Best place for cat door in new house: is a wall tunnel to the outside bonkers?

[GrouchyKiwi]

We've recently moved into a new house and are trying to work out the best way to include a cat flap for our two roamers.

Our initial plan was to put one in the side door, but this is a panelled UPVC door, which makes it incredibly awkward to cut out and reseal around a cat flap as the panels have quite substantial ridges.

We're tossing up between getting a cat flap installed in a window, which would mean the cats would have to learn to climb up and through, or finding a builder to remove a couple of bricks and make a tunnel through an external wall.

Has anyone made a tunnel through a wall? It would be at the back of the house in a very sheltered spot.

We didn't have a wall flap, but put one in a window. Cat had absolutely no problems getting in and out. We put a little wooden shelf on the outside, so he could jump onto that then come in. The windowsill on the inside was wide enough for him to jump onto and then through. It didn't hinder him bringing in toads, voles, mice or birds which was great (not). It's also probably the cheaper option.

My friend has a tunnel and her cats are fine with it. She had to prop it open at first but they got the hang of it quite quickly.

In our UPCV panelled door, the ridges are just plastic decoration. Cut through the ridges, and pop them off.

Full door, with panel detail, then close up hopefully showing where DH cut the door, not the catflap.

That doesn't look too bad, actually. I think the ridges on our door might be more prominent, though.

My friends have a round tunnel, a kind of wide aperture pipe fitted between the two cavity walls.

The window set up is going to cost close to £300 so I really want to avoid that if I can.

Might see if I can find someone who knows what they're doing when it comes to fitting a flap in the door. DH and I are certainly not those people!

We’ve had both a tunnel and a flap through a pvc door. Both worked well.
We had a cat flap installer come and do the pvc door, he didn’t bat an eyelid. It’ll be fine through the door.

PS our pvc door cat flap installer even made sure there was good access to change the batteries on the flap without being asked, not sure I’d have thought that through if I’d have DIYed it 😀

We have a tunnel through an external wall. Dcat uses it with no problems, despite being a big lad (7kg when we got him, now a lovely lean 6kg). I had to teach/bribe him with Dreamies because he's such a nervous nellie!

The flap part of the door is inside the house, then there's a plastic tunnel (you buy it as an accessory with the catflap) and the other part of the catflap frame is on the outside.

Our choice was UPVC door or wall tunnel. So we have a wall tunnel, luckily through an extension built in the 80s before we owned it, and so cut through something like brieze block, about 2foot thick, rather than lathe/plaster filled with rubble awhich would have been impossible.

As it is, it is about 2 ft off the ground outside so we built a little cat staircase outside leading up to it.

Would it be cheaper to refit the panel in the door with a smooth one?

www.amazon.co.uk/White-UPVC-Flat-Door-Panel/dp/B00SJCWJ3C/ref=asc_df_B00SJCWJ3C/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309859586326&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15791967604854310548&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006598&hvtargid=pla-697463430222&psc=1

I know someone who had a tunnel with a cat flap at either end.

I have a tunnel through a wall. It was done by the previous owners. Because my house is on a slope floor level at the back of the house it about 7ft off the ground. The tunnel comes out into the roof of an outbuilding and madam has to jump down some shelves. She took to it really quickly.

You can see the shelves on the right here. There is another shelf above and then the tunnel.

Ours is through an external wall, it's a conservatory wall though so possibly thinner. Works just fine.

I think a window or door would be better from a resale POV, if that bothers you, because it sounds a PITA having to fill a large hole through a brick wall?

I'm reluctant to do this as there's a very pretty window in the door.

We plan to be in this house till we need to downsize so we're not too worried about that side of things at this point.

We have one, took a while for cat to get used to it but posting him through with Dreamies on the other side worked well. Sure Flap comes with a tunnel adapter.

Ours goes through the kitchen wall to outside. No problems at all.
Friends had one in their dining room with a little step outside for the cats to get in!

Much better than though a pvc door or double glazed window I'd say.

I changed the panel in my uPVC door to a flat one and then got a cat flap in that door

That door would make it very tricky. A friend has a cat flap wall tunnel and it works fine.

We had a tunnel through the external wall and it worked very well.
Two flaps, a normal one on the outside and a chip-operated locking one on the inside.
We had three cats and they adapted to it very quickly.

This looks very like ours, DH put it in himself and he's done a decent job. The catflap came with proper templates to stick to the door to cut round, it was a bit daunting to start, but easy actually!

If you want it in that door, it will be fine. Those plastic bits are decorative, not structural.