# Finally got the go ahead for converting the garage to a reptile room



## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Hi guys after selling my motorbike the boss (gf) has given the go ahead for converting the garage into a reptile room.

As we are getting married in august and hopefully kids in the near future we are looking at having some work done in the house and part of that is the bedrooms are going to be gutted and started again from scratch so exterior reptile room it is at least :2thumb:this way i can sneak new snakes in without her noticing and spend hours out the way without being nagged.:whistling2:

So I thought I would start a thread showing the process from start to finish although it will be a very slow process as I am not the best at DIY and dont have that much free time to do the work but i will show everything good or bad to hopefully help people who are thinking of doing the same thing in the future.

So heres the reptile room at the minute in one of our spare bedrooms.




























And the proposed garage conversion (its 20ft wide,10ft in length and 7ft high so should get quite a few reps in there lol)




































You will have to forgive the fence coverings its blown off today with this horrible weather.


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## stecal (Aug 11, 2011)

merv1988 said:


> Hi guys after selling my motorbike the boss (gf) has given the go ahead for converting the garage into a reptile room.
> 
> As we are getting married in august and hopefully kids in the near future we are looking at having some work done in the house and part of that is the bedrooms are going to be gutted and started again from scratch so exterior reptile room it is at least :2thumb:this way i can sneak new snakes in without her noticing and spend hours out the way without being nagged.:whistling2:
> 
> ...


lucky you good luck with the build


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## my_shed (Jan 5, 2011)

Should be awesome  Does the garage have any other access other than the main door? You may have considered it already, but I'd look at getting rid of that and having a small door, the reason being the heat loss every time you go in or out would be extreme, especially at this time of year! And they're not exactly amazingly well insulated either.

Very nice size though, a bit of insulation, board it out and it'll be awesome! Are you running water down there as well?

Dave


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## yummymummytothree (Mar 12, 2012)

*That will be great once youve done it, would love to be able to do something like that but its quite a expense that we have not got the budget for atm : victory:*


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

my_shed said:


> Should be awesome  Does the garage have any other access other than the main door? You may have considered it already, but I'd look at getting rid of that and having a small door, the reason being the heat loss every time you go in or out would be extreme, especially at this time of year! And they're not exactly amazingly well insulated either.
> 
> Very nice size though, a bit of insulation, board it out and it'll be awesome! Are you running water down there as well?
> 
> Dave


Yer the plan is that the garage door is going to be replaced with a proper exterior door we are just wondering if we should take it out and brick up the gap obviously leaving the a frame to put a proper door in or wether to remove the garage door and frame and build almost like a insulated stud wall frame for the door. As far as insulating it in concerned we are planing on using kingspan for the walls and floor as we plan on lifting the floor up and boarding it as the concrete will just suck the heat away and then some really thick loft insulation for the roof and then plasterboard on top of that. I wont be running water down there other than via hose pipe but i do plan on having a sink in there for small jobs with a small hot water boiler type thing (dont know how to describe it but my mate has one in his garage for when he is tinkering with his motorbike and you basicly just fill the tank from the top and it probabily holds about 10 litres.)


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

yummymummytothree said:


> *That will be great once youve done it, would love to be able to do something like that but its quite a expense that we have not got the budget for atm : victory:*


The mrs said it was this or move to a bigger house so i went for the cheaper option lol


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## Thewelshdragon (Sep 6, 2009)

Sounds like an awsome idea . It's something I'd definitely do if I had the garage and time! 
Go for it and keep us updated with a build thread with lots if pics!

Good luck merv!


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## Luke (May 19, 2005)

will be good, just out of curiosity why did they stick the garage entrance door inside the garden???


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## motorhead (Dec 5, 2010)

all the very best with this!!:2thumb:
i myself hope to be starting something like this in the next couple of months so shall be popping back here to get some ideas!!


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## Kilbz (Jan 12, 2013)

Will be following this with big interest. Love builds like this.


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Luke said:


> will be good, just out of curiosity why did they stick the garage entrance door inside the garden???


The bloke before had it built for his motorbikes and I had mine in there untill I sold it recently 

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## GECKO MICK (Jun 6, 2012)

Looking forward to follow the progress of your build as I am building one similar of my own at the minute,although mines not as large, ill have to but some pics up of my own.Good luck with the bulid.


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## Luke (May 19, 2005)

merv1988 said:


> The bloke before had it built for his motorbikes and I had mine in there untill I sold it recently


 
YOU SOLD IT????? :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: LOL no seriously I understand why you had to


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Luke said:


> YOU SOLD IT????? :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: :gasp: LOL no seriously I understand why you had to


It was only a commuter bike realy a yamaha diversion 600 and I have got a nissan navara aventura that i have off the road at the minute because i have a company car and the mrs has a car and i thought that i would rather spend the money for tax and insurance on the pickup rather then the bike. It was a hard decision but it was only ever meant as a commuter, I will hopefully get a nice cruiser at some point in the future, something a bit flashy to show off :lol2:


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## krstfoster (Oct 23, 2012)

Looking forward to seeing the end result


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

I just thought I would give a quick update as I managed to spend some time on this at the weekend.

I have resealed the roof, as the joins in the felt had started to go, I have also made a start replacing the garage door by building a timber frame and cladding it out ( unfortunately I ran out of cladding and by this time shops were closed on a sunday.)

I have also fitted a solid wood locking door. I should finish the cladding tonight and hopefully will make a start on tidying it up round the edges etc. Then I Just have to seal it, paint it and then am on too insulating the inside :2thumb:

Here is a pic so far


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## raptortastic (Jan 12, 2010)

Any updates for us?
I too have been given the green light for a garage conversion as soon as i find a home for all the crap that resides there at the minute


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## jonesy86 (May 5, 2013)

Jealous id love to have a reptile room although id stick kids in garage and convert a bedroom :whistling2:


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Right thought I would give ppl an update am afraid its taken a while to get going as we have been super busy with work and getting married and all the other kind of stuff that gets in the way of spending time with your reptiles.

It has now become even more of a priority as we have a baby on the way, so here is where I am up to at the minute 

This is a the roof insulated and the start of the plaster board







And what I have been up to today I have started laying down the damp proof membrane and started battening out the walls for insulation


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## Scotteesh (Sep 1, 2013)

wish I had this sort of space to play with! good work!


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

walls are all now battened out and the flooring has now battened and boards have been cut, the boards aren't screwed down yet as I am just waiting for the insulation board to be delivered tomorrow


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## leonwales (Apr 12, 2008)

Looking good! Bet you can't wait to get it finished.


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Yer it's full speed ahead as there current room needs to be gutted and turned into a nursery 

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## SublimeSparo (May 1, 2013)

loving it so far, keep up the good work.
I mean the reptile room, not more kids  :lol2:


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

So its congratulations all round then!

Looking good :2thumb:


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## Marc2013 (Aug 5, 2013)

Congrats matey, Looking Good, Alot Tie & Money getting spent.

Should Look Great.


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Floor has now been fully insulated and half the walls


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

It seems to have been slow going as I haven't had much time to spare but we got a bit done at the weekend so heres where I am up 2
 
here is the start of the boards going on the wall I decided to go with chipboard for its insulating properties against plasterboard

picture of around the window

and then a pic of it with the floor down


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## Sjames (Apr 8, 2013)

Looking good!! Need any advice I'm happy to try and help as I'm a bricky/builder!


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## mickmorelia (Feb 19, 2011)

Looking good


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

my sister giving me a hand getting the last layer of paint on. 

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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

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## Nicquita (Mar 14, 2009)

No wonder you needed to get them out of the house 0_0


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Lol what you trying to say  you can't really see because of the narrow camera lense but the centre of the room is where the ladder is so there's pretty much this space again on the side where I am stood. I just have to buy a shed for all my tools. Plenty of space for more lol

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## Jb1432 (Apr 19, 2008)

Looks really good :2thumb:

How are the temps in there doing?


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Temps are really good that oil filled radiator is turned off now, it's just not needed with all the vivs in there

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## Dawson (Jun 8, 2008)

Very nice, I wish I had the space to do something like this.


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## philfish66 (Dec 2, 2013)

I would of insulated it first before putting viv's in, walls and ceiling and door and windows. as it will save heating bills. 

phil


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## Ryanbrown89 (Aug 10, 2013)

philfish66 said:


> I would of insulated it first before putting viv's in, walls and ceiling and door and windows. as it will save heating bills.
> 
> phil


He did insulate it


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

philfish66 said:


> I would of insulated it first before putting viv's in, walls and ceiling and door and windows. as it will save heating bills.
> 
> phil


I did. I spent a small fortune on kingspan pannels for floor walls and the door and the window is double glazing and the ceiling had 2 layers of loft insulation. The walls are also chipboard rather than plasterboard as it is a better insulater. 

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## philfish66 (Dec 2, 2013)

sorry I didn't read about that bit I do apologise mate. its a good size room.

phil


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

its 9ft wide by 17ft long


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Rat and tool shed up soon the room will be all reptiles

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## XaulZan (Feb 11, 2014)

This is brilliant. Ive just scrolled through the entire thread. Great work on the room, and Im glad you've got it how you want, plenty of room for more reptiles. Id love to do something like this, but that wouldn't be for a fair few years yet.


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## Campbell89 (Nov 14, 2012)

Looks good pal, congrats on the baby as well another future keeper for the hobby!


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

Thanks for all the nice comments I must admit I am loving it now all the rats are out here's some pics to give an idea of just how much space is left








The side with the reptiles







and how much space is left

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## lkelly (Sep 18, 2011)

A bit of advise that you have prob considered already, but insulated slabs on walls and ceiling are the job.. and ye as stated above change that door for heat and more wall space(for those under the radar snakes haha)
All de bes..
Lee


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

lkelly said:


> A bit of advise that you have prob considered already, but insulated slabs on walls and ceiling are the job.. and ye as stated above change that door for heat and more wall space(for those under the radar snakes haha)
> All de bes..
> Lee


As already stated the walls, ceiling and the door are already insulated with top of the range insulation board and I dont know how i would get more wall space from changing the door unless you are referring to the original garage door that was removed ? The ambient temps in there are a steady 25 degrees with no heat Source only the internal heat in the cages so I think that would show how well insulated it is.

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## Warp (Mar 2, 2014)

Wow that's great,love it.


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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

spent today putting together some more vivs as need some more adult caging really happy with these new viv exotic vivs easy to put together, solid and look the business 

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## merv1988 (Dec 26, 2008)

and with a adult male carpet for size comparison. Just the bulb guards am waiting for and they will have new inhabitants

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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

That's a very smart bit of work indeed, Mr 'I'm not the best at DIY'! :lol2:


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## Punchfish (Jun 13, 2008)

Nice one, would love to have a garage to convert. Think I would prefer it than keeping them in the house.


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## Fi godwin ni eto (Mar 12, 2014)

I dream of a room like that


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