Guide · · 2 min read
Cat door for a wooden door: fitted in an afternoon, no tradesman
No glazier, no booking, no second visit. A Catwalk® wood-fitting cat door goes into a timber or uPVC door with a jigsaw, in about an hour. Which model, and the method.
By the Pet-Tek International team, Auckland — designers of Catwalk® and Dogwalk® since 1999.
The laundry door, the garage door, the back door — if it is timber, uPVC or metal, a cat door goes in without anyone else involved. Here is the model to pick and the hour it takes.
Two models
- Catwalk® Cat Door Slim Line (W-CD) — panels 11–30 mm. That is nearly every door in a New Zealand house. White or brown.
- Catwalk® Cat Door Tunnel (W-CDT) — the same door with a tunnel sleeve for solid doors, garage doors and walls up to 52 mm. White or brown.
Both: 155 × 157 mm opening for cats to about 7 kg, UV-stabilised flap, brush seal, factory-fitted 4-way lock. Want selective entry on a wooden door? The Multi-Magnetic is the same fit with a collar-magnet latch.
Measure the door, then the cat
Door thickness with a tape at the edge: 11–30 mm is Slim Line; thicker is Tunnel. Cat: width at the shoulders and shoulder-to-chest depth plus 25 mm each; a cat over about 7 kg is better in a glass Maxi, which is the only Maxi fitting.
The hour
- Mark the height: bottom of the opening 100–150 mm off the floor.
- Tape the template to the outside face, level, and trace it.
- Drill a 10 mm hole inside each corner.
- Jigsaw along the line, corner to corner. Masking tape over the line protects paint.
- Outer frame in from outside; inner frame on from inside; screws through, tightened evenly.
- Turn the dial through all four positions. Done.
Hollow-core doors are fine — the frames clamp the skins. On an exterior metal or uPVC door, a bead of silicone under the outer frame keeps the weather out of the panel.
Interior doors too
A Slim Line in the laundry or garage door inside the house gives the cat its litter tray or bed without leaving the door ajar. Leave the lock on open.
If the door turns out to be glass
Many “back doors” are half glass. If the lower panel is timber, fit there; if the only route is the glass, that is a glazier job and the glass Standard — see installing a cat door in glass.
Flaps and dials are stocked as spares for the life of the door.
Quick answers
Which cat door for a wooden door?
The Catwalk Slim Line for panels 11–30 mm — most timber, uPVC and metal doors — or the Catwalk Tunnel for thick doors and walls up to 52 mm. Both are DIY, white or brown, with a factory-fitted 4-way lock.
Can you put a cat door in a hollow-core door?
Yes. The two frames clamp either side of the skins, so a hollow door is fine; the Slim Line's 11–30 mm range covers standard interior and exterior doors.
Can you put a cat door in a uPVC or aluminium door?
Yes, with a metal-cutting jigsaw blade. The wood-fitting frames clamp any panel in the thickness range; file the edge and run silicone under the outer frame on an exterior metal door.
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