Fiberglass or pond epoxy (pond armor) for indoor enclosure?

[ztgbrawler3]

Hey I'm looking to build a new large indoor enclosure for my Redfoots soon. I plan on making an insulated box with about 60 square feet of walking space for my 2 Redfoots. I have seen people's plans to seal in the moisture--and keep the wood from being attacked by the moisture--with everything from specialized paint, to 2-part hardware epoxy, to fiberglass cloth and resin, to a roll-on epoxy pond liner such as pond armor.

The cost isn't a huge issue to me, I just want to know what has worked best for people. What can my Redfoots claw at without scraping up? What can I take a shovel to when changing out the mulch, without tearing chunks out of it? For longevity's sake, I've more or less narrowed it down to the fiberglass cloth and resin, like you'd do to waterproof a wooden boat, or the pond epoxy such as Pond Armor/Pond Shield. I owe need to do about 200 square feet of coverage, including the walls.

I know from experience that fiberglass is somewhat difficult to work with, and definitely messy. I don't really have any experience with a roll-on epoxy liner. Any advice or your experiences with either would be great. Thanks!

 

[Markw84]

I've used and tried all of the above. I think the fiberglass is the best for waterproof and durability. It is messy to work with but if you are working with flat surfaces it's really not that bad. I wear surgical latex gloves and am sure to mix only enough to work with for the 15 min pot time. Keep in mind if you leave it in the container once mixed with setting agent it will set up faster as the more volume in contact with, the more heat is generated and the faster set. So I will pour the contents in the bottom of my enclosure I'm sealing and spread from there instead of trying to paint it on out of the container. Use an undercoat fiberglass first that doesn't have the wax finish as it remains tacky and doesn't require sanding between coats. That way the cloth is also easy to lay out on the tacky surface for your next coat. Use the finish fiberglass for your final coat to get the smooth glossy finish.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I've used fiberglass to seal my cement pools. Just the resin, though and no mat.

 

[ztgbrawler3]

I've used and tried all of the above. I think the fiberglass is the best for waterproof and durability. It is messy to work with but if you are working with flat surfaces it's really not that bad. I wear surgical latex gloves and am sure to mix only enough to work with for the 15 min pot time. Keep in mind if you leave it in the container once mixed with setting agent it will set up faster as the more volume in contact with, the more heat is generated and the faster set. So I will pour the contents in the bottom of my enclosure I'm sealing and spread from there instead of trying to paint it on out of the container. Use an undercoat fiberglass first that doesn't have the wax finish as it remains tacky and doesn't require sanding between coats. That way the cloth is also easy to lay out on the tacky surface for your next coat. Use the finish fiberglass for your final coat to get the smooth glossy finish.

Yeah I had a feeling that was probably going to be the best option. Just have to work up the courage to do that much fiberglass

 

[ztgbrawler3]

I've used fiberglass to seal my cement pools. Just the resin, though and no mat.

Did you find durability an issue without the cloth? I tend to keep my RF pad pretty moist.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Did you find durability an issue without the cloth? I tend to keep my RF pad pretty moist.

No .
Not at all.
However, I found that unless the cement cures for a few weeks first, the fiberglass will POP out when the cement shrinks.
The resin turns into a very tough, hard, plastic. the cloth makes larger areas even stronger.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Rolled vinyl flooring (not tiles) is reasonable easy to work with and if you run it up the sides of the enclosure the entire inside of the box will have a durable liner. You would need to seal the four corner seems. Cut it and place it, hold it on at least one side with clamps, then pull it back and glue it down to the plywood. Go around to each side, keeping it in place with clamps until the glue dries. Now we are talking about a flooring that in a home can last some 20 - 30 years.

Depending on the size (length x width) you might find an end or return at a big box hardware store for cheap. Even to just buy full price can be less expensive than the various coating you are currently considering. So if your box is 6 x 10 you'd buy a 12 foot wide piece by 8 feet long. Cut from each corner a one square foot square, and fit it into your box, the extra foot is glue up the wall, the corners are sealed with mastic from the gluing on the wood side, and can be further sealed with bathroom caulk on the walking surface side. You don't have to glue the floor part of the enclosure bottom, but can if you want to. My first trial of this is a 2 x 4 foot footprint box and I ran the flooring 8 inches up each side. That is enough for 4 to 6 inches of substrate. I stapled along the top edge for a mechanical fastening.

I really don't like the odor of all those other 'paint-able' substances. The flooring glue is bad enough, put is mostly covered quickly.

 

[Loohan]

Flexible vinyl has a lot of toxic pthalate plasticizers. That's what makes plastics flexible. Supposedly it does outgas some.
Epoxy is largely composed of BPA, but that is probably fairly chemically stable once cured unless used to line a water trough.
Not sure about fiberglas (polyester) resin, but suspect it might be the cleanest choice, once it has cured and the stench is gone. Which can take a while.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Flexible vinyl has a lot of toxic pthalate plasticizers. That's what makes plastics flexible. Supposedly it does outgas some.
Epoxy is largely composed of BPA, but that is probably fairly chemically stable once cured unless used to line a water trough.
Not sure about fiberglas (polyester) resin, but suspect it might be the cleanest choice, once it has cured and the stench is gone. Which can take a while.

I got this on consumers reports webpage.
"A few months have passed since Lumber Liquidators suspended sales of laminate flooring sourced from China pending its investigation after a 60 Minutesreport accused the retailer of selling floors that emitted high levels of formaldehyde. But another concern, phthalates in vinyl flooring, has also garnered attention since both Home Depot and Lowe’s announced that flooring products they sell will be phthalate-free by 2016. We support what these home centers are doing.

Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, has long raised concerns about phthalates. Used to make plastics more pliant, these compounds are also endocrine disruptors—and some are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as possible or probable carcinogens.

As the video of our testing shows, we ran our own tests for 13 types of phthalates. Our results? Phthalates are used, but levels in the flooring varied. In terms of consumer exposure, we found only very low levels in the air and on wipes we ran across the 17 vinyl samples and one sample of wood flooring we tested.

Although we found phthalate levels to be very low in our wipe test of new and artificially aged floor tiles, we still recommend caution. Parents of toddlers should wet-mop the floor often and wash children’s hands after the little ones have been crawling on a vinyl floor."

maybe whatever replaces the phtaleates will be no better or worse? do you know. I was un-aware of phtalates in the first place. I have used this kind of flooring off and on since the early 1970's in box turtle and tortoise enclosures. It has so many virtues. Glad to know better and I hope whatever is changed is benign.


http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/08/can-your-floor-make-you-sick/index.htm

 

[Loohan]

Yeah, normally the rigid flooring SHOULD be fairly low in outgas. Because it doesn't need to be flexible.
I dunno if Consumer Reports only tested laminates (rigid) but if these are decent quality, they should be reasonably OK. Of course, also less convenient for turtle enclosures, i suppose. The seams would let moisture enter, and below the thin veneer, they are just a masonite-like substance. Which might eventually swell, i imagine.