Let me start off by saying hello. I've been reading the board for a while now, but this is my first post. About 5 months ago I started on a new terrarium in my garage. It has been a very slow project and I wanted to get fairly far along before I started posting about it. The dimensions are roughly 7' x 9' all the way up to the ceiling in the back corner of my garage. I have some pictures and can tell you a bit about the process up to this point, but I feel like I'm just getting to the exciting part.
This picture is my before shot. I cleaned up the space a lot from how it was when I first moved in, but is shows the area well.
My first project was to open up the walls and install some insulation. As this is being built in the garage, my biggest hurdle will be getting the temperature normalized in the correct range. For this reason, my build process will be a long one while I monitor temps and make adjustments.
I used ultratouch insulation, which is made from recycled jeans, hence the blue color.
I then closed the wall back up and started framing in the rest of the room.
For paneling, I used concrete backer board as moisture and leakage is a concern for me. I'm sure I overbuilt this, but the last thing I want to do is tear it up to repair water damage. (the pictures got a little distorted when I combined them)
At this point I took a break from building to gather some more supplies. I spent the weekend at Lake Tahoe, and just happened to be next door to a lot where the park service was clearing manzanita bushes for a fire break. I was able to gather a bunch of branches and found one nice trunk piece.
Since I started this project, I'd been wondering what to use for a door. In a previous enclosure I build for an iguana in my closet, I used a shower door. I was planning on doing the same, but new doors were ridiculously priced at the store, and fairly small. I decided to call around to some glass shops to see if they had anything laying around and I hit pay dirt. One of my local shops had just redone the doors for a 7-11 and still had the old doors on hand. They let one go at $40 which was a great deal. It is an aluminum, weatherized door, with some great windows in it.
Here is a picture of the door installed.
With the door installed, I made a push to finish the paneling so it would actually resemble a room.
At each of the joints in the panels, I used some mesh and fortified thinset mortar. This took a bit of time, but added a surprising amount of strength to the walls. You can't shake them at all after this step. In this picture, you can also see the rafter going through the area and above that, the holes I left for my lighting.
With the walls finished, the next thing I did was to actually waterproof them. I used RedGard waterproofing. You paint on the membrane and when it dries, it is waterproofed. I did the seams first.
I got tired of painting that stuff on, so I did a little more work on the lights. I finished up the electrical, and turned them on for the first test. There are only a few bulbs in this picture, but the "hood" holds 8 bulbs. I'm planning on having 5 of them be the daylight bulbs, and the other 3 be a lower spectrum for flowering. These lights are in addition to two 2' square skylights I installed in the center of the terrarium.
Here is the room, first coat of waterproofing done. After the second coat, it looked much more uniform. The line coming out of the wall is for my misters which will be connected to my yard sprinkler system and timer. You can also see the rafters which I wrapped with plastic and sealed to protect from water.
My plan was to build a tree up one wall and across the rafter. Here is the frame of the trunk with a bit of great stuff on it. I built the frame with chicken wire and had quite the time getting the great stuff to stay on it.
And the rafters on their way to becoming branches.
I finished up the great stuff, did a bit of carving, and here is the first coat of grout on the tree. I used standard sanded grout with some concrete bonding fortifier added. You can also see the pond liner I installed underneath the tree on the floor to make sure there were no leaks. (Told you I overbuilt it.)
Two coats later, it was starting to look something like I had planned. I still will need to do some coloring and touch up as it gets dinged from working around it.
Here is the full tree. You can also see the extra liner I have added to the back wall which will become a bit of a waterfall.
From inside the terrarium looking out, I decided to make the wall look like some temple ruins or similar old stone building. Here is the shot of the Styrofoam placed on the wall before any coats are on it. The stack of bricks will end up looking like a fallen stone, which I intend to use as a seat if all goes according to plan. You can also see the window that lets light into the front part of the terrarium.
And my last picture for now, is the start of the other side wall, which will be a rock wall with ledges. I still have a lot of work to go, but it is a start.
So that is it in a nutshell. I obviously still have a lot to do, and as I seem to only be able to get anything done on weekends, it has been slow. Plus, when I do work on it, it is kind of big so it will eat up 8 hours of work like it was nothing. Let me know what you think so far, and as I get to some of the more technical parts of construction as far as designing for inhabitants, I'll have a bunch of questions.
Terrarium Room Build (Pic Heavy)
I'm watching. *subscribed*
Re: Terrarium Room Build (Pic Heavy)
check this thread out you might be able to snag some ideas from it: 
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