Wood types to build a structure?

[ricknornes]

Hi, we just finished building a great house for our tortious, my wife just read that you can't use cedar wood to build because it is toxic to the turtle, is this true? I spent like $400 on materials. Can you paint over the cedar? Does that help?

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not an expert on wood, but I THINK the cedar thing refers to not using cedar shavings for bedding. Chances are that if your lumber was kiln dried the oils probably wouldn't be as bad. But wait a bit to hear from others @Markw84 ??

 

[Canadian Mojo]

I don't know how serious a threat cedar is to torts. I suspect Yvonne is right, but I honestly don't know. Hopefully somebody does have an answer.

If it turns out you do need to seal the wood, shellac will do an excellent job. One of it's traditional uses is to seal pine knots before painting so they don't bleed through the paint. It keeps a nice natural finish to the wood and it food safe if anybody chews on it. You can literally put three coats of oil on something and then shellac over it and it will seal the oil in permanently (although it will probably take a couple coats). If you're going to paint, shellac is also the principle ingredient in a lot of the sealing and stain hiding paints like Zinsser Bin sealer.

It's pretty economical too.