Using sauna oil to waterproof an enclosure

[anactualtortoise]

I'm looking for something to waterproof the bottom of the enclosure I'm building with but I know nothing about paints and a lot of the suggestions I've found using google are hard to match to specific types of products that are sold here in Estonia where I live. Everyone here has a sauna though so there are a lot of different sauna products around and I figured since the wood in a sauna is supposed to come in contact with your bare skin anyway (and in very hot and wet conditions), it should be pretty safe to use on an enclosure. I just want to make sure though

The product I'm looking most closely at has the ingredients listed as linen seed oil, natural resin (not very specific I know) and pine turpentine

Would this be fine for my tortoise?

 

[Alexio]

If it has pine i would say no...
Have you looked into pond liner at all?

 

[Len B]

Lin seed oil is safe. If you could find it. especially "boiled linseed oil", it dries quick The turpentine may be added to what you found for a better and deeper penetration by thinning the linseed oil.and may dry and evaporate after application.

 

[anactualtortoise]

If it has pine i would say no...
Have you looked into pond liner at all?

Is anything with pine in it dangerous to tortoises?

 

[Alexio]

Is anything with pine in it dangerous to tortoises?

There has been much debate as to the types of pine that are bad. The consensus seems to be that pine wood may be okay. The real problem is pine shavings and pine substrate. I believe it is the high concentration of pine oil found in pine substrate that can be toxic to reptiles.

This was an older thread i found where there was a good amount of discussion about pine in various forms.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/7628/
Pine for enclosure use

 

[anactualtortoise]

There has been much debate as to the types of pine that are bad. The consensus seems to be that pine wood may be okay. The real problem is pine shavings and pine substrate. I believe it is the high concentration of pine oil found in pine substrate that can be toxic to reptiles.

This was an older thread i found where there was a good amount of discussion about pine in various forms.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/7628/
Pine for enclosure use

Lin seed oil is safe. If you could find it. especially "boiled linseed oil", it dries quick The turpentine may be added to what you found for a better and deeper penetration by thinning the linseed oil.and may dry and evaporate after application.

Thanks a lot for the help. I'll probably just get some regular linseed oil, hopefully that'll be enough. I'm pretty paranoid about my tortoise breathing in any toxins

 

[Torbak]

This might be a good idea for you to waterproof the bottom of an indoor turtle enclosure. Here are some pics of a Tortoise table I built for a hatchling Red Footed Tortoise. This is before I added the lighting to the sides and a layer of Sphagnum Peat Moss to the bottom, then Cypress mulch on top. I spray the substrate down every 2-3 days with water. I am in Colorado and it is dry, but the humidity holds at about 60% inside the box. The substrate has been in there for 3 months with no foul smells or rotting.
The bottom is lined with a 45mil EPDM rubber pond liner. It is approx 2.5" high on the sides, and the substrate fills just to the top of the rubber liner so that you can't see it. EPDM rubber is non-toxic and completely safe. It is even safe for fish which are way more sensitive to chemicals than a tortoise.

And for those of you about to shame me, yes the box is built using Cedar. However, the cedar was weathered under direct sunlight for 1 year and has absolutely zero aroma, even in high humidity. I would never use it as a substrate, but from my experience it doesn't cause any harm once dried and used as a building material. This table is 4ft by 2ft

Hope this helps for your waterproofing!

 

[Torbak]

If it has pine i would say no...
Have you looked into pond liner at all?

Funny you mentioned Pond Liner. I used to build ponds and that was the first thing that came to mind when I built my table. You can see pics in my post on this page. It works beautifully, is non-toxic, and cost me $15 for 5.5ft by 3ft from my local garden center. Don't think you can find a more durable, non-toxic waterproof bottom for a natural wood box.

 

[TurtleBug]

Lin seed oil is safe. If you could find it..

Rags soaked in linseed oil or oil based wood stains can spontaneously combust and start a fire without any sparks. Even Johnny Cash's lake house is said to have burned down due to spontaneous combustion from linseed oil products used by workmen.

Google for linseed oil fires and you'll find many videos demonstrating how it happens and how to prevent it. Here's a link to one from July 2016:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/officials-...ion-risk-linseed-oil-common/story?id=40788665

 

[Alex Z]

I use olain vinyl tiles as the liner in my redfoots enclosure...