# Reptile room thoughts.



## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

Hi all, I have an outbuidling attached to the rear of my house. It is a single skin building with lights and electric in. Fully waterproof etc.

I am thinking about turning this into a reptile room however I want to do it as simple and cheap as possible.

I am assuming as its single skin it would need need insulation etc?

I am looking for ideas, suggestions and your thoughts on how I should go about this. I am rubbish with DIY so will need to keep it simple lol.


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## DanielF (Oct 31, 2010)

If it has everything in it already then your nearly there. All you need is a bunch of Planed smooth timber, 50mm Kingspan insulation, Plasterboard & Plasterboard screws..

1. Frame the whole room (walls, floor, ceiling) with planed smooth timber
2. Fit the Kingspan insulation inbetween the frame (walls, floor, ceiling)
3. Cover the frame with Plasterboard (make sure you dont cover the plug sockets LOL)
4. Get a - De'longhi Bambino TRN0808M Oil Filled Radiator, 800W (cheap to run 24/7 :notworthy
5. Check to room temps over a week period
6. If all is well & not to hot or cold get the snakes in

I had never done any DIY intill i built my reptile rooms & mine turned out pretty good.. here is one i just finished..

Start:



















Middle:



















End:



















Security door grills work a treat too!


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## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

Thanks for your post, that was helpful. Is the silver on the end picture the pasterboard coating or insulation coating. 

I thought about doing the frame, then filling with insulation such as you have described then putting normal plasterboard over it, screwing the board into the the frame. Is that pretty much it? 

Looks like you have a concrete sectional garage, very similar to my garage!


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## DanielF (Oct 31, 2010)

Phil3822 said:


> Thanks for your post, that was helpful. Is the silver on the end picture the pasterboard coating or insulation coating.
> 
> I thought about doing the frame, then filling with insulation such as you have described then putting normal plasterboard over it, screwing the board into the the frame. Is that pretty much it?
> 
> Looks like you have a concrete sectional garage, very similar to my garage!


The silver stuff is Thermal foil insulation.. i didnt need it but i thought it looked really cool so i went & bought it LOL 
Yep thats its.. frame & screw pretty easy to be honest i thought it would of been much harder


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## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

So the silver stuff is over the plasterboard then? Is it sticky stuff or how do you apply it.

How did you affix the wooden frame to your concrete? I would guess that stuff is damn hard to screw through?


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## Nix (Jan 23, 2008)

I would guess masonry drill + wall plugs!


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## DanielF (Oct 31, 2010)

Phil3822 said:


> So the silver stuff is over the plasterboard then? Is it sticky stuff or how do you apply it.
> 
> How did you affix the wooden frame to your concrete? I would guess that stuff is damn hard to screw through?


The silver stuff is just stapled into the plasterboard
You dont you screw the frame into the false floor.. once you have all the wall frames up you can then screw each corner of the frames into one another or you can just use expanding foam to stick the frames to the walls


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## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

Makes sense thanks! The floor is ok I think. It's on the original concrete plinth the house is on. I must say I was not planning on creating a false floor and instead using a thick underlay sorta thing then carpet or something over it. As I say the outbuilding is attached to my house so I would be worried if creating a false floor it would not be level from my utility room. Hope that makes sense?


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Sorry - I'm a bit worse for wear so this reply is not as detailed as it should be. I have a rep room in a shed. All I will say is insulation, insulation, insulation. Not just because of the cold but also the summer heat. Walls, ceiling *and* floor. Try to get a sink in there. Try to get an openable window. Loads of power points. Oil filled radiator for heat. Air conditioning. Smoke alarm, Electrical failure alarm, Heat alarm, all remotely signalled to your house.

If you can do this it will be the best thing you could give yourself.


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## darin (Sep 9, 2009)

*rep room*

hi
i built a reptile house in the garden it was single skin block i then used 100mm selotex from builders yard insulated walls and roof then ply lined over that insulated the floor the same then put 3ft of mud in the bottom/ i keep 2x bosc"s and 1x black throte in therethey all get alomg fine . there is a pond in there with uv filter then i built 8 more tanks 2 feet above the mud around the walls 
i have 2 x mercury vapour bulbs 2 xheat mats 1x ceramic heater and 3x uv tubes in the main tank and in the 8 tanks i have uv lights halogen downlights on dimmers to control temps all the tanks have water tubs fed by the main pond which gets recycled all the time so they have clean running water in there i find this works real good for me it cost me £200 for the insulation and ply have spent alot on lights ect . and this holds the heat in really well it costs me around £2 a day to heat the whole thing . i can send you some pics if you want perhaps it will give you a few ideas


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

this is giving me some ideas lmao:no1:


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## Phil3822 (Mar 8, 2010)

Thanks alot for this guys. What size wood batons and insulation do you use? I am more thinking of thickness. For example if I am using 3x2 inch wood and the thickness is 3 inch from wall would I need to use 3 inch thick insulation or can I use say 50mm and there be a gap or would I use smalled wooden batons.

I think I have explained this really poorly but cant think of putting it across any other way!


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## CSJ10 (Jun 7, 2010)

Phil3822 said:


> Thanks alot for this guys. What size wood batons and insulation do you use? I am more thinking of thickness. For example if I am using 3x2 inch wood and the thickness is 3 inch from wall would I need to use 3 inch thick insulation or can I use say 50mm and there be a gap or would I use smalled wooden batons.
> 
> I think I have explained this really poorly but cant think of putting it across any other way!


Whether you have an air gap will depend on what insulation you use. You may also want a vapour control layer, again depending on what insulation you use. If I were you, I'd either go to a diy shop and have a look at the instructions on the different types of insulation or look at them on-line and decide which will best suit your needs.

There are a lot of different opinions on what is best and how it should be done so it's better to go with the manufacturers recommendations rather than someone like me :lol2: 

An earlier post suggested using planed timber for the stud work but in my opinion and experience, rough sawn timber is fine for the job and cheaper.


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