Installing a catflap in a pvc door?

Daniel_B

Hello all,

thought I would resurrect this thread.

We have just taken in two lovely moggies from a local rescue centre, and know they will need to stay in for 3 weeks, but then will want to go roaming.

Our back door is Double glazed in the top section, and jus ta solid white PVC panel in the bottom.

I see an ealier posted drilled and then jigsawed it, and just wondered how many other people had done this?

I'm a little worried that there might be a metal layer in the middle, but imagine there is no way to check, except by drilling a pilot hole?

Does anyone have any advice for how to remove the beading, if we wanted to remove the panel to cut it, I can't figure out how they are secured......

IF I can get four pilot holes drilled in the four corners of the hole required, I might try and cut it by hand if the panel is still in situ, as would imagine the jigsaw would mark the surrounding PVC panel.

Any tips anyone?

I will then post up my own findings after tackling it.....

Oh, and can anyone recommend a catflap.....?
I assume Staywell is the way to go, but there is a baffling array of them out there.
What I do know is that I want a 4 way locking one, not bothered about a fancy one that works on a sensor so only my cats come in.
Do I need one of those ones with a tunnel, or is a bog standard one ok....?
What are those tunnel ones for, one that goes through a wall.....?


Cheers

Dan

lancslass2008

Hi all

The answer to this thread lies here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=266888

Daniel_B

Hello again,

thought I would reply with my findings, and experience, as we fitted the flap this morning.

We fitted a Staywell 917 catflap, bought online:


The bottom of my door was a solid PVC panel, wasn't able to tell if it had any metal inside.

Had a qoute to fit it, for £50, but decided to have a go ourselves, and went for it this morning.

Worked out where we were going to cut if it was going to work, and then tried a pilot hole in the middle area, with the thinking being that if it did not work, we would stick some sealant in, and pay someone to do it.

Pilot hole with a small drill bit went fine, and followed up with bigger and bigger drill bits, ended up using an 8mm wood bit.

The panel on our door was exactly the same thickness as the glass unit above, so around 1 inch thick, and was made up off a pvc skin, approx 8/10ths of an inch of polystyrine, a thin sheet of MDF, and then another skin of PVC.

Once I had the square marked up that I had to cut, I used the 8mm drill bit, and drilled 3 times in a right angled shape, to allow me to cut in two directions - I only had to do this in 3 of the corners.

I decided not to use a jigsaw, as I was convinced the metal plate would mark up the surrounding PVC beyond what would be covered by the catflap.

Instead I used a blade very similar to this:


In the body of a trusty stanley knife.

The 3 holes gave me enough room to get the blade in, and then I simply cut along the line I had drawn from the stencil they give you in the box.

It really did not take very long, drilling probably 10 minutes, and cutting 20 minutes tops.

Once in and a bit of fine tuning to get it to sit straight, just had to drill two 4.5mm holes from the outside through, and used two of the supplied screws (3 pairs of differing lengths supplied) and secured it that way.

I then piped silicone around all four edges of the outside square part, and then also piped some in around where the tunnel comes through (It will be obvious wat I mean if you have one) to maximise the chance of it being weatherproof.

Well impressed with it, the cats seem fascinated by it too, but they will have to wait as they don't get to go out until next week!

Hope that might help someone else who searched on here.

Cheers

Dan

LemonPip

Sorry to resurrect this thread again - I've bought the Staywell 917 cat flap. Does anyone know if it's ok to cut down the built-in tunnel? I haven't attacked my kitchen door yet, but I'm sure that the bottom panel isn't as thick as the double-glazed top half.

Many thanks!