A Few Questions

[PhoenixGate]

I've posted a few times about possibly getting a snake again over the years, and so far everything has fallen through. This time, if everything goes smoothly in the next month I should have a stable living situation finally and be able to rebuild a collection of tools. I want to build a custom wood cage and have been browsing this forum for the last week or so. As a side note, my brother is the one with the experience in building/construction, so the build will consist of coming up with a design and (most likely) him building it with me helping so I can finally learn. My intent, later on, is to be able to build my own custom cages and racks (including racks for rodent colonies, which will be happening about four to five years in the future, at best). Current build will be for a baby to juvenile ball python. In the past I've had Tokay geckos, corn snakes and one ball python. I had to rehome the reptiles I had during a previous move and have been waiting until both myself and my brother have a stable income and housing.

1. As I said, I would like to build the cage primarily out of wood with a glass front, however I'm unsure exactly what kind of wood to use, as I would like to use belly heat and obviously it needs to be moisture resistant. I'm debating the difference between regular wood, with a snake safe stain, or melamine. I'm a little reluctant to use melamine as I've read about some people having issues with it during the build, that it can be heavier than more traditional woods, and if I remember correctly (I may not have as I've been primarily looking at discussions involving regular cut wood) that it can be tricky to cut down to size.

I'm not really worried about expense, as we will be refurbishing the new place before I will start this build (It's all superficial stuff, the structure of the house is solid, electricity and plumbing are solid). I've seen custom cages on several sites and I'm confident that I can build a cage at home for under the base price of $200, although total cost will likely go over anyway as I intend to acquire and/or build a cabinet to place the cage on and contain supplies.

[Craiga 01453]

Honestly, if you've got the resources, tools and your brother has the know-how, consider PVC sheets. Extra money up front, but it'll last forever, it's light, looks great and is just as easy to work with as wood will be.

Oh and it's easy to keep clean and doesn't need to be re-treated over time.

[PhoenixGate]

I completely forgot about PVC! I'll go do some more googling, and I'll put up another post after the build is complete. Thank you!