Help with DIY enclosure

[kal777]

Im building a large 1200mmx900mmx600mm enclosure for my Carpet, im wanting to make a rock wall in the enclosure that will cover the back and sides. but i have a few questions i need answered.

i am using ply wood for the enclose out of which i am going to seal the inside around the edges with an aquarium safe silicone, then i am going to coat the inside with Pondtite before putting the expander foam on the walls. then ill seal around the expander foam with the silicone and carve it, then coat the expander foam with 3-5 coats of Pondtite to give it a waterproof safe finish.

the question i want to ask is will this method work?

 

[BigWillieStyles]

Sounds like a good project.

EDIT - misread

I would only use pondtite if you are going to get the background wet. In its place, I would use grout/cement which when completely cured, will be waterproof. You could also use polystyrene sheets cut to shape for the background instead of ply as it wont be affected by moisture and it might even insulate the enclosure a little more

This is how I would do it (assuming you want to make a rock background using expanda foam).

Make a drawing of how you want it to look or have a general idea of how you want it.
Use the expanda foam and try and make it look like rock
Cover in grout
Paint it if you wish.
At this stage you could choose to coat in Pondtite but it isnt essential

I personally would use polystyrene as I like the sharp edges but expanda foam would look good.

 

[kal777]

i like the smooth effect that expander foam makes and its pretty strong stuff too. the Pondtite i got was a coloured one, and i have paint to adjust the colour. is Pondtite still ok to use straight on the expander foam? i was going to lightly sand the expander foam with 40 grit paper to help the pondtite stick.

Edit: the whole enclosure is made from ply wood. 12mm thick sheets that will be sanded and made into a box, i wanted the wood finish on the outside of the box so i also have some water based stainer and varnish to do the outside.

basically its going to be a wooden tank that is 4 foot high, 3 foot wide and 2 feet deep. the inside is going to be coated with pondtite because i like the effect it makes and it has some good properties (non-toxic and waterproof)

do you think if i made the box with out the door, and placed some glad wrap or paper on the inside walls and filled the expander foam on the back wall and 2 side walls, the glad wrap/paper would allow me to pull the expander foam out after?

 

[BigWillieStyles]

Sounds like you have it all worked out. Maybe give it a small try on a small area to see if it work and sticks well. I was also going to suggest sanding it as the expanda foam surface will be very smooth.

 

[kal777]

do you think if i made the box with out the door, and placed some glad wrap or paper on the inside walls and filled the expander foam on the back wall and 2 side walls, the glad wrap/paper would allow me to pull the expander foam out after?

 

[Just_Plain_Nuts]

Im building a large 1200mmx900mmx600mm enclosure for my Carpet, im wanting to make a rock wall in the enclosure that will cover the back and sides. but i have a few questions i need answered.

i am using ply wood for the enclose out of which i am going to seal the inside around the edges with an aquarium safe silicone, then i am going to coat the inside with Pondtite before putting the expander foam on the walls. then ill seal around the expander foam with the silicone and carve it, then coat the expander foam with 3-5 coats of Pondtite to give it a waterproof safe finish.

the question i want to ask is will this method work?

Main problem with this is that pondtite will not adhere to the silicone or anything that the silicone has touched. I would suggest sealing the cabinet with pondtite first then siliconing. Same problem with siliconing the expanda foam. You could also ditch the silicone and replace it with sikaflex which is stronger and paintable. Also the foam will be quite fragile with just pondtite on it and will wear like the cheap foam rock walls you buy in pet shops

do you think if i made the box with out the door, and placed some glad wrap or paper on the inside walls and filled the expander foam on the back wall and 2 side walls, the glad wrap/paper would allow me to pull the expander foam out after?

It wont be as easy as you think , it will still stick in there very well. I would suggest making the back of the enclosure taper in by about 10mm and putting in multiple layers of paper to make it easier to pull out

 

[kal777]

Main problem with this is that pondtite will not adhere to the silicone or anything that the silicone has touched. I would suggest sealing the cabinet with pondtite first then siliconing. Same problem with siliconing the expanda foam. You could also ditch the silicone and replace it with sikaflex which is stronger and paintable. Also the foam will be quite fragile with just pondtite on it and will wear like the cheap foam rock walls you buy in pet shops


It wont be as easy as you think , it will still stick in there very well. I would suggest making the back of the enclosure taper in by about 10mm and putting in multiple layers of paper to make it easier to pull out

how many coats of Pondtite would you recommend on the Expander foam then if you think it will wear out? ive got a pretty big container of Pondtite so i could do up to 10 coats i guess. but like i said i really like the look of the pondtite. thanks for the input everyone, this is helping me out a lot.

 

[Tinky]

It will get poo'd on, so whatever you design, think about how you are going to clean it.....

 

[kal777]

It will get poo'd on, so whatever you design, think about how you are going to clean it.....

good point, however ill make sure the basking spots are sanded flat. ive gone out and got some wood filler silicone that can be painted over so ill make sure that i do that before i put the pondtite on. ive just started building it today. when you get the walls up 4 foot seems a lot larger than in your mind, think im going to need some more Expander Foam for the walls.

 

[briiiziii]

are you not going to grout the expanda foam???

 

[J-A-X]

how many coats of Pondtite would you recommend on the Expander foam then if you think it will wear out? ive got a pretty big container of Pondtite so i could do up to 10 coats

Pondtite is a sealer ....NOT a strengthener. If you want to make sure it's strong you have to grout/ render the foam, especially expanda foam, it's very soft.