Cat Flap ideas needed please!

Essexgirl_3

I'd love to install a flap for my two moggies, partly to allow them to go outside as and when they choose, and partly to save me having to get up every 10 minutes to open and shut the door!
We have double glazed french doors at the back and a sheet metal door at the front, neither of which lends itself to flap installing.

Any ideas? other than replacing the doors? Been thinking about this for months now and am just stuck!
Thank you )

ICATQ

I have seen a flap installed in a wall adjacent to the door.

Essexgirl_3

I considered that, but the only outside wall available (ie not covered by wall units or the doors) has a double plug socket and radiator ( Thanks for replying though )

maninthestreet

So you don't have a back door?

saffiedale_2

hi there, we had a cat flap in double glaized french doors. 200 quid for them to put in new double glaized unit with flap in. also we had to put a couple of bricks 4 them to get in cuz the flap as to be at a certain height due to breaking. hope it helps. 200 quid for bloody cats..

markie1980

As above, you can get a new sealed unit for the doors with the hole for the cat flap. Or the same thing for in a window if the cats are energetic enough!

Essexgirl_3

Thanks for all your replies. I was hoping someone would come up with a wonderful solution lol, but a £200 new door isnt one of them. Thanks anyway guys

Steve_Groves

We had the same problem with french doors covering most of the back of the house so we put the catflap through the wall. You only need about 14-16" of wall free to be able to fit it.

If you have free wall but it has central heating pipes running along the skirting then just put the catflap slightly higher.

When I was researching options for catflaps, I came across someone who put the catflap through the wall into a kitchen cupboard. Not sure if they put a catflap in the cupboard door or taught the cats to open it :-)

Essexgirl wrote: »

I considered that, but the only outside wall available (ie not covered by wall units or the doors) has a double plug socket and radiator ( Thanks for replying though )

cattie

I paid £160 to have one of my patio doors replaced with glass containing a cat flap in my last house, so it's not a cheap option as other's here have mentioned.

Is there a base unit in the kitchen on the outside wall in which a cat flat could be sited? This was a possibilty I considered before deciding to get the patio door glass replaced. It would just mean remembering to leave the unit door open to grant the cats access. You'd lose a useable cupboard of course, but !!!!!!s needs must.

Or do you have a suitable downstairs window that could take a cat flat? Somebody I once worked with used this method for their cats. They did have multipaned windows, which made it a simple & not expensive job.

Outside there was a deep sill the cats could jump up onto to get back in through the flap. But I imagine in a house without such a deep sill, some kind of structure underneath the window ledge or one of those midi height plastic storage shed type things for a cat to jump up onto would be a suitable solution.

jstallan

I made a wooden tunnel and inserted it into the wall, stuck the cat flap on the outside and some nice architrave around the inside entrance to make a 'feature' of it. Took a little while for the cats to get used to it, but works a treat...