Shelving material?

I am getting ready to completely rennovate a 12' x 26' area into my designated snake pit. Water, air, heat, etc., all in the shop. I will be building all my racks to hold 41qt, 28qt, 15qt and 6qt tubs. THG heat tape and HerpStats will be used on the shelves. I currently have 6 racks made from PVC from C-Serpents. I have one QT rack made from OSB with 4" THG tape and it has been doing just fine.

My question is if I really NEED melamine or PVC? Plywood or OSB is much cheaper and easier to work with and has no problem holding up to 110F heat here in FL, so even 95F on a HerpStat would not be a problem. I ask because I see a lot of people building racks out of malamine or PVC, but I need to cover quite a larger area than just a 10 tub rack and it would be pricey with melamine or PVC. I'm looking at SIX 10' x 6' high units- possibly on wheels for ease of cleaning the shop.

I'm thinking 1/2" or 5/8" plywood and 2"x4"s would be just fine.

The area above the snakes tubs needs to be something like plastic, melamine, xpvc etc.
I would not use plywood if the snakes were going to be exposed to it.

Plywood is fine to use anywhere on your rack as long as it has a couple coats of non toxic latex paint that has been allowed to completely dry/cure.

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Originally Posted by TheSnakeGuy

Plywood is fine to use anywhere on your rack as long as it has a couple coats of non toxic latex paint that has been allowed to completely dry/cure.

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Oh h e double hockey sticks NO.

They would be in Sterlite or Vision tubs. Guess I need to calculate the cost of melamine with the Vision tubs. I can get them without lids and they would be exposed to the top (underside of the shelf above them), so plywood would not be good in that case. I could always use lids with Sterlite tubs, but I don't really want lids.....

Right now my QT rack is just a 8' x 24" piece of OSB on two file cabinets and the QT snakes are in Sterlite 15qt tubs with lids.

Just brainstorming, but what about plywood with linoleum glued/tacked on the underside ("ceiling" of the tubs)? I'm not sure if this removes the financial gain of not using melamine, but it would seal moisture out of the wood, and keep the snakes away from direct contact, too.

It is looking like melamine is the most cost effective and least labor intensive route. I can use 3/4" plywood as a solid base for wheels and melamine for the rest of the shelves. The units will likely be 8' x 6' tall based on just getting 8' sheets of melamine. Lowes will cut it free is every cut is greater than 12" wide.

The melamine is actually cheaper than I thought.... $36 for a 48" x 96" sheet.