Remodeling my reptile room

My wife and I just purchased our home here in Wisconsin and its been project after project to update it. The house was built in 1947 and was owned by a rental company renting it out to college students. We have a really large basement that I currently keep all of my reptiles in. The room I keep them in is 130sqft. I originally was just going to build some a new cage system to house my three ball pythons but as I was designing the new cage I thought to myself... I can't build this beautiful new enclosure and stick it in this ugly ass room. I was kinda tired of being separated from all of my reptiles anyway so I decided to move my office down there and turn the current upstairs office into an art studio for my wife. I went to the drawing board and started designing a new reptile / personal office space for myself. I started with ripping down all the 80s wood paneling, pulling down the drywall, which I was a little bummed out that it was all nailed up so I couldn't save much of it. After I got all the drywall torn down I moved the electrical outlets and updated the wiring to 12-2 on 20 amp breakers and outlets to better serve the electrical needs of the room. Once I got all the electrical wiring done and repaired all the damaged insulation and started working on the new floor. For the floor I laid down a layer of weed block, then DMX underlayment then I used 3/4" t&g plywood for the subfloor. I am going to use 1/2" birch veneer plywood cut into 6" wide planks for the finished floor. I have been working on the project for about a week now and its really making progress. Once I get the drywall finished and the walls plastered I will finish the floor and once the floor is completed I will then start on the cage construction. Anyway, I thought this would be a fun thing to share with people and I will include all my costs at the end. I'm doing all the work myself because I can't afford to pay someone to do it lol. I included a link to the Photobucket slideshow of the room so far.

93.photobucket.com/user/spookychief/slideshow/Reptile%20Room

Amazing! Do you work construction? You seem to know what your doing and it looks great!

Hopefully those windows are double pane or that is going to be a big loss of heat.

Really nice work.


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Thanks for all the kind words. Today was rough...nothing was really cooperating with me. I had to take down some sheets and reinforce the frame behind them, so that was a huge mess, but I finished hanging all the drywall and started plastering. I was hoping to get further with it today but my back is killing so I'm going to rest up.

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Originally Posted by Sunnieskys

Amazing! Do you work construction? You seem to know what your doing and it looks great!

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I used to when I was younger but I'm an IT guy. I haven't worked construction for almost 20 years. I honestly just watched a bunch of youtube videos on how to lay down the floor. I kind of know my way around power a little bit but I consulted with my older brother who was an electrician for a long time so he gave me some pointers.

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Originally Posted by SDA

Hopefully those windows are double pane or that is going to be a big loss of heat.

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The windows are single pane and I am not really overly concerned about the windows at the moment, but I do plan to make custom windows this summer because they do leak a bit. For now, I just have plastic sheeting over them to keep the draft out.

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...e%20Room/8.jpg[/IMG]

I had a cheap single pane window in my snake room. I found some real thick Styrofoam insulation, probably 2-3 inches thick, the pink stuff, I think it's used for houses. I cut it to size and duct taped around the edges. It holds heat as well as an outside wall. I just draped a blanket over it and put a snake rack in front of it LOL. Can't even tell it's there. Someday I'll replace the window with a double pane.

For my snake room I also used 'luxury vinyl flooring'. You can get it a Home Depot. Its basically strips of rubberized flooring that you can snap together, don't even need to glue them down. You can easily cut it with tin snips. It's pretty expensive but I got lucky and found it on sale for 75% off. I put it directly on the concrete floor and it insulates so well the floor stays warm from the space heater, pretty amazing stuff.

It took me a few days just to do my floor and it wiped me out too, I was a lot more sore than I thought I was going to be. I think with the excitement of building something new you tend to push yourself hard until you have to take a break LOL. Your room looks good so far!

I just did a crapload of plastering today nothing really exciting to share at the moment. I plan to get all the plastering done and the walls sanded this week. After I get all the plaster finished I'm going to paint the room. Then I'm going to get all the plywood cut down on Wednesday and start laying that this weekend hopefully. Anyway thanks for all the comments and if anyone has questions or other great ideas feel free to share.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I had a cheap single pane window in my snake room. I found some real thick Styrofoam insulation, probably 2-3 inches thick, the pink stuff, I think it's used for houses. I cut it to size and duct taped around the edges. It holds heat as well as an outside wall. I just draped a blanket over it and put a snake rack in front of it LOL. Can't even tell it's there. Someday I'll replace the window with a double pane.

For my snake room I also used 'luxury vinyl flooring'. You can get it a Home Depot. It's basically strips of rubberized flooring that you can snap together, don't even need to glue them down. You can easily cut it with tin snips. It's pretty expensive but I got lucky and found it on sale for 75% off. I put it directly on the concrete floor and it insulates so well the floor stays warm from the space heater, pretty amazing stuff.

It took me a few days just to do my floor and it wiped me out too, I was a lot more sore than I thought I was going to be. I think with the excitement of building something new you tend to push yourself hard until you have to take a break LOL. Your room looks good so far!

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Ya, i like the insulation idea but I still want my windows to function lol. I would have liked to do a laminate or vinyl floor but you don't get much square footage for your money. I have watched how people have laid plywood flooring and plywood is cheap and can look really nice...if I cant get it to come out right.:D It is funny how much time and effort I'm putting into this little project and how much pain I'm willing to endure to see it finished. I know that it's going to look awesome and my wife is going to be jealous of the space so I know she will be talking me into redoing her studio next.

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Originally Posted by Spookychief

I just did a crapload of plastering today nothing really exciting to share at the moment. I plan to get all the plastering done and the walls sanded this week. After I get all the plaster finished I'm going to paint the room. Then I'm going to get all the plywood cut down on Wednesday and start laying that this weekend hopefully. Anyway thanks for all the comments and if anyone has questions or other great ideas feel free to share.



Ya, i like the insulation idea but I still want my windows to function lol. I would have liked to do a laminate or vinyl floor but you don't get much square footage for your money. I have watched how people have laid plywood flooring and plywood is cheap and can look really nice...if I cant get it to come out right.:D It is funny how much time and effort I'm putting into this little project and how much pain I'm willing to endure to see it finished. I know that it's going to look awesome and my wife is going to be jealous of the space so I know she will be talking me into redoing her studio next.

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Great job. I did the same thing to my home years ago... Watched youtube and ripped down every wall except the exteriors hahahaha. You'll be happy when all is said and done [emoji1360]


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I finished up all the plastering last night and finished painting the walls this morning. Of course, my reptile room has to be painted green and I love how this green looks against the dark wood in the basement. The green looks really dark here but its much lighter in person. I'll have to get my real camera out to take accurate photos.I also sanded most of the wood flooring and I'll use some tung oil on them this weekend to make them pop a little more. From what I've been reading applying tung oil is a very long process so hopefully, I can get rolling on that soon. I also picked up some really nice cedar to do the baseboard, window and door trim in and those will also be finished with the tung oil. I'm going to sand down the white in the windows and repaint them with brown of some sort..until i get around to replacing them this spring or summer. The project is coming along though and I am happy with how it is turning out. I have a really cool solution for my entrance ways to the room but I'm not ready to reveal it just yet and it will probably take me a while to get them done anyway. Anyway, thanks for all the positive feedback and more will be posted soon!

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%20Room/10.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...e%20Room/9.jpg[/IMG]

Waiting to see it all set up!!
Download Tap Talk on your phone so you can post from your Camera Roll because the Pic Host your using cant always be seen.