Reptile Room Build

[OhhWatALoser]

Well I did a progression thread for my rodent room and got some good tips in it, so I figure I'd do the same for my reptile room. I bought this house last year and the ground floor had 2 small bedrooms next to each other that really didn't make good bedrooms with the flow of the rest of the house imo. So one of them became the reptile room and the other was just storage. Well I think I would be much happier if both of them were the reptile room, so I am making that happen.

So far I have done a few things to prep for this project. I moved the wall of the utility room to actually get some room in that room, which became the doorway to the future reptile room. Figure it could be hidden in the utility room and not attract attention elsewhere for any guests I might have over. Got a new water heater and moved its location, so while I was running pex I ran some for the future reptile room. Have valves for a sink and a hose bib connected to a mixing valve, which will allow me to have any temp water in a hose. We got new windows for the entire house, I had the ones in the future reptile room be privacy glass. When i was doing other work I had a dumpster here, so I took out the closets in the bedrooms just because I had a easy place to throw them away.

Now that my pressing projects are done, time to start actually making this happen. Step 1 move out the reptiles. I give you my front room now:


After moving out all the stored boxes and reptile supply, this is what I am working with, the old reptile room:


you can see through the old closet door:


storage room, standing where the closet used to be, can see the doorway, sink location, and hose:


other side of storage room:


Approximately 15 minutes after taking those pictures:


So my master plan is to set this room up for ambient only heating, but also have the ability to switch to heat tape if I deem it necessary. So that means a ton of insulation and electrical plugs all around. Currently the exterior walls don't even have insulation (I know seriously?) so I will insulate the exterior and interior walls. I think I want to build false walls all around the room to hold another layer of insulation. Then the ceiling already has some insulation, but I want to either frame out another ceiling to hold more insulation or just put foam board up. There is no insulation under the floor currently, which I will be able to do from the crawlspace. I wish i would've thought of this when I built the utility room wall, could've easily used wider boards then, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Heating will be done by an oil filled of some sort with a fan blowing near it to heat the room. I also fear some of the hot summer days overheating the room, so I might have a fan to suck in air either from the main house or the crawlspace to cool it down in emergency. I still have no idea what I want to do for flooring. I also need to see if I have a way to add a floor drain, which I think would be really nice to have. so yea that's about where I am at now, I'll try to post pictures as it happens.

[Fraido]

After seeing the rodent room build, I'm sure this will turn out just as great! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

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[LightningPython]

Following this thread. The rodent room was awesome-im sure this one will be too!
I can't wait to see how it ends up!

[JodanOrNoDan]

I'm getting ready to tackle the insulating end of what you are doing. I'm interested to see how you go with this. I am not sure even how far I need to go with the insulation since I am in South Florida but I don't have any insulation in the walls either.

[OhhWatALoser]

Well spent the whole weekend in the hospital to have our first kids (twins), so nothing got done this weekend and work progress has no doubt slowed down lol. I did manage to get a door in. I give myself props for remembering to shim it up to match the flooring.



Then i realized the electrical placement would actually be pretty critical since most of my racks will be near the ceiling. I didn't want to have lights being blocked and fans being ran into. So I found a free cad program and drew up the room to do a little planning. Bonus, it was something I could do with a little one sleeping in my lap. I tried to have what seemed like a good ratio of 41/28/6qt tubs, maintain 3ish foot walkways (which didn't happen near the incubator but it is only waist high) and tried to keep the windows functional. Nothing is set in stone, but the electrical will be once it's put in. Hopefully I can make something work from this.

[OhhWatALoser]

well this is what I came up with, receptacle for every rack stack, room for 30 inch fans, dedicated circuit for the room heater above the sink, hopefully this works out.

[jkerezsi]

I'm getting ready to tackle the insulating end of what you are doing. I'm interested to see how you go with this. I am not sure even how far I need to go with the insulation since I am in South Florida but I don't have any insulation in the walls either.

I would look into spray foam insulation it's much better than conventional insulation.

[OhhWatALoser]

I would look into spray foam insulation it's much better than conventional insulation.

Better by far, where I got r-49 insulation, I could spray open cell and get r-58 or closed cell and get nearly r-100. It also by nature seals the cavity, where fiberglass can have air moving all around it if cut improperly or the cavity is too big. Which means the spray foam will save more for you beyond the R value.

However it comes at a cost. I spent 300 dollars total Insulating. R-19 on the floor, r-26 on the walls, r-30 on half the ceiling, and r-49 on the other half. To fill the same cavities with foam diy kits, I would be looking at over 2k possibly more. Now to get the same r value I wouldn't need to fill the whole cavity technically. But to me the cost savings of the cheaper install and not having to expose the orginal wall far out weighed what I would save in heat retention.

If you are paying to have someone else install and doing new construction the cost difference won't be nearly as great and might be worth spending the extra.

[jkerezsi]

Better by far, where I got r-49 insulation, I could spray open cell and get r-58 or closed cell and get nearly r-100. It also by nature seals the cavity, where fiberglass can have air moving all around it if cut improperly or the cavity is too big. Which means the spray foam will save more for you beyond the R value.

However it comes at a cost. I spent 300 dollars total Insulating. R-19 on the floor, r-26 on the walls, r-30 on half the ceiling, and r-49 on the other half. To fill the same cavities with foam diy kits, I would be looking at over 2k possibly more. Now to get the same r value I wouldn't need to fill the whole cavity technically. But to me the cost savings of the cheaper install and not having to expose the orginal wall far out weighed what I would save in heat retention.

If you are paying to have someone else install and doing new construction the cost difference won't be nearly as great and might be worth spending the extra.

You are right on the cost. I fortunately have a friend that does it for a living. I buy materials he brings the spray rig. I'm just not ready for that only renting at this time . But next year I will start the build.


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[OhhWatALoser]

You are right on the cost. I fortunately have a friend that does it for a living. I buy materials he brings the spray rig. I'm just not ready for that only renting at this time . But next year I will start the build.

You guys don't happen to live in the metro Detroit area do you? It would be great to have a hook up for spray foam lol.