Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm about to start building a cage for my JCPs, and I just had the thought- can I use OSB for the floor of my cage? No one sees the bottom of the cage . . . what difference does it make what it looks like? On the inside, it's going to be painted with latex paint, and then have vinyl flooring over it, anyway, so the rough texture is not a concern.

If I use OSB for the bottom, that's an $8 board that will allow me to build the rest of the cage larger out of a single sheet of a high quality plywood.

Would this work? Or is there a reason I've never seen anyone use OSB?

thanks,
Ronnie Nocera

I have seen OSB used. My biggest gripe with it is that it does not hold screws well. It may not add much in the way of structure to the cage. It also is known for having more formaldehyde than other sheet goods.

Honestly, if my dimensions were going to require a full sheet of plywood for the rest of the cage I would do something else for the floor. I have built cages without floors before and they held up for years. I just used silicone and staples to add a piece of tile-board to the floor. Since you'll be using vinyl flooring you could just use masonite or some other sort of hardboard.

Or you could just find something like PVCX and skip the vinyl floor altogether. Maybe a sign shop will have a scrap piece in the size that you need.

Now, maybe your cage floor needs to have a lot of structure because it will be holding several inches of moist substrate or something. In that case I would skip the tile-board/PVCX type ideas. But I would also want to use something stronger than OSB.

If you do use OSB I would attach it so that the screws or nails go through the thickness of the OSB and then go lengthwise into the length of the plywood panels. Plywood will hold the screws better.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.