Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Chris, a couple of weeks ago you had a great idea on how to heat a stack of melamine cages with flexwatt. 1/4" pvc for the entire floor or a hole in the melamine floor coverd with 1/8" pvc, I liked both ideas, decided to go with the 1/4" for the entire floor. Started going through the yellow pages for sign companies, had no idea ther were so many in my area. Only one was willing to sell to me, he said he had it. Went to pick it up, it was something he called core pvc. It had channels running through it, it would have just smashed down with the weight of the cages. Is it possible to order the correct pvc on line, or might there be another material that would be suitable? THANKS

Well if you have that many sign shops you may also have plastic shops. Check with them as well. The expanded PVC goes by a few different names. Foamed core or expanded core PVC sheet being the most common.

Sintra is the brand name that has become almost generic. You may ask for that or an equivalent product.

Other products that may work include smooth surfaced shower board (some of these are not very durable), Fiberglass reinforced panel, or other thin plastic sheets.

I would research those options further before ordering online. Shipping is touch for full sheets.

What are the dimensions of your cages and how many are you building again?

Went in a sign shop near by my work. They said only had scraps, but would order me a sheet. The piece she showed me was soild, thats what she said they call pvc. Said she would order it Monday. Decided to go with the 1/4" across the entire floor.36"x16", building six. THANKS

Glad to hear you found it. If you look at the product closely you'll see it's not really solid. The face sheets are very thin PVC laminated over a foamed PVC interior.

Regarding your dimensions... for some reason I was thinking your original dimensions would not allow you to get the number of "floors" you needed from a full sheet of PVCX. But I probably got you mixed up with someone else or just did the math incorrectly in my head. No big deal, just thought I should clarify why I asked.

One last tip. Before you staple the floor onto the bottom of the cage I think you should line the bottom few inches of the melamine with something.

One thing I have tried is that heavy-duty, clear packing tape. I think it is 2" wide. Place that all around the bottom 2" of the cage and then staple the PVCX onto the bottom rim. Then when you silicone the edges you have effectively sealed the first two inches of the cage.

If that description still does not make sense think of it as creating a 2" deep tray for the bottom of the cage. The PVCX is the bottom of the tray, the packing tape is the sides.

This part of the cage does not need that much protection so it's not really worth spending a lot of money on something to protect the melamine.

But it really comes in handy if you have a snake that constantly deficates along the edge where floor and wall meet.

Thats were they usually go. Never thought about the packing tape, good idea. We have cases of them at work. The pvc won't be in until next week, but I hope to get the cages together this weekend and do the floors when the pvc somes in next week. Any tips on how to cut the pvc, I'm assuming a circular saw? If so, would the best blade be the ones for panneling that have more teeth? Don't know if it will chip or splinter like panneling.

Expanded PVC cuts easily with just about any circular saw blade. I think a low-kerf blade with a high tooth number would be recommended but any will work.

I will tell you, though, that any power saw will leave a coat of dust all over you, your garage, everything. The stuff is tenacious.

Another problem with using a saw is that you could lose up to 1/8" with each pass, meaning each of your pieces would be slightly less than 16" wide.

Not a huge deal, but if you're worried about it and want to avoid the dust you could try scoring the material with a razor run along a straight-edge. I would clamp the straight-edge to the PVC and make several passes to achieve a deep score.

Either way, you'll have a 12" x 96" piece to practice on since your floors are 16"x36". I highly recommend that.

I will use a razor knife instead. Chris, thanks for all your help, didn't know where to begin. THANKS