Making a door for a cat with your own hands

Happy owners of pets, especially cats, know how difficult it is to constantly watch over your pet so that he goes outside for a walk or goes to the toilet on time. This problem can easily be solved by a cat door installed in the interior or entrance door. With its help, any pet can independently leave or enter the house without distracting anyone.

There are two ways to become the owner of such a door for cats: either purchase it in a specialized store, or make it yourself at home. In any case, this is a very necessary thing in a private home, which can make life easier for both the cat and its owner.

Cat doors come in different types. They vary depending on the size and type of materials used. The dimensions of the product may vary, it all depends on the size of the pet. The material is also used depending on the functional purpose of the opening. It can be a wooden, aluminum or plastic door.

According to the type of structure, all cat doors are divided into:

Cat hole

The simplest option for arrangement is considered to be a cat hole in the door. This design is installed only in interior doors; it is rarely installed on the front door. The hole can be equipped with a special cleaning brush if desired. It will remove excess hair from the animal as it passes through it, so the house or apartment can become cleaner after installing the manhole.

This design also has its drawbacks. The most serious thing is that it will not be possible to isolate a pet in the house if necessary. To do this, you will have to block the hole in other ways, for example with furniture, which is not very convenient. Also, through such a hole, foreign odors and sounds will enter the room.

Making a door for a cat with your own hands

Surely many cat owners have at least once had the idea of making a hole in the door for a cat with their own hands: either the pet makes noise at night because the door to the kitchen is closed, or the child caught a cold because the animal was accidentally locked on the loggia, and at night he entered, letting cold air into the room. To avoid such situations, there are two solutions: install a ready-made structure or make a cat door yourself.

Window

This design is designed for free passage of the cat and is installed directly into the entrance or interior door. It consists of glass or plastic and a metal or wooden frame.

The cat window is well insulated and will not let in odors, unlike a regular cat window. If desired, you can easily close the passage using a latch or a simple lock. It is very easy to make such a design yourself.

One of the disadvantages is the lack of noiselessness. The structure will clap or creak every time an animal passes through it. For this reason, windows are rarely installed in interior doors, since such sounds can irritate or interfere with rest.

Window in the door for cats

The sash moving on a hinge is much more convenient. Although such doors cannot close hermetically and will also allow odors to pass through, the insulation will be much better. The animal will be able to pass through unhindered, pushing the sash in front of it; if necessary, the window in the door for the cat can be locked with a latch or another simple lock.

Among the disadvantages: when closing/opening, the sash can knock on the frame; it cannot be mounted in entrance structures (unreliable closure). Some animals quickly learn to unlock such a door. A folding window in a cat door is an outdated, unpopular design solution, since for the same price you can buy a full-fledged cat door, which will be equipped with many pleasant little things. But in principle it will be suitable as an interior solution.

buy a cat door

Door

The cat door is the most convenient to use. The stores offer a large selection of such cat doors of different sizes, models, and colors. They can be made from materials such as plastic, wood or metal. Doors for animals are the most moisture-resistant and are not afraid of temperature changes.

A similar door for a cat consists of, in fact, two parts of the structure itself and a tunnel that connects them. A hole is made in the door leaf and a tunnel is already installed into it.

The pet door closes well thanks to the tight rim. Due to this, there will be no penetration of unpleasant odors into the room, and this design also has good noise insulation characteristics.

To prevent the door from hitting one of the walls, a magnet is installed, which prevents it from opening due to strong winds or drafts.

It does not provide any obstacles to the movement of animals.

It is better to prefer plastic as a material, as it is much lighter than wood and will not create inconvenience for your pet when opening it.

For those owners who are afraid of entering their home through other people's animals, they came up with a special system with a sensor. It comes with a collar with a microchip that the animal will wear. A specially equipped door will only open for your pet, from whose collar a signal will be sent to the sensor when the animal approaches such a door. This is very convenient, as it allows you to protect your home from unauthorized visitors.

DIY cat door

If you are tormented by the question of how to make a door for a cat yourself, then you should pay attention to the products sold in stores. Some of them can be repeated yourself using inexpensive materials. For example, a flap can be attached to the top edge of a cut hole with hinges, hinges, or some other mechanism that allows the door to move in both directions.

A good door for a cat with your own hands is a fragment of transparent plastic, cut, for example, from the lid of a bucket. A wooden door is quite heavy - and there is a high probability that the cat will not open the massive door. You can use a standard latch or latch as a lock. If you put locks on each side of the door, you will get a kind of control system with the help of which you can lock the door only for the exit or only for the entrance.

How to make a passage for pets with your own hands

Cats are very freedom-loving animals and love free movement. Installing a passage for the animal will help solve the problem of leaving the house. You can install a cat door yourself, while saving a significant amount on its purchase.

Materials for production

Tree. The frame for the manhole and the door itself are mainly made from wood.

Plastic

This is one of the cheapest materials used to make a cat hole.

Rubber

Rubber can be used to improve sound insulation. To do this, it is placed in the doorway. You can also use it to avoid loud door knocking.

Advantages and disadvantages of the solution

Constructing a manhole with your own hands or purchasing a finished product is actually a very practical solution.

There is no need to purchase cat litter, and this significantly reduces costs.
The animal does not shit under the door or in any other place, since it can always come out.
Eliminates the need to clean cat litter.
The risk of infection to people is reduced, since the cat does not spread the filler on its paws. And the latter absorbs smell, dirt, and pathogenic microflora.

Do-it-yourself door for a cat to the toilet

The technology for making such a craft is very simple. As a rule, the doors themselves are made of wood. Since such material is almost always available to the home craftsman. However, you can use plastic sheets, cable, and fabric.

Remove the door from its hinges and place it on a flat surface.
Cut a hole in the canvas of the required size - from 10*10 to 15*15 cm.

Related article: Making a wooden arch with your own hands

In this form, the sash can be installed back: the hole is enough so that the cat does not shit under the door, but passes through freely. However, the appearance of this design is not aesthetic and does not protect against odor.

Make 4 wooden planks according to size and close the ends of the resulting hole.
Hinges or hinges are attached to the opening, depending on whether the doors will rotate or tilt.
The door is cut out of light wood or a sheet of plastic and hung on hinges. The cat opens the door only lightly, without effort, so the rotation should be very light.
The interior or entrance door is installed in its original place.

This video demonstrates how to make a cat door yourself.

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Types of shutters for cats

Passage

Today, stores offer cat and dog owners a huge assortment of windows, manholes and even tunnels designed for the convenience of moving pets around the apartment or from home to the street. Some of them can be ordered. But why overpay if even a beginner can handle this type of construction work with his own hands?

The simplest design for a cat, made independently, is a hole corresponding to the size of the pet, without a sash. Of course, there is no question of openings in the front door - this is, rather, an interior option.

If you are worried that the cat may get injured, the opening can be treated with a smooth, soft and pleasant-to-touch cloth, preferably with lint. At the moment of sliding in the hole, such “upholstery” will allow you to collect shedding hair from the animal.

The only drawback is that there are situations when the animal needs to be isolated from the premises for a while. For a particularly persistent dog or cat, you will need to move heavy furniture and cover the opening with it, which is not very convenient, especially if there is no man nearby. You should also forget about sound insulation - extraneous noises and odors will penetrate into the room, no matter how hard you try to get rid of it.

Window in the door

Another example of a DIY cat device is a door that swings open thanks to a hinge mechanism. Although the product does not have sufficient tightness, the isolation from the outside world is already noticeable compared to the previous copy. The light weight of the door allows the pet to freely open it with the front part of its body, after which the door slams shut on its own.

One of the noticeable shortcomings is that when closing, the sash hits the frame, causing a loud knock to be heard. The folding window for cats today is considered an obsolete item.

Mortise device

A mortise door is a device that looks great. The product can be made of wood or plastic and can be created in many ways. As for the structure, it is equipped with individual parts and a connecting tunnel.

The hatch is located in the formed hole in the wall plane, thus masking the cut areas. Before fixing the passage in the doors for a cat or dog, you must first take measurements of the thickness of the door panel. Tunnels are usually fastened together in several pieces at once; as an option, they can be trimmed, which means there is no particular difficulty in selecting the required size.

The door, made of treated wood or high-strength thermoplastic, is durable and resistant to moisture. Equip a rim on the outer surface of the sashes and frame, which helps close the hole quite easily and hermetically - the closure itself occurs without any noise or knocking.

Electronic cat door

A magnet equipped on one side reliably holds the door closed, but does not interfere with the movement of the dog or cat. Moreover, the door will not swing limply under the influence of wind and draft.

On sale you can see products equipped with an electronic cat door; you won’t be able to make one yourself. The device is computerized; a collar is included with the electronic device, which is put on the animal. A program is activated on the display that identifies this particular collar and allows only the pet wearing it into the house.

Especially expensive devices help determine the location of pets, namely the vector of their movement. How does it work? If an animal is in the house, the LED changes color, and vice versa.

A simple door option for cats and dogs

If you want to make a cat flap with your own hands, first of all, go shopping and choose a cat flap that you like. Visually study the intricacies of manufacturing and start purchasing the necessary materials.

So, you will need a sheet of transparent plastic; you can get it by cutting it, for example, from the lid of a bucket. A wooden device is not suitable - the cat is unlikely to want to open the heavy door. A latch or latch is suitable for the lock. Installed locking devices on each side of the door will allow you to close the structure exclusively at the exit from the room or at the entrance.