Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am building an enclosure for my Brazilian rainbow boa and so I need to seal the wood from water. I plan on using fiberglass resin without the cloth part to help seal it. Has anyone else done anything like this before?

Yes. It's a major pain to work with, though. The real benefit of the resin is how durable and inexpensive it it. Nice for monitors or species that can cause damage via scratching.

I recommend experimenting with how many drops of activator to add to get the drying time you are looking for. It also can be very difficult to achieve a smooth finish.

If I needed this type of durability/water resistance I'd probably try the West Systems Marine epoxy that has been discussed on the Monitor Forum. A bit more expensive but can be troweled on and has some self-leveling properties. Still cheap compared to Envirotex or Pool Epoxy Paint.

But do you really need the strength of an epoxy or resin? If I were keeping Rainbow Boas again the only reason I would use an epoxy is if I wanted to show off the wood grain of my cage interior. In that case I would use Envirotex (expensive).

My personal choice would be my storage tote design if that offered enough floor area or to line the interior of a plywood cage with thin expanded PVC. Or to build the entire cage from expanded PVC to begin with.