I have built a container for my cat litter tray in the hallway to keep it out of sight and out of mind and it is looking pretty good, but wondering about the long term viability in terms of build up of cat piss. The litter tray itself is a massive stainless steel one with tall sides so not super worried, but wondering is there anything at all I can do for a bit more peace of mind?
I have one of those dog pee pads that I put under the litter box on top of the plywood. It helps keep any dingles or pee misses (I have genius cats) from getting on the wood.
oil-based polyurethane (especially high-build) is pretty serious with just a few coats, but isn’t available in all parts of the country due to the VOCs given off during the curing phase. sanding between coats forms a great bond. i’d use an old tshirt or some lint free rag to apply and a little tiny can from a generic hardware store would be more than enough. it takes like 1-2 weeks to fully cure and become scratch resistant. there’s videos and plenty of resources online for how to apply it. it’s chill, just takes a lot of waiting between coats / overall. it can really make wood look slick and bring out the beauty of grain patterns.
water based is lower VOC but i don’t think it would stand up to the piss.
Wear a mask and apply it and let it cure somewhere covered but with very high airflow, like outside under a covered porch. Some people are really cavalier with the VOCs, but they can absolutely mess you up.
Just to add on to this: let it cure completely! Those VOCs may be just below perceptible to you, but that little kitty is way more sensitive to the harmful effects
I bet something like a hardwood floor finish might be a good place to start looking
What part of the box is the cat going to pee on? Aiming error and they get the walls? I assume it’ll be on the inside?
In that case it wouldn’t matter how it looks so just keep an eye on the trash for an impermeable sheet material you can fix on the inside. Plexiglass would be perfect but see what the universe sends to you. Or you could buy something low cost like laminate flooring… go to a big hardware store and look around they have many different waterproof materials. Unless you really enjoy the process, or what to learn it for another project, I think doing some expensive elaborate wood finishing would be a waste. If you have already built it, it’ll be a pain in the ass to now finish the inside smoothly.
