refinishing inside of cage

[steelheadchris]

:noidea: Was wondering what is a good paint and sealer to use on the inside of an older cage i have.Its gonna be taken down to bare wood on the inside. do they make a paint that brushes on and hardens like a plastic? that isnt harmful to snakes.and by sealer i mean silicone type for the joints ..this is a long overdo project. cage is 1" plywood and weighs a ton, but looks great still on the outside.

[danthony428]

good question, im planning a cage myself, and i was going to ask the exact same ?, glad someone beat me to it, lol

[The Snake Guru]

Surprizingly enough you can use just about anything to seal and paint cages. 98% of all the paints made today are safe and non-toxic once they are cured. Personally I use an Outdoor Acrylic/Latex Paint - and then Min-wax poly-crylic clearcoat. You can get these to almost be plastic but it takes about 11 coats or so.....I have done it though, and it works great!

Biggest thing to remember is make sure everything is completely cured and aired out before you add your snake, depending on the product that can be a few days or 2 weeks (in the case of many of the urethane based products)

Once all the painting and coats are cured, silicone can be applied to the cracks and joints....not not use silcone before the paint job is done, it does not cover well. Again wait until the silicone drys and airs out completely before adding the snake.

One trick I have found that helps speed up cure and air-out time is to get a simple household fan and blast it into the cage for a day or 2 the constant air movement really speeds things along.

~B~

[steelheadchris]

Thanx a ton. i have an old storage bin with a lid thats gonna have to be a temp home when i start this project sat. Was wondering how your lenoleum floor was working out i seen in one of your cages .and would you recomend it ?

[The Snake Guru]

Not lenoleum, actually bathroom board. like pressed wood on the back but hard plastic coating on the one side. Works slick....been running it for around 7 years now average humidity of 60% with spikes in the 95% range....still holding up with no issues. The biggest part with that stuff is getting it adheared to the board.

~B~

[hex a holik]

we are building some tanks right now and we are using bathroom board to line the inside of the tank. I am using liquid nails to adhere the panels to the main boards. the stuff is like concrete when dried.

[Jarret]

I used formica for my cage. Sort of like linoleum, you can get it in A LOT of different colors/designs but I just went with the pure white to make it easier to clean and to see if there are issues.

And as a sealant, used the caulking that comes in tubes that is made for use in shower/tub surrounds. That way you know that the sealant is waterproof, plus it is really resistant to mold, which helps since cages are usually at a higher then normal humidity round the clock.

As far as attaching the formica to the plywood, I used contact cement. Works very well and holds the formica to the wood without any issues.

I bought the formica in a 4'x12' sheet and it ran about $80. Had it shipped directly to my house.

I personally would go with the formica because as you mentioned you are already using 1" plywood for the cage and the formica barely weighs anything, lol. Not sure how big your cages are, but the 4'x12' sheet covered the top/bottom/sides/back of my cage and my cage is 6'x2'18".

[steelheadchris]

Hey thanks for all the reply's and great ideas.