Hi

My wife and I are looking at getting a Beardie, I have posted about finding a suitable Viv for them and someone suggested building one.

I'm handy and my dad is a Chippy so I could get one knocked up but what material would you use to do this? I'm guessing MDF painted and then Laquered would not be suitable?
DOes it need to be suitably water proofed due to the humidity and what do you need in way of vents etc?

Hope I can get some help on this.

Thanks

Bob

if u go on the search link type in how to build a viv or something like that something should come up. there are loads of threads

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Hiya,

You should either use contiboard or melamine coated chipboard
as for vents, just use some that you pick up from local diy shop, just some plastic ones with a diameter of a few inches

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You dont really need to seal too aggressively against humidity as a beardie viv shouldnt have any (or very little).

We use MDF coated in Blagdon pond paint and then run a line of aquarium sealant along the joints to stop any sand etc coming through. This offers a better protection against moisture than the contiboard, which is harder to seal at the joints - and once water gets under the laminate it has nowhere to go and rots down the chipboard inside easily. For a species that needs low humidity Contiboard will probably work out cheaper than buying the paint etc and starting from scratch; for us the tins have lasted for more than one viv, so its been more cost effective.

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B&Q for wood, get them to cut the sizes for you (give them the sizes)
B&Q for glass runners and sealent

glass from any glaziers 4mm toughened, 6.4 laminated either will do

tip

drainpipe covers act as good vents

if its on the floor you might want to think about casters, really easy to get behind the unit then

light fitting are dead cheap, and you can use a normal house hold 60 or 100 watt bulb

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HI thanks for the advice.

I can get my dad to cut and spray the MDF so that its water proof, Would the Laquer be safe for the beardie then?

and what sort of sealant do you use just normal silicon sealant or is there something else?

Varnish will be fine but leave plenty of time for drying and fumes to go, also when viv is complete with heat lamp leave this on for quite a few days before getting beardie as the heat can give off more fumes, 15mm mdf will be fine or even 18mm, a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft will be ideal.

You would need about 100W heat lamp, i would use ceramic fitting and heat resistant cable due to continued high temperatures.

For glass 4mm float is fine, 4mm toughened if children or large pets could run into it - you dont really need laminated.

If you need runners vents etc pm me!

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|Vivariums built to order|

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ooO Ooo
Runners - vents - fittings supplied

Forgot to add silicone sealant is fine but dont use any containing fungicides.

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(O O)

+---oOO--(_)----------+

|Vivariums built to order|

+---------------oOO---+

|__|__|

| | |

ooO Ooo
Runners - vents - fittings supplied

Thanks thats really helpful!

What about the design of the furnishings? would you use wooden hides or would you buy ready available ones?

You could make your own hides out of sealed mdf and cover it in expanded foam - or just use expanding foam, cut/shape to your liking and cover it in tile grout (seal/paint it) to look like rock, you can also do same for background using foam or polystyrene, there should be a few threads on this.

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\\|//

(O O)

+---oOO--(_)----------+

|Vivariums built to order|

+---------------oOO---+

|__|__|

| | |

ooO Ooo
Runners - vents - fittings supplied