[Closed] Cat-flat-track-world! Installing a cat flap into sliding patio doors.

Go on STW tell me about cat flaps!!

Are they really necessary? had 3 cats when I was a lad, no cat flap, wasn't really an issue.

Aye we never had a cat flap. Just let it out and the evil bastard bird killers can wait until morning if they want back in.

After about a month she sacked off using the litter tray and just crossed her legs until we got back home.

Cat Flat Track sounds more interesting to be honest, is it like Greyhound racing or more like Cycling track racing, if so, then how does one fixie a cat?

Yes they can be fitted in double glazed units, though never had one myself. We looked at it briefly when we were considering some new build houses - other factors in the new builds meant we didn’t go that route.

I wouldn’t worry about the cat going over the work top to get to the flap, they’ll be walking over it anyway.

Sliding patio doors may be an issue. Our one with a chip reader sticks about three inches from the flat surface internally, and two inches externally. The “basic” one we have on an internal door, is less than an inch each side.

just thinking for when we are away for the weekend and no one to let them in / out.

Sobriety.....perhaps like some some of scaletrix set up with cats and mice?

In an old house I put one through a wall. You can buy models that come with a tunnel section (that can be doubled up for extra thick sections).

Clearly a lot more hassle and you either have to cough up for a builder or be a bit handy with an SDS demolition hammer/drill (or a bolster/cold chisel and a lot of time) but it opens up a lot of potential for a more convenient location.

Daughter has one through the wall next to the rear glazed doors. Apparently that was easier than fitting one in the glass.

Big core drill angled slightly down and lined with a suitable bit of pipe with flap at either end. Seems to work ok.

Mines in the wall

brother has one in a glass door. was a couple of hundred to install...

I have one in a double glazed unit. I cannot imagine it working with a sliding door though, as its sits about 60-70mm out from the glass, which I am sure would foul on the sliding leaf. Was about 250-300 from memory for the flap, DGU and install.

Our 10 year old cat gets in through the top opener of my son’s second storey bedroom window. She climbs up the wall onto the flat roofed extension, walks round the guttering 6 metres, jumps onto the window sill 4-5 feet, then leaps upwards 4 foot and through the 4 inch gap when he has left it open. Jumps down the other side and shouts at him to open his bedroom door to get to her food on the other side.
Sometimes she goes out through a broken air brick but doesn’t come in that way.
And sometimes she just shouts until someone opens a door. I do sometimes think about getting a cat flap fitted but she’d probably refuse to use it.

Cheers for advice. we have two sets of slkiding doors in the kitchen so even if one gets deemed unusable by a cat flap we could still get into the garden.

i put a cat flap through the wall of our house (bifold doors were the only other option). Using an SDS drill it wasn't difficult, took maybe an hour or 2 to do the whole thing? I used some facia boards to make up a little tunnel he goes through after coming in the flap

Are they really necessary? had 3 cats when I was a lad, no cat flap, wasn’t really an issue.

Through the wall, much easier to do and cheaper to undo should the latter be needed.

You can have ours. Last owners put it through the wall of the extension. Leaks cold air and has to be blocked up properly. There’s another internal one I sealed with aluminium foil.

I don’t like cats.

i think the wall idea could be a goer. we do have a small width where we could do this and it has previously had a new boiler fl;ue put out through it.....so could go at ground level below that.

just thinking for when we are away for the weekend and no one to let them in / out.

So you probably could do with one of the ones that detects the cat's microchip, with an app on your phone to lock it or unlock it and tell you whether it's in or out. You can fit them through a wall.

So you probably could do with one of the ones that detects the cat’s microchip, with an app on your phone to lock it or unlock it and tell you whether it’s in or out. You can fit them through a wall.

just thinking for when we are away for the weekend and no one to let them in / out.

We feed friends cats when they are away - they have built an outdoor hutch that is warm for them. We go in to feed, and at breakfast and let the cats out, and early evening to let them in. If the weather is horrendous, the two cats take up hutch residence.

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duncancallum
Full Member

Mines in the wall

Seems a bit extreme core drill or dsa less messy just use the slidey doors if they can come and go they may well come with a part live offering 🤮

Ours are indoor cats, and have a cat run outside accessed from the side of the conservatory through a window. They soon let us know when they want in, or out. we've never had a cat flap when we had 'normal cats' (currently have an old blind tortie, a rescue ginger with cat flu, and three Ragdolls that are lunatics - and no good outside cos they are idiots (a previous one got run over).

Fortunately, no bird kill here, just insects that get eaten. Handy in summer.

Get a dog instead, they use people doors so no costs involved. They're also better than cats so it's a win win.

In the wall
at about 3:00 in to vid

We did much like Convert.
Bought a standard cat flap, got busy with a kango made a plywood’tunnel’, fitted cat flap to inner wall. Cats exit tunnel into garage, then through cat flap out of wooden garage door to garden. We could then be away, leave outer door locked and have litter tray in garage, neighbours could come and feed them and not have to worry about either cat being in or out of the house.
We used to have a book case in front of the cat flap in the wall and it was quite amusing seeing visitors ‘double-take’ at the appearance of a cat from between the thesaurus and a pile of OS maps.
All because I bought and built a conservatory, with glass floor to ceiling and totally overlooked a cat flap.

Another vote to stick one through the wall, probably cheaper than a full size bit of replacement glass with a cat flap cutout.

After lots of deliberation I got a intumescent fire sealing one so I could put a cat flap from the house directly into the attached garage and then one out to the garden. It was worth it at the time simply for reduced vet bills as the old flap opened into a enclosed alley and they would get ambushed by the neighbourhood cat bully.

But now its really paid off as one cat is on a controlled diet and the other is partially blind so they can't roam freely outside, the litter trays and wood litter sprinkled across the floor are now in the garage and we don't have to shut the cats into a bedroom when we have a relative with dogs visiting.

(PetSure Smart), loads of reviews saying it was crap though, shite app etc,

We have a PetSure Connect, I agree the app could do with some work but the flap is pretty reliable. Only once have I noticed it detect a cat going out when it was just looking - it might depend where the chip is on the cat. We did have a problem where it stopped detecting one cat, just wouldn't react to it, wouldn't recognise it to reprogram. PetSure were really helpful, quick replies to email, set out a kit to test it - in the end I took the cat to the vet and the chip had gone missing (or broken), vet jabbed in a new one and all was well.

@cakefacesmallblock

Technically I think you should have a fire/smoke sealing cat flap into the garage. I think they are normally only fitted when a building inspector demands it, however for the sake of the one in a million chance that a fire or smoke damage from the garage spreads into the house I coughed up to Envirograf for one.

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Better with sound. 🙂

i guess if you measure the clearence on the sliding door, and got a cat flap that fitted it would work, but you would need a whole new unit making, with a hole in it, which would be pretty expensive.

Knocking a hole in a wall is easy peasy.

Just drill out the perimeter with the biggest drill you can muster, as neatly as you can. I had the builders do it on our new extension, and it took the apprentice about half an hour. you could do it with a normal masonry drill, it would just take longer.

needed 7 little extension tubes sections though, which are literally just loops of plastic the correct shape, but they are a fiver each.

we've got a battery powered chip scanning one, and the cats don't wear collars. Works well.

The vet can 'fixie' a cat...they do dogs as well...not sure it is called a fixie though...spayed or something similar...

Not sure it's been mentioned but you can't (as far as I know) retrofit to toughened glass. It would have to be a new panel with a pre-cut hole.

Get a microchip one or you'll end up with lots of cats.

Also, lol, at thinking you'll discourage them from the kitchen surfaces. The second you're out the house they will cover every single surface in little paw prints. Every surface. Every time.

Mums cat has a habit of bringing mice home, now she has a door installed for the killer to get them through, I must have gathered a hundred in the last 5 years.
She's nearly 80, and is getting a tad fed up with being woken up by the cat torturing them so I'm going to build an outside cat bothy, 1" thick timber and possibly a 6 or 12v heating pad so you can lock the murderous bast'rd out and get a decent sleep.

Those who have paid hundreds to get one in a double glazed pane have been done, I'm afraid.

There are models of flaps (ooh-err) that are designed to go through double glazed panes, they have a circular 'tunnel'. We have one in our French doors (ooh, laa dee dah) - just find a local firm that makes double glazed units (there'll be one on an industrial estate near you), and tell them the size of pane you need, and the position and size of hole you need for the tunnel. They'll make you a pane with a hole for about £100, pop the old one out (it's not hard, look on the interweb for videos of how), pop the new one in, fit catflap, job jobbed.

Mums cat has a habit of bringing mice home, now she has a door installed for the killer to get them through, I must have gathered a hundred in the last 5 years.