Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Right now we have a two bedroom house, and one of the bedrooms is our reptile room. In the future, we may need to use the second room, so I'm thinking about possibly converting the gargage into a reptile room. I live in a duplex, so the only part of the garage with a link to the outdoors is the door. Therefore the garage keeps an ambient temp of ~70 degrees with out A/C in the summer. I will need to consider heating (for the winter) and electrical though.

Anyways....show me your pics if you have tried this! I need ideas
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Thanks,
Amy
www.myboids.4t.com
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1.16 Normal ball pythons
2.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Cinnamon pastel ball python
0.0.1 Sinaloan Milk Snake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
2.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
1.2 BCI
That's Just The Snakes!

I converted my two car garage into an entry hallway and a reptile room a couple of years ago.
I'm not very tool friendly, so I paid a contractor to do it. Consider framing in the space so it can be insulated. Think about windows and where the sun is going to hit inside the room if the windows aren't covered. Depending on your local weather and how precise your temps need to be, you might want to consider a separate HVAC unit for the room - this also makes doing night drops easy, and allows cooling if it gets really hot in the summer (though insulation will go a long way toward helping with this). Durable, easy to clean flooring. Ceiling fan. Ceiling lights on timers for photoperiod. Double basin utility sink. Place for freezer for feeders. Think about where the snakes are going to go if they escape from the caging and do something about it! Lots and lots of grounded outlets. Shelving for materials, extra waterbowls, etc. I use two large plastic garbage cans for cage cleaning - one filled with fresh shavings and a scoop, one with a hefty-bag for trash. As I've said before, I wish I had built in a dishwasher to clean waterbowls with. Smoke alarm and fire extinguisher. Shop-vac for cleanups.
Good luck!
-Lee

Thanks for the info! I actually don't have any windows in the garage...the only "wall" that faces outside and not a building is the garage door.

Luckily we already have the shop vac and feeder freezer "
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Thanks,
Amy
www.myboids.4t.com
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1.16 Normal ball pythons
2.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Cinnamon pastel ball python
0.0.1 Sinaloan Milk Snake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
2.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
1.2 BCI
That's Just The Snakes!

Sorry I missed this. Please let me know if you have any further questions. At any rate...

I walled off the back 9' of my third garage stall, ending up with a 9x17 herp room. Our house is built into a hill and part of my garage is below grade so I do not require an air conditioner.

I used radiant cove heaters powered with 220V. They are remarkably efficient, especially since I used a foil-faced insulation on the walls and floor (highly recommend this if you're be using radiant heat).

Here are some pictures:

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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I wish I had more than a one car garage
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Thanks,
Amy
My Boids