"Angela" <whoknows@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:EaGdneBf6ouOoI_VnZ2dnUVZ8tSdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I hope someone can give me some advice.
>
> Before I have always had a cat flap in a door but now I have a new house
> and the back door is a large double glazed door which would just cost me
> to much to have a flap put in. A builder friend has offered to put one
in
> the wall for me. Has anyone any experience of doing this? I have a
> couple questions:
>
> 1. As it's a cavity wall do cats have a problem going through a tunnel?
>
> 2. The actual door seems to be on the inside leaving the tunnel exposed
> to the elements (or have I got that wrong?). What's stopping it filling
> with rain and allowing water to seep into the cavity wall?
>
> Knocking holes in walls is quite a drastic thing to do so I don't really
> want to do it unless it really is the right thing............I'm not
sure
> what else I will do though if it isn't!!
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Angela
>
We have the same type of sliding glass doors in our bedroom, leading to
the
outside deck along the back of the house. We choose to put in a cat door
that's mounted in a 8 inch wide by 7 foot high aluminum strip they sell in
Petsmart for around $175. Although it works fine, it is expensive, and it
does compromise the security of the home since it prevents the sliding
glass
doors from closing all the way, and it is kind of flimsy. I do believe the
hole through the wall is a more elegant solution. You can always put in
two
identical cat doors....One co-planer with the inside wall, and one
co-planer
with the outside.....This would give you better protection against air
loss,
so your heating bill wouldn't be significantly higher. We didn't do this
mainly because it is a lot of trouble, and we live in a low crime area. I
put a large eye-screw in the doorjamb, so we can chain the sliding glass
door across the 8 inch gap, and make it relatively secure.......In most
sliding glass doors, you can lay a dowel along the base, preventing the
door
from being opened any further than any given length......IOW, you can cut
the dowel so the door can't be opened from the outside any further than
the
width of the cat door aluminum section. We couldn't do this, because our
doors were installed backwards by the builder such that the thief on the
outside could place the dowel, preventing our escape! I would try the
aluminum device if you are in a low crime area, and the hole in the wall
if
you are in a high crime area.
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