# how to build fake reptile background..CHEAP!!



## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

it seems a lot of ppl are interested in this, i to am interested and i searched the net for a good artical on how to and i found that http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/falserock/ is the best, hop it is helpful...


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## jessb (Jan 29, 2008)

Yep, I agree - they are the basic instructions I followed to build my climbing wall and it looks great! Will post pics soon.


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

would love to see them becouse i am planning on making one soon.


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

if anyone else has pics would love some ideas, thx


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## scam7278 (Jan 29, 2008)

awsome link  thanks for that


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## jessb (Jan 29, 2008)

I've taken them but need to transfer them to my computer. Will prob do it tonight. What are you building it for?


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

my centralian that i got as a juvi last sept, thx would love to see thos pix


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## Auzlizardking (Jan 29, 2008)

http://www.thereptileroom.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=21408&st=0&#entry251535


http://aquarium.mriweb.nl/en/


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

woundering...how long will it take for my centralian to get to around 6 foot??


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## Auzlizardking (Jan 29, 2008)

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68758&sid=ff327354d2229cc7c0cd37c8d28af3cb


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## Auzlizardking (Jan 29, 2008)

http://reptileguides.herpcenter.com/creating-artificial-enclosure-t136.html?t=136


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

we no all bout your enclosure now.............


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

would love to see pix of other ppls designs, and would like to no how much they would cost to buy in the shop, also would like to no how much it costed you if you have made one...thx


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## Auzlizardking (Jan 29, 2008)

From this to this,


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

that is a nice looking enclosure....thx


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## meshe1969 (Jan 29, 2008)

This universal habitats website, but they don't have prices:
http://www.universalrocks.com/cgi-bin/cms.pl?search=aqua&field=Category

You can find prices on Matt's site:
http://www.animalattraction.com.au/...rt/Itemid,40/page,shop.browse/category_id,79/

And here is one we built ourselves for about $30:
http://thefrogmansion.blogspot.com/


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

thx


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## Trouble (Jan 29, 2008)

wow these look awesome
I want to make one now, and considering it doesn't sound that hard to make either :lol:


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

thats what i thought, guess i will find out for shore in the next few weeks because i am making one...lol


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## jessb (Jan 29, 2008)

I am sooooo rubisjh at anything that requires handy/crafty skills. I told my husband I wanted to build this wall and he thought I was joking. But with the help of the great guys in our local hardware with advice on materials etc, I got it done in about 6 x 1 hour sessions!


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

it looks easy to me..


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## meshe1969 (Jan 29, 2008)

It is very, very easy!!! Anyway even if you don't like your first one or two what have you lost if you get most of it for free. Mine is four foot by four foot and cost around $30 and I had to be more careful as it is in a wet enviroment.


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

sounds easy and cheap, even tho mine is foe a centralian, i am going to water proof it with non toxic pva, for easy cleaning and just to be safe.


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jan 29, 2008)

I'm starting mine in about a months time due to work commitments atm and on the road all the time. I'll be sure to post some pictures as well. I'll be doing a materials and methods on what and how I did it in a Word document and I'll post it with my pictures just in case anybody wants any additional info.

Nice looking walls from the pictures that are already up.

_Matt


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

i am building mine as well in the next few weeks, will post few pics of final product, (hope turns out all right lol)


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

any one who has already made one, will be very appreciated if you post pics, ther seems to be a lot of ppl interested, thx


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## jessb (Jan 29, 2008)

cool avatar ADZz!


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

lol, thx off google


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

can you buy them custom made?


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 29, 2008)

would live to see your pics jessb, email them to me if you like at [email protected], also anyone elce who has made one, pics will be appreciated


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## DragonKeeper (Jan 29, 2008)

I have been following those instructions and am almost finished (just put the last coat of PVA on) I will post pics when it's done.


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## ADZz_93 (Jan 30, 2008)

will be apreciated, i mad a mistake with my email, it is [email protected],thx


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## Riley (Jan 30, 2008)

cool thanks, very interesting


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## dezza09 (Mar 19, 2008)

How'd you guys go with your backgrounds?


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## BT (Mar 19, 2008)

one thing with polystyrene, if cutting it *WEAR A DUST MASK* i learnt the hard way and got sick for a week form inhaleing small polystyrene particals and other conatminants that were on it.


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## jessb (Mar 19, 2008)

OK, don't know if there are too many pics here but I will add it in sections and see how we go...

We started with some big polystyrene broccoli boxes from the fruit shop (free) Pic 1

One box wasn't quite wide enough to fit in our enclosure so we had to do some cutting and pasting. (Pics 2, 3,& 4) We just used a Selleys Hard as Nails which specifically works on polystyrene (it says on the tube) Here was where we made our first mistake – make sure you make the frame a good couple of centimeters shorter than your enclosure measures because you will be adding layers of grout which will bulk it out considerably. We used a sharp kitchen knife for cutting, but I’ve seen hot wire cutters used by other people and they are supposed to be better. Cutting with a knife makes LOTS of mess!

Leave the frame to dry for 24 hours.


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## jessb (Mar 19, 2008)

We then laid out a rough shape for the climbing wall, including loads of crevices and overhangs. (pics 5 and 6) I numbered them because we did this over a couple afternoons and I kept accidentally throwing vital pieces away! Lucky we had loads of extra Styrofoam... We then used the sharp knife to trim the edges and put some shape into it. We thinned the edges of the rock ledges, put some curves in the straight pieces of foam, cut down the sides of the frame and gouged out a few dips. (Pic 7) If you aren’t really confident with a knife, be really careful, because you are working at odd angles! We cut some texture into the back of the Styrofoam, but it was a bit of a waste of time as you cover it all with layers of grout anyway, and it is easier to add the texture there.

We glued it all together with more Hard as Nails (used one full tube altogether), weighted the layers with phone books and left for 24 hours. Then we glued the wall inside the frame and left again for another 24 hours. Even though you are doing it over a lengthy period of time, each of these steps takes less than an hour or so each.

We then filled any gaps or crevices that were deeper than we wanted (we needed to be able to get the snake out if necessary) with expandable foam. Leave for 24 hours. For anyone who is a bit of a novice with DIY stuff (like me) this stuff REALLY expands! Like, LOADS! So you don’t need much. On the up side, if you do use too much just wait for it to part dry and cut off the excess. NB we used way more expandable foam than this but I forgot to take a photo of that stage...

We then covered the entire thing with a layer of fairly thinned grout. We just wanted a layer to seal the entire thing – not to create any texture at this stage, so we made it thin enough to paint on with a 2” brush. That also made it easy to get into all the crevices. (Pics 8 & 8b) After about an hour, I added another, thicker layer of grout, again with a 2” paintbrush, and also used a kid’s tiny art brush to get into all the corners. Altogether I used about 5 layers of grout with anywhere from an hour to 24 hours in between layers – the fourth layer I made really thick to put lots of texture into it. I didn’t do anything fancy with the texture, I just lumped it up a bit here and there, using a damp paintbrush about 20 minutes after applying it to rough up the texture a bit. This thick layer required a full 24 hours to dry.


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## twodogs (Mar 19, 2008)

here' 1 i made for a frog tank.
using builders foam and black aquarium silicon coated with peat.


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## jessb (Mar 19, 2008)

For the final layer I added kid’s non-toxic water based paint to the grout. This allowed me to get a full base colour for the wall. (Pics 9 & 9b) I then used different colours of kid’s non-toxic water based paint to add shading and texture to the wall. I used three different shades of reds and browns and just mixed them up to create loads of different tones. The underside of the ledges were painted darker colours to create an illusion of depth. I used three small tubes of paint and they cost $2.50 each – bargain! In hindsight, I wouldn’t have spent so much time on the colour, as I ended up covering the whole thing in sand anyway, but it was fun at the time! Our 3yo daughter got very involved at this stage...

I then coated the entire thing in a layer of non-toxic PVA adhesive. It dilutes down a lot so you don’t need much! I did my first coat 1:4 PVA:water – again very thin with a small paintbrush to get into all the little crevices, then the second coat I did at a ratio of 1:2. It had a really smooth, shiny texture (Pic 10) and I was a bit worried about the snake needing a rough surface to rub against, so we bought a bag of desert sand and sprinkled it over a third layer of 1:4 PVA mix. This gave it a great texture, but covered up all my great paintwork! (Pics 11 & 11b) I still prefer this as the final surface. Haven’t had to clean it yet tho...- don’t know if the sand might be a bit of a bugger for absorbing smells/bacteria etc. Will see how it goes, but I imagine it will be reasonably easy to rub off or coat with more PVA adhesive.


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## bump73 (Mar 19, 2008)

looks great Jess.... 

If the sand is a problem you could coat it in Bondcrete, it should retain the texture and i'm pretty sure it's safe for reptiles. Its used to seal concrete so you could take background out and wash it off every now and then if you need to...

Ben


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## mick_304 (Mar 19, 2008)

great thread nice enclosure


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## jessb (Mar 19, 2008)

bump73 said:


> looks great Jess....
> 
> If the sand is a problem you could coat it in Bondcrete, it should retain the texture and i'm pretty sure it's safe for reptiles. Its used to seal concrete so you could take background out and wash it off every now and then if you need to...
> 
> Ben


 
Thanks Ben! I've just checked and Bondcrete was the PVA adhesive that I used to coat the grout layer (and I have loads left over) so if it gets skanky I will probably coat it with another layer of that.

Now I just need to wait for my teeny 40cm hatchy to get big enough to go into her big enclosure and enjoy it! Might be a while longer yet...

Just a note about how cheap it was - All I paid for was a tube of Hard as Nails, some expandable foam, a couple of 2kg bags of ready to mix grout, some kids paint and some Bondcrete. All up it cost me around $50 and took about 8 hours spread over a couple of weeks.


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## ADZz_93 (Mar 31, 2008)

Cheers, im well on my way with mine and should be don in a few weks [i dont get all that much time to do it] will post pics when done


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## Slugga!! (Jul 4, 2008)

tile adhesive (if it isn't the same thing as grout) also works well for making the background (on top of the polystyrene foam). 
also, you can paint/splash a little put metho on the polystyrene foam and it eats it away somewhat. this lets you make all sorts of funky shapes in the background. be careful not to use too much though, because it doent take much to dissolve quite a bit of foam away.

just putting my two cents in too


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 4, 2008)

I saw that site (beardeddragon.org) and I was really amazed on how detailed it was, I was gonna try it myself, never got around to it. When my leg gets better i'm gonna have to have a go at it.


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## Toastie (Jul 5, 2008)

I've been recently building a fake rock wall, i took bits of info from all different sites and posts on this site i won't clog this up with mor epics but you can check mine out on this link to another thread, i also added a post showing how i built mine:
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-herps/taj-mahal-of-enclosures-85338


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jul 5, 2008)

Here is one of my projects that I'm working on.

Now this enclosure is VERY "busy" with lots of ramps, platforms, etc. That is because this is an experimental piece of work before I build a bigger one in a 4ftx2ftx2ft enclosure. I thought I would do a "rough draft" before the final product to see what works and what doesn't so to speak.

I've got heaps of other pictures and write-ups but I'm still working on them. So when I'm done, I'll post all my pic's and notes on my website.

By the waty, this is the 4th layer of grout, so that's where I'm at, at the moment.

-Settle


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jul 5, 2008)

few more pic's...

-settle


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 5, 2008)

Crazy_Snake08 said:


> few more pic's...
> 
> -settle


 
That is outstanding. Great work.


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jul 5, 2008)

trouser_snake6 said:


> That is outstanding. Great work.


 
Thanks, it's getting there...put it that way. Trying to do it i between three jobs, two dogs and two kids .

When I'm done, there will be "progressive" pic's

_settle


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## hozy6 (Jul 5, 2008)

Crazy_Snake08 said:


> Thanks, it's getting there...put it that way. Trying to do it i between three jobs, two dogs and two kids .
> 
> When I'm done, there will be "progressive" pic's
> 
> _settle



wat reptile will be enjoying that if u dont mind me asking


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jul 5, 2008)

One of my carpet's. If it turns out alright and I can manage to get right humidity and temperature I'll make it a permanent enclosure. But I'm not going to compromise on temp's and hum for looks. After all, it is a rough draft for the final product to be done at a later date.


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