Reptile wood enclosure

[-Moose-]

Hey everyone I'm a new user, I have a wood enclosure I want to waterproof for a Hogg Island Boa but I don't know what my best option is, I have Fiberglass Resin and I will replace a glass panel for mesh for ventilation. I haven't used it because I want other suggestions as to how I should seal the wood, there is a small coating on it already but I feel it's not enough. Any suggestions?

[Tsubaki]

My best experience has been with either epoxy resin, or boat sealant. I prefer Epoxy because you don't have to sand down the first layer, if you put the 2nd layer over it before the first one fully hardens (24h)

[-Moose-]

I heard epoxy takes forever for the smell to go away. Will I have that problem?

[david26]

I have alway used pieces of scrap Vinyl flooring I find off jobsite on the floor and about 6" up the wall then jused seal the rest of the wood with a good out door paint or deck/wood sealant. You can probably also get scraps from hardware stores that they have cut off

[bigsnakegirl785]

I used polyurethane, I think water based, but don't remember. Just put on however many layers needed for each enclosure and it's worked. Been just over 3 years, no sign of bowing, no rotting, nothing. In the beginning, I did get some mold in one of the enclosures but I added a couple more layers and that stopped it. It's still there, but not growing.

One enclosure just needed something like 3 or 4 layers, the other needed 6-8 layers, seems to depend on the piece of wood used.

(And another note: I'm regularly pouring at least 10-15 gallons of water in the enclosure, once a week or every other week, and it has withstood bowl tippings.)

[Andy_G]

Water based polyurethane. 6 coats almost always does the trick. Be sure to ventilate the cage well and don't put anything in it until the smells disappear. Takes less time than epoxy, although epoxy is excellent as well.

[Tsubaki]

Epoxy took a few days to air out for me, didn't have that problem.

[akane]

Polyurethane. If you live near a source of water you can find marine safe polyurethane. They even use it to seal plywood for making saltwater coral growout tanks.