Prototype, help & advice needed & appreciated :)

[Willow Wisp]

It seems all your lucky hamsters have playpens & my poor Willow says she's feeling very neglected & jealous because she doesn't gave one!
For this trial I've used left over polycarbonate & an off cut of wood, it looks a mess, it's too small and is stuck together with tape & the wood doesn't fit. This is NOT staying, it's just to test my theory before I head off to the DIY store to buy everything I need to make it properly.
I want to build her pen around her cage, so I can just open her door and let her out. The entire playpen base would be wood, with some kind of wooden block structure added to slip the polycarbonate into, so no tape would be needed to hold it together and it would obviously be bigger than this prototype.
I'm hoping this would mean it could be a semi permanent fixture, Willow is in my living room, I'm happy for this to stay up most of the time but also want to be able to easily lift out the polycarbonate & store it all away if I need to.
What do you think?
Willow is a Syrian, would this idea work for her?
What height do you think it should be? I'm thinking maybe 12inches? Polycarbonate is slippery she couldn't climb up it, although I would need to make sure she couldn't reach the top and just pull herself over.
All suggestions very welcome, I'm itching to start it

[souffle]

They are very adept at getting out of pens - the other side of the pen is always more interesting! Things to consider that I can see are - she would shimmy yp the skirting board and get a foothold and hop over. She get on the wheel or potty and hop over. She would maybe constantly 'window clean' on the plastic and abrade her feet attempting to get over. She may jump! Personally I wouldn't trust anything without a roof unless fully supervised but if you intend to supervise then yes great. She may pee on the floor too remember It needs to be a lot higher than 12in I'd say myself

[RedSky]

I think it is a great idea, other than what Souffle has already pointed out. I have a paddling pool for mine which has side 12". Rolo (my Syrian) loved it and was very happy in their until one day I left one of the houses a bit too close to the edge and she managed to knock it a little further and use it to climb out. I was watching closely and she was dangling on the rim about to escape. But now she knows what is out there, that is her only interest and she will bump into things, knock things over and not focus on anything else. So make it really high and don't let her try to escape at all! If the skirting board is accessible she will use it.

[Willow Wisp]

Thanks so much for your help Soufflé
The polycarbonate would go around the back too, I just don't have enough off cuts
The entire pen would be larger so the cage would be more central, I don't want her climbing up the cage bars and being able to getting over that way either and the wheel would be away from the sides too
Yes she may pee on the floor but she's very good, she always uses her litter tray, but never say never
Window cleaning never even occurred to me and now that is now a major worry
What else could I use instead of polycarbonate?
What height would it need to be?
She would always be supervised whilst in it

[Willow Wisp]

Thank you Redsky, hmmmm I'm liking my idea less and less now LOL

[Esmy]

If you are able to obtain coroplast sheets, it's great stuff. I've been using it for about 6 months now with no problems. However, it is light weight and can be pushed around by a Syrian that fancies bulldozing with their head (like my Penny). I have a bottom glued to mine to make a complete box and it's height I think is 16". I'd have to measure to be sure. They can't climb on it and if you put a heavy object on the outside against it, it couldn't move around. You can use medium binder clips to hold it together.

This is what mine looked like before I made it permanent with a hot glue gun. Bottom is optional but sides should sit flush on the floor.