Bat House Forum

[Mark Kiser]

Would anyone out there be interested in testing some alternative materials for bat houses? Two particular materials of interest include
plastic deck lumber and concrete/sawdust mixtures.

Plastic deck lumber is becoming readily available at home centers and lumber stores. It should last far longer than wood, and seems like it should lend itself well to nursery house and rocket box components and/or complete houses. The material is rather dense, and it should hold heat well. The interior surfaces can be scored with a saw or rotary tool to make grooves.

Europeans have been making small boxes out of concrete/sawdust mixtures for years. I have a mixing formula if anyone is interested.
It should be adjusted to make a bigger box, though, and there will likely be some trial and error to get the box to come out just right. I can send an article with instructions.

Cheers,

Mark

[Guest]

I have considered using some plastic wood for the exterior of bat houses but was concerned about condensate on the inside of the house and ability to hold heat.

Today I was looking at some "Nexwood" plastic wood .Will probably try some of the 5/4 tongue and groove. The "nexwood" is hollow in the middle , will fill the hollows with sand for a heat holding source.Price for 5/4 1" x 6" is $2.01 a lineal foot.

Also "Nexwood" has a twenty year warranty .

If you calculate cost "Medex" wood sprayed with "Perma-Tec" truck bed liner material, and cedar baffles will last 50 years or more.Box cost of either material would be about the same.

[Dave Miller]

We built a deck out of Trex (made from wood fibers and recycled milk jugs) a couple of years ago, and I love it for a decking material. I agree that it should work well for bat houses, especially because of its density. It doesn't get super hot in the sun, so I think it must have some insulating properties.

I would think you could easily "score" it to make roosting surfaces by slightly melting the surface somehow. Maybe if you strapped an old fork to a soldering iron? Or poured boiling water on it? I bet a little experimentation would yield a quick method for scoring this material.

My bat house is in fact hanging from three pieces of Trex. The bat house is on a "recycled" power pole that I dragged to our yard. I cut a notch at the top of the pole to receive a piece of 2"x6"x18" Trex, which I attached to the pole with lag bolts. A little farther down I attached two square pieces on the sides of the pole, to attach the bottom of the house to. Also in this way I can easily mount another house on the opposite side of the pole. Here are some pictures: http://bat-house.freeservers.com/mybathouse/index.html

[Joe Spencer]

How Ironic. I am building my deck as we speak using the Trex plasting decking and also ironically saw a show which highlighted this decking which is made out of recycled plastic milk jugs as Dave mentioned herein. The company said it was approximately a 50/50 mixture of plastic and wood. I am out of it however, and it was $27 for a 5/4x6x16' board which is expensive. Mark are you asking that we test a design using this on the exterior, interior or both? Kent thank's for info on Nexwood, will check that out. Dave awesome photos of your bat house. Dave would you place the same link in the "PHOTOS AND LINKS" forum on main page? Cheers Joe

[Mark Kiser]

Hi Kent, Dave, and Joe,

Thanks for the comments. I would like builders to test plastic lumber for both exteriors and as complete houses if possible. The longer lasting, the better. This material is more expensive, but it would save trees in the long run.

The sand is a good idea for the Nexwood hollow sections. I think some chambers or maybe even attics could be filled with sand or gravel to improve thermal mass, like Joe's MegaRocket. Has anyone else built a MegaRocket yet Joe?

Cheers,

Mark

[Joe Spencer]

No Mark I don't know of any other MegaRockets yet. Can't wait to get mine up. The photos below are of my daughter's sandals and this morning she left them in the sun for an hour and afterward said they burned her when she put them on. I immediately thought of testing them and brought them in the house. They are sealed hollow and are a hard rubbery type plastic. The sandals retained their heat for a good hour or so after bringing them inside. The photos below after the sandals are of the nexwood decking that Kent Spoke of. I think hollow plastic Tongue and Groove version of this product might prove very interesting indeed in building bat houses. Like the difference between a single and double pane of glass thermally and adding sand strategically sounds like a good idea as well:





NOW here is the NEXWOOD thank's Kent!





FYI Below is the Nexwood site LInK i found:
http://www.nexwood.com/deckprod.html

[Guest]

I have been testing a small plastic bat house for the "Rubicon Intl."

The house is with a group of 11 bat houses occupied by approx.1,000plus
little brown bats.

The plastic house has had up to 5 bats in it, but has never had any wasps
in it ever. This is the second summer the house has been up.

The plastic wood may help eliminate wasp problems in bat houses.

I almost forgot about the plastic house until I was looking over my bat house records last night. Material for this house is made from recycled milk cartons.

[Joe Spencer]

Hmm very interesting Kent. Would you happen to know what brand the plastic was (Trex/nexwood?) which was used in the bat house which deterred Paper Wasps Additionally I am curious as to the width spacing between the partitions if applicable and if the partitions extended to and met the interior ceiling of the bat house. Below is a photo of the underneath of my deck in progress in which a small wasp nest is attached to the underside of the Trex decking. Well at least we know the wasps don't mind the plastic in this situation.

[Guest]

I have considered building one or two bat houses from plastic wood ,probably Nexwood.


After talking to some knowledgeable plastic people and a company that tried using the plastic wood,I have decided not to build any bat houses using the material.


The company that tried using the plastic wood for decking ,cabinets and finishing trim in boats they manufactured had serious problems with the material warping. The company used the material for about six months ,and are very upset with the warping problems. The cabinets look terrible because of the warping.


The plastic man I talked to said problem is wood in the material absorbing moisture and plastic not .


I am going to meet with the man and 2 plastic companies in the near future to look at some plastic for bat houses. The plastic is something totally new .


Also have a concrete stave silo company interested in modifying farm silos for bat houses. Still figuring 20,000 to 40,000 bats per silo. Hope to keep price around $7000 per silo .

[Joe Spencer]

Kent I experienced it when using TREX plastic wood in my deck above. I left one of my extra 16 ft. pieces of decking on the ground when building deck and it warped sideways. I then placed it in the sun for a few hours which made it pliable and I was then able to use it on the deck after prying for straightness and then screwing it in. Thank's Kent!

[Glen]

Has anyone tried using Hardiboard for Bat house construction. It is a concrete and sawdust material being used as house siding. Should last nearly forever . Any thoughts or suggestions

[Joe Spencer]

Yes I have heard of it but have not yet tried it. Below is their ceramic tile backer board with both horizontal and vertical grooves in it. I shall check out the product for they say it is available at home depot. Thank you for posting:



website: http://www.jameshardie.com/

[kent B]

I have thought about using the material for roofing and on the front of bat houses.


The bat houses would be made from 2 " douglas fir with used pallets wood for baffles. I can also obtain new pallet wood at no cost from a pallet company. The new wood for baflles I prefer to use walnut or cedar .Walnut will last many years and the bat quano and urine does not seem to damage the walnut wood.

I would caulk and screw the cement board to the roof and front of bat houses. The bats would not have direct contact with the cement board material. Usually the roofs and fronts of bat houses suffer more from the effects of the sun i.e- paint loss and deteriotation of the material. Also want to learn more about the glue used in the cement board.

Quite often when I am going to try a new material I will place a piece of it in area where it is exposed to a lot of direct sunlight and weather. Usually leave it hanging all summer and part of the winter. Then I take it down and look at it. This way I have an idea of how material will stand up, rather than building a bat house and puuting it up and than finding out material was not a good choice.

Kent Borcherding

[Joe Spencer]

I just picked it up from home Depot! At the site listed below however, it says not intended for exterior applications tho maybe with exterior paint it would be fine. Is quite heavy. I'm thinking of trying it for baffles tho knowing how in texas the concrete baffles were quite successful. Am going to build side by side houses only difference will be the concrete baffles versus rought pine in the interior. Good to hear from ya KENT! Thanks Joe....

[Guest]

The same company also makes house siding from the same stuff. I have it on my house. So at least some of their products are exterior grade. The folks who put it on the house weren't wild about working with it. It needed special saw blade and made huge amounts of cement dust.