Hoping making this thread keeps me motivated and on track. I’ve been moving pretty slow so far.
So long story short, room on the back of the garage had a flood from a water line, had to rip it right down to the studs. However its looking like prime reptile room real estate now.
So here is my general plan
the lights, which the middle changed to 2 lights because of a structural beam running right through the middle. also added 4 boxes for ceiling fans between all the outside lights
So dried it out, cleaned up mold and other damage control, reinsulated the structural walls. Studded out in front of those walls for extra insulation and it also buried the plumbing drain, rebuilt the remaining wall. Ran plumbing/electrical.
so brings me to today, finished insulation. well besides the floor. That will be next task. I have 8 inches of insulation on the outside walls and 6 inches on the inside. Ceiling only has room for 6 inches. Not as much insulation as my current reptile room, but it is without a doubt far better air sealed, which should help a ton.
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That is awesome. Looking good!
It won’t be long and you will be done with this. You are on a roll. Keep on going. Will love to see it when it is finished.
I will be glad when it warms up here in Tennessee. Then I can finish up my racks and build my incubator.
The cold and I don’t get along anymore. LOL!
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Damn dude, I’m jealous!
That is a really nice sized room to use.
It’s probably just a unrelated item, but for the life of me I can’t work out what this orange thing is 
…
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That is a perfect sized room! I feel like my reptile room is the only thing keeping me from moving!! Keep us posted!!
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It’s a tad less than 15x15, sq footage wise it’s only a little bigger than my current room but being square seems like it will be much better for me.
That is a laser level I got on a black friday deal, I think I was making all the electrical boxes line up lol.
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That’s why I say I’m never moving again, take the few days it takes to move a house. Then add another day for the reptiles. If you raise rats, add another day for that. Did it once, never again.
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This is my big hang up!!! I’m like can’t move during breeding season. Or don’t want to move with all the hatchlings. Always some reason I’m unwilling to move my collection lol.
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Floor insulation and part of the floor today
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So this is actually outside in a garage Matt?? I’ve been wanting to convert my garage to a rat room. Was always worried about the temps though St. Louis weather is crazy to say the least. Your moving along!!! Looking nice for real!
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Yeah, my garage is a 2 car detached garage with a 15ish foot addition on the back. With the insulation I don’t worry about the cold, the heater will keep up just fine.
I only worry about heat waves, as I won’t have cooling, however there’s an attic space above the room, only 2 walls touch directly to the outside with 8 inches of insulation and I will have a monitor that can alert me incase of overheating where I can go out and do something about it. Put a fan in the door or just start moving racks into the living room.
A rat room is a little different, you need to be exchanging air constantly to make it tolerable. So you can heat/cool the air but you’ll be sending it outside soon enough. So something to consider.
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My reptile room is also not inside my house, with heat from the tanks my room only needs help heating at night… but in summer that’s an entire different story. We have to have an Ac unit in the room. 100 degrees outside that room would still sit at 85 with the ac on. That’s with running minimal heat in the enclosures. I would definitely want some type of AC. Also the room in built inside our shop. So it’s not even sitting directly outside.
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Just finished my room, one thing I did that I’m real happy with, was pipe for a built in vac system with a shop vac outside. Saves a lot of time, and I can barely hear it.
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Wonder if your enclosure heat is doing that, my garage barely gets that warm without a/c on. If it ever becomes an issue I can add a solution tho. I don’t use a vac in my husbandry but it’s a thought I had for the garage actually lol.
Got out there a short time today, wanted to get the last piece, but time to get the kids ready for bed lol. Once I screw it down, it will be time for drywall
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Long time for an update, but been a busy few weeks. So I’ve already gone through 5 hammer drill bits and only got half the floor screwed down. They don’t take well to rod in the concrete it seems lol. Been waiting for a pack of 10 I ordered for 10 days now. I think the cold snap slowed down shipping. Finally got my drywall and put a couple pieces up a few days ago. So guess it’s par for the course. Slow, but progress.
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Kids wanted to help, they did good. Got two more up
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Finally got some free time this weekend. 2nd half of the ceiling was terrible, ceiling joist aren’t square to the main support. didn’t notice til I was trying to get drywall up lol. wall behind the sink was a little bit of a challenge, but got it in. Next I think I need to look into fiberglass panels.
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16 hammer drill bits later. To be fair 10 pack was absolutely trash, they couldn’t handle much at all. Finally got it all screwed down and filled in some screw holes. Need to sand the seams and fill them in next, but I’m out of time for today. Plan to pick up fiberglass panels tomorrow after work.
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Floor is sanded, will give it one more once over before epoxy but I’m gonna be busy dropping adhesive on it for now.
They say the first one is the hardest, guess I’ll find out. I might have to do a panel a day, seem to need something to hold up the edges, so I settled on painters tape lol. Maybe the 2nd one will stay up better. Tomorrow I will try cutting the fan and light holes out to see what that is gonna take.
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Looks good Matt!!! Coming together nicely!
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Tip I’ve learned from many years of helping my father renovate houses is to make a long T out of lumber and wedge the drywall to the ceiling with it. Having one other body makes the whole job way easier 
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