# waterproof table



## herbiethegreat (Dec 23, 2010)

how should i waterproof the floor and sides on my table i am building. its just made from plywood?


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## Maggie Cummings (Dec 23, 2010)

I stapled a shower curtain liner in mine as I was afraid of toxic fumes from anything I would paint on and it has worked quite well for the past 5 years...


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## GBtortoises (Dec 24, 2010)

I've always painted plywood enclosures with a good qualitly gloss or semi-gloss latex alkyd enamel paint. Some of my enclosures have been in use for 25 years+ and have only needed to be repainted once in that period of time. The finish is very easy to keep clean, durable and looks good. Very few paints available today, and especially no water based (latex) paints give off any toxic fumes. Any painted surface should be fully cured per instructions on the label, before being put into service.


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## turtletania (Dec 24, 2010)

i used a flooring vinyl on mine....works brilliantly.


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## ISTortoiseLover (Dec 24, 2010)

I bought a big sheet of PVC and lined the inside of my enclosure, and used a wide transparent adhesive tape to stick it to the enclosure.


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## Madkins007 (Dec 24, 2010)

As you can see, you have several choices, depending on your tastes and budget. Paints, polyurethane coatings, several other clear finished, linoleum liners, plastic sheeting liners, etc. You can also use thin rigid plastic or plastic coated hardboard. 

With any option, you need to be careful and thorough- good multiple layers with proper cure times, or accurate fits and caulking, etc. In my 9x4" indoor pen, a blue plastic tarp did quite well, but was ugly as sin where you could see it.


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## tortoisenerd (Dec 24, 2010)

I think a combo of a water based polyurethane on the wood (aired out for a week before putting the tort in) and a plastic liner (like a heavy duty shower curtain, shower pan liner, or pond liner) stapled in with a staple gun is a good place to start. I personally am afraid of the vinyl flooring because of the chemicals they use in it (and how they might react to urine and such)--and I've seen where a tort will scratch or chew through it--I think for a tort room or something that would be fine to put on the floors and a bit up the wall, but not an enclosure where the tort is surrounded by it being on the walls. Home improvement stores have the gray rolls of shower pan liner (they will cut it to what you want) year round, when you can only find pond liner typically in warm months. Both are thicker than the heavy duty shower curtains. Something I'm curious about but haven't tried is using a plastic type spray on liner, like truck bed liner, to make it have the surface like plastic on the inside, but the nice wood on the outside. I didn't want to deal with a tort table again so with the current enclosure upgrade we are doing, we ordered a giant plastic tub made by Vision (which costs a small fortune!).


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## PeanutbuttER (Dec 24, 2010)

I saw these at Ikea the other day and was wondering what they could be used for... I'm throwing it out there as maybe an option.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20169936

They look like they could be waterproof enough, but I'm not sure. Haven't ever used them. They do come in different designs and you'd lay them together like tile I guess. Only plus over tile being that you can install it using silicone and don't have to worry about having a tile saw or anything.


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## herbiethegreat (Dec 26, 2010)

well thank you everyone for your input help me alot i think i am just goin to paint it with a water based latex paint and use some linolium on the floor, i will put up pics when done


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