut out about 90 deg, or a corner.  The remaining PVC pipe is a Crius clip.

Place the C opening on the pipe you want to clip on.  Push the clip on with your finger and it will go in easily.  It takes two hands to take it back out.

The clip itself is always PVC pipe.  The pipe to be clipped on to is not limited to any material.  For example, for galvanized steel 1/2" EMT pipes, the best clip is to be made from 1/2" PVC pipes (the OD is slightly larger than the EMT pipes).

If you want to clip thick power supply cable or a thick carpet, use two size larger PVC pipes.

I'm into PVC and EMT gadgets and found numerous uses for this Crius clip.

Environment issues: The manufacturing and recycling of PVC involve toxic materials.  PVC itself is stable and harmless as used in drinking water.

PVC and CPVC are supposed to replace expansive copper pipes.  There's no going back to copper as I myself witness micro pores that can form on copper pipes.  This is a nightmare as a leak can develop in any length of pipe.  The leaking can continue for a long period undiscovered.  The reason is still unknown.

The newer PEX are superior in many ways.  But I heard that rats like them too?

PVC will be around for a while.  They are also used to replace metal and wood window frames for energy efficiency.  They are not that environmentally friendly but they last a long long time.  They can be recycled too.

I can't find anything to replace PVC furniture.  Metal couplings cost 10 times more, and they are bulky.

PVC produces toxic fumes when burned.  Ironically PVC window frames and very popular.

There are ways to reduce PVC in furniture though.  For pipes that don't need to be tight fit, you can use steel EMT pipes that is about the same price.  You can still use PVC couplings but they won't exactly fit.  You can use loose pipes, for example, for the horizontal support of beds.  Or for vertical grids to keep things in.