My Saturday consisted of first finishing off the fogger container by shaping the polystyrene I glued together the day before. Again, this process was just using a box cutter and heavily scraping at the sides till I got the desired look I wanted.
I had actually forgotten this part when I finished the rock wall, so I did it at the same time as the fogger container. Using a heat gun I went over the edges and some of the rock wall, this added a bit more of a natural looking shape as well as turning the loose edges more solid as the polystyrene melts and then sets hard. Do this in a well ventilated area as it does let of a few fumes, this process makes rendering much easier.
The fogger container before the render was added.
Mixing up the render is rather easy, add water to a container then add some render power and mix. Make it to a consistency to suit, for the first coat I made it rather runny as this allowed me to fill most of the gaps and tricky places with relative ease. I also mixed in some paint to give the render the colour I wanted, many said to just paint afterwards but I found this easier and also allowed for different effects.
I made the first coat a pinkish brown colour, though this picture doesn't really show the colour well, looks more brown.
Placing the rock wall and fogger container on my work bench and on top of an old sheet as this process is very messy. I also recommended removing or covering anything in close vicinity that you want kept clean as render gets flicked around quite a lot, I learnt this the hard way. Also wear some old clothing that you don't mind getting ruined, I wore my work uniform, it was free and is covered in glue and stuff anyway.
I just used a couple of different sized paint brushes to apply the render, they worked well. A small brush helped to push the runny mix into the gaps. I then set the fogger container outside in the sun to speed up the drying process.
Next I moved on to the rock wall, at first I started slowly and carefully applied the render but found this was a slow and tedious process and my arm got tired quickly. So then I opted for a heavier handed approach, this proved to be more efficient and worked a lot better. I used a large paint brush and just quickly slopped render over the wall, covering as much as I could as fast as I could. Once I had covered majority of the wall with the larger brush I used the smaller brush to get in all the nooks and crannies. Stir up the render mix periodically to keep the consistency as it separates rather quickly and you'll just end up applying coloured water.
It didn't take all that long to do a coat, I was rather surprised as I thought it'd take longer. I then set the wall outside in the sun to dry as well.
While waiting for the render to dry so I could do another coat I decided to attach the vents. I used a countersink bit on the front vents as the bolts I got where not flush sitting ones, rather quick and easy to fix. Then just line it up with previous marked lines, drill some holes and pop in the bolts.
Then go round the back, fit the other piece on, added some washers, a nut and tighten it up. I plan to cut the bolts down so they don't protrude so far out, but I'll do that later when I work on the back of the vivarium and the wiring.
Fitted the second vents the same way of course.
All bolted together and the vents are done, time to check the render.
It was actually a nice warm and sunny Australian spring day, this was good as the render dried rather quickly and allowed me to do additional coats a lot quicker than I anticipated. The paint I bought was not quite the colour I wanted, once mixed with the render it was a bit too pinkish so I raided the kids painting draw and found some powdered paints they don't use. I mixed this with the pinkish paint and render to get a more reddy brown render mix, the grey colour of the render surprisingly did very little to the colour of the paint, I kind of expected it to change the colour a lot more than it did.
The second coat of render I made it thicker than the first but still a little on the runny side. This gave a thicker coat and also because it was a slightly different colour to the first coat when it didn't fill all of the nooks and crannies gave a nice effect to the look of the rock wall. I used this technique throughout the rendering process, each coat got thicker and darker in colour and the final coat was the proper thickness render should be and the desired colour I wanted. Well as close to the colour as I could get it with the paint at my disposal, I'd recommend getting a paint to the exact colour you want if you are not willing to compromise on your final colour.
During application of each coat, as the render begins to dry just a little but is still damp, use a clean paintbrush dipped in water and dab it over the render to remove the brush strokes for a cleaner more natural look. Also, when I read up on rendering rock walls for reptiles it was recommended by a few to use a smooth non-gritty type render but then at the end during sealing process to add sand for a textured effect. I kind of saw that rather pointless and silly, I just used a gritty render. Not only was it cheaper but it also gave a wonderful nature look, great texture and made less work. Once sealed it still looked good, more natural look and feel and still worked well, so unless you want a smooth textured rock wall, I would say go with gritty render.
I did 4 coats of render on both the fogger container and the rock wall, if you make a wall with quite a lot of shelves and protruding pieces like I have (also large in size) I'd recommend applying the render while it is upright and then laying it down to make sure you cover all the bits you can't see/reach properly. I didn't do this at first and discovered parts I missed with the first coat.
In the end I didn't quite get the colour I was aiming for but it was close enough (well I just ended up accepting it after being a little annoyed). I was aiming for a reddy brown type colour, anyone not familiar with Australia might want to google "Uluru" as this will give you an idea of what I was aiming for. My snake's species comes from the north-west of Australia and it's natural habitat is mainly this colour so I wanted to try get that sort of look.
To create a better effect and really make both pieces look more realistic I used the powdered paints I found (stole) and fixed up some various colours. A darkish brown for inbetween the rock pieces and indents and a lighter reddy brown for the rocks. Using the smaller paint brush (after washing it of course) I got some paint on it then dabbed it on the sheet till there was next to none left on the paint brush and then lightly dabbed it in the places I wanted the colour. This technique create quite a nice effect as it didn't cover the whole area it was applied and just added highlights to the render. I guess you could use a sponge in this way too, if you're rather artistic I'm sure there are various ways to get the desired effect you are after.
I had a large tub of fence paint that I bought ages ago when I built some stuff for outside my house. It was a tan/sandstone type colour. Seeing as I had it laying around I thought I'd make the most of it, using the same technique as with the other paint I dabbed this on the tips of the rocks and around the cliff like edges. This gave a nice weathered look to the rocks and made the whole thing seem more natural and realistic. This began looking more like what I wanted and I was very happy with the look.
The fogger container turned out really well and once it was sealed (with the wrong sealer) the colours went a little darker and it looked very close to what I wanted and I was really quite happy with it.
Sealing the rock wall was rather tricky, making sure to get in all the nooks and crannies proved to be a bit of an effort. Luckily (or unluckily as I discovered later) the sealer was very thin and got into the gaps quite easily. I applied it with a clean paintbrush and just slopped it on and brushed it into the gaps, I found the more you applied, the more it went into the gaps.
Then I left it to dry, at this stage the fumes made me feel rather sick so I came inside and rested for a bit. After a while I went outside to see how it looked as the sealer should have dried, at first glance it looked pretty good. The colours had gone darker the same as the fogger container had, making it a lot closer to the look I was aiming for and I was rather quite pleased. I felt the wall to see what it felt like and as I was running my hand over it that is when I discovered the problem, parts of it felt brittle and began to flake off.
At first I thought "oh great, the whole render is going to just fall off" but then after further inspection I realised what the problem was and could not believe how stupid I was. A solvent based sealer, what was I thinking! Why did the fumes not make me realise?!? How could I have overlooked such an important detail....
First problem being that the sealer was toxic, this is bad news for a reptile. The second problem was that the sealer had run into all the little gaps and anywhere that the polystyrene was slightly exposed still (or gaps the sealer leaked into and onto the polystyrene) and ate the polystyrene away. It ate it with fury and left big holes and got right under the render causing it to flake off leaving exposed polystyrene. My god it was a disaster, I honestly just felt like giving up at this point because the more I looked the more bits I found had been eaten away. So I called it a day, made the previous brief blog post and tried not to think about it.
The next day I got up and went and inspected it some more, thankfully it had not gotten any worse and the damage that was done could likely be fixed without -too- much trouble. So off I went to my local Bunnings and picked up a few things to fix the issues. I bought some expanding foam filler to seal up all the holes and parts that got eaten away. I used this because it set quickly (30mins) and made it a lot easier to fill the holes than just applying lots of gap filler and waiting hours (or a day) for it to set, it was rather inexpensive but it sure was messy. It stuck to your hand and was next to impossible to get off, next time I use that stuff I'll be wearing gloves.
I also picked up a tub of PVA glue and a cheap spray bottle, I used this as a cheap and easy sealer to cover over the toxic sealer. My reasons to use this was that it's easy to water down and use the sprayer to apply, I was also able to apply several coats in a short amount of time as it dried quite quickly (especially in the lovely Australian sun). I also got several coats from a small bottle of PVA, I was going to use a non-toxic grout sealer but it was rather on the expensive side (well not really but more than PVA) and only came in small bottle and it would probably only be enough for one coat.
I do intend on finishing it off with grout sealer as PVA is not waterproof and will eventually break down with moisture and the vivarium is going to be a humid environment. The main aim of the PVA as a sealer was to ensure the toxic sealer was well covered with several coats and no parts where missed.
I won't be including the cost of stuff to repair the damage into my final price list, I will also be removing the solvent based sealer from the list and just add the price of the grout sealer to it. Had I actually thought it through rather than seeing something on sale and thinking of the savings only, I would have just bought the grout sealer and one coat would have done the job required. Lesson learned, heh!
After patching the holes I began regrouting over the filler, I really didn't have much paint left so I made a rather thick mix of render with no colour and went over the damaged parts. I allowed it to dry then coated it again with a thick mix but coloured this time. I really did not get the colour render I wanted as I was out of red powdered paint, so it ended up a more lighter pinkish brown. I wasn't as pleased like I was with the colour before the sealer destroyed it but I guess it was better than big holes everywhere.
Also because I had no red powdered paint left, when doing the highlights I had to improvise making a darker brown. I tried to use the pinkish paint I had for the render and mixed in some green powdered paint, this didn't quite work out and created more of a greenish brown than a reddy brown I wanted. At this stage I just accepted it, painted away and finished it off even though the colours where not quite the same as before. In the end, it was good enough and there was very little I could do without spending more money.
I made a 50/50 mixture of PVA to water in the spray bottle, I read about this as a sealer on a reptile forum. It was actually recommended by quite a few people so long as not in a wet or humid environment. As I said earlier, yes my vivarium will be humid but I am sealing over the top of the PVA and it was more of a barrier than a sealant. This process of application also meant it was very easy to cover the entire wall quickly and ensure it got into every gap and crevice, as the mixture was almost like water. Spraying the mix on very heavily I coated everything, allowing it to drip down and anything that it missed I got the spray into those areas.
During this process I used a paintbrush to brush the mix into any places it may have missed and also to stop the mix pooling or drying in drips. Repeatedly I brushed over the areas, this spread any mix that had started to pool, removed any drip lines or drops that began to form on the underneath. I repeated this process several time after each coat had dried till I was just about out of PVA, then I left it for a while to sit in the sun while the PVA dried thoroughly. Once it had dried properly I then applied a last coat, this time I made a thicker mix, roughly about 70/30 PVA to water. Sprayed and brushed as before, smoothing it repeatedly till it had began to set and then cleaned up.
In the end it looks rather good, not as good as before but I am still happy with it.
The fogger container is still the original colouring before the disaster, that somehow avoided any damage. It was still coated with several layers of the PVA sealer though. But when they are together you can see the colour difference, ah well it still looks good anyway. I must admit the picture doesn't look nearly as good as it does in person.
I still had a few hours left in the day and didn't quite feel like packing it up just yet so I sorted a few things out in my shed that I have for the build and found my old thermometer. It has a magnetic back (as well as a stand) and seeing as I bought 2 new ones more suitable for inside the vivarium I decided I would use this to measure the outside temperature so I can see how efficiently the heating in the vivarium works. So I cut a piece out of an old tin I had lying about (yay for hording junk!) and used liquid nails to attach it to the front of the vivarium in the desire location.
Sits quite nicely!
I also decided to check the fit of the heat lamp and cage. Looking good!
With more time to spare I measure up for my glass doors, later on that night I sent off an email to the glazier to get a quote. I was hoping to hear back today but have not gotten a reply, hopefully tomorrow.
My thermometers arrived in the post, they look rather good. Not a bad buy and should look good in the vivarium. Also the replacement plant for the one that was damaged in the post came as well, pretty cool as the other one is still totally usable. So I'll have 3 new plants now along with the old ones I have from old vivarium. It's gonna be a jungle in there!
I "borrowed" a few things from work, I was originally going to take the vivarium back to work to finish it off but the owner is being a bit of a dick and honestly I just can't be bothered asking or dealing with him. So I got most of what I needed (will get rest when I can) and I will just finish it off at home.
Some rags to clean it up with, what we call gunwash (some random mixture of chemicals that cleans just about anything off laminated surfaces), screws, caps for the screws, a good countersink with drill bit, some very fine wet n dry sandpaper to smooth the glass if needed and some blocks of 10mm chipboard which will fill the cutouts where the thermometers will attach on. I still need to get some pine'o'cleen (an antibacterial cleaning spray), liquid laminate and cut one more block for the thermostat.
Well that's the update, a rather long one this time. In the end things seemed to have worked out but it sure was a roller coaster ride that ended with me learning some valuable lessons and hopefully if anyone is actually reading this will be able to avoid.
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