# DIY enclosure bank



## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Hey all. So earlier this year I had a bit of a rough time. Following a herp room fire (faulty heat mat) inside my home I had to build a new herp room. Aside from the electrical I have done all the work myself. Here is one side of the room start to finish.

Started with my sheets cut down by the timber supplier.







Then built my basic enclosure boxes.






Laid down the toe recess and leveled and squared it. It is extremely important that this is correct.






I began building up my levels leveling as I go.
















I cut and installed my raw fronts using a home made interlocking system (which I forgot to photograph).
















I took all the raw fronts down to stain them the reinstalled and fixed into place






I built some doors from pine and Perspex.






Stained and installed them.






Did away with heat mats and made some heat panels with heat chords.






The finished enclosure.






The almost finished bank.






As you can see a little more work to go to finish that side however animals are in and thriving once again.

Sorry about the low quality image this project was recorded with my iPhone.

Hope you like it.

Ewan.


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Hi Chris and thank you. You know what it was simple. The planning stages are the painful part. I spent months building this in my head while I slept.

So with the fire a heat mat shorted out and didn't trip the house fuse right away. It burned and dropped on the carpet and the melamine boxes went up like a match. I lost 2 snakes out of 15 or so. Could have been worse. Lucky I wasnt too far away from home and my neighbours were there to help.

Cheers.

Ewan.


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## KREPS2011 (Sep 7, 2011)

Good job mate. Wish i had the money to do something like that. Sorry to hear about the fire. 
Cheers
Kyle


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## najanaja (Sep 7, 2011)

real nice mate,

Ive been building something similar usind 18mm pine for all (inside and out )and i wish i used the malamine inside,
i just had to strip all the tanks and water proof the the bottoms and 50mm up the side due to wayer spillages and do on.

ive just put the roof on my new snake room( walls go on next week) and im stealing your concept


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## Ambush (Sep 7, 2011)

Great stuff.been planning my next attack over the last 2 days. Seeing this has got my head thinking even more. :lol: Thanks.


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## Norm (Sep 7, 2011)

That looks great. I have a 3rd garage that I would like to do something with, I have a pretty basic setup at the moment. Old display cabinets etc made into cages that don`t look real good but do the job, and they were cheap! Think i`ll keep this thread in mind when I do mine.


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## saximus (Sep 7, 2011)

Dude that looks amazing! Congrats but sorry about the reason you had to do it


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## J-A-X (Sep 7, 2011)

great job, i love the divider in the middle to help keep the heat at the warm end, its a great help in the summer it allows the cool end to stay cooler.


I dont suppose you took pics on how you put your heat panel together, there have been a lot of people lately asking how to do heat cord panels and yours is probably the neatest one i've seen so far.


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## traceylee (Sep 7, 2011)

Wow! It looks great! Good work!
Sorry to hear about the fire. THat must have been horrible.


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks all. I have put the fire behind me and moved on. All's well that ends well.

Jaxrtfm thanks. I didn't take any photos because most people wouldn't have access to the products I used. Well at least not at a feasable cost. I made them from picture framing molding using a commercial mitre saw and back nailer. Perspex face. For the internals you basically need channels to hold the heat chord in place so it doesn't contact itself in the panel. I sourced all the materials at cost price which allowed me to build them this way cheaper than commercial heaters. I do not use thermostats or cages with these panels. Panel surface temp is under 50 degrees C and the shelf above holds a fairly constant 34 degrees C.


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## RSPcrazy (Sep 7, 2011)

Very nice mate. I like the heat panel you made, what's the frame made from? And what's that white thing you've used to cover the heat cord?

Never mind, someone beat me to it. Lol


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

RSP the white frame is picture framing moulding. The white cover is a sheet of clear Perspex covered by a sheet of foam board. It is a picture framing material called foam board. It's a thin foam covered with paper on both sides.


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Chris 1200x595x595mm


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## Ozzie Python (Sep 7, 2011)

looks really good ewan, top effort. must of taken a few hours of your time!


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## Red-Ink (Sep 7, 2011)

Very nice mate looks great, tidy and effective. Just how a herp room should be.


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks Ozzie. All up it took about 2 weeks. Good job I was on leave.

Red I know what you mean. I hate a messy herp room.


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## Norm (Sep 7, 2011)

Ewan said:


> Red I know what you mean. I hate a messy herp room.



You should see my poor excuse for a herp room then!


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## Trouble (Sep 7, 2011)

wow, Ewen!! That's an amazing job, you've got to be proud of that! I love the colour you stained the pine at the front.
What's going in the middle between the banks? 

Great work, this definitely makes my project look like a kids' toy box :lol: thanks for sharing!


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## Sarah (Sep 7, 2011)

very nice look forward to the next lot of pics when they are all occupied !!


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## Ewan (Sep 7, 2011)

Ha ha thanks trouble! Rome wasn't built in a day and I have built my fair share of rubbish enclosures but you need to start somewhere. In the middle I am making a cupboard in the bottom for newspapers and cleaning supplies the middle is a draw that holds all electrics and timers. Top will be a photobooth.


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## edstar (Sep 7, 2011)

Looks amazing! hoping to build something like that one day! Great work


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## Frontosa2597 (Sep 14, 2011)

So when are you coming over to my house to help me out mate
Ash.


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## Defective (Sep 14, 2011)

so how much do you charge to fly to adelaide and do me one! :lol:


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## slide (Sep 21, 2011)

Nice tidy work, well planned and executed. You made it look easy.
Aaron d/-<


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## Heelssss (Sep 21, 2011)

That is one mean enclosure, you should start up a business, it is fantastic ,well done Ewan!


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## Sutto82 (Sep 22, 2011)

Mate that is unreal, would love to have a room set up like that one day. We are renting at the moment whilst we save up for our own place, but I can see this happening in a room or my own place.


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## nicholaskostyk (Sep 23, 2011)

hey, mate
overall what was the rough estimated cost?


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## Ewan (Sep 23, 2011)

defective and frontosa I would have gladly helped if closer. If you need any info feel free to PM me.Nicholaskostyk all up it cost between $2500 and $3000. Thanks again everyone.


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## DeadCricket (Oct 1, 2011)

That's a whole lot cheaper than I imagined! For those asking, I had a crack at a DIY heat mat today using corflute (about $8 a sheet from my local bunnings) and it came out really clean. I forgot the whole photo thing as I was testing an idea that already has a thread in general, I believe. With a picture frame type surrounding it might just be the look you're looking for

And somehow during that post I forgot to mention how great this set up looks! Can I move in and borrow the other wall? Haha


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