Historic Cat flap for listed building :-)

[Hatster]

Hi all

We're having a cat flap problem with our new house at the moment - our Conservation Officer and I agree that it would be better to put a cat flap through a pane of glass in the French window, rather than slicing up our door - but unfortunately it now looks as though these are going to be too narrow to fit a cat flap (each pane is 16.5cm wide) Has anyone had this problem before? Does anyone know of a cat flap designed to fit in a narrow space, or have any good suggestions?

Thanks!
Hatster

 

[Carol]

How wide is your cat? :lol:

 

[Hatster]

She's going to have to get thinner!

 

[Penners]

How stupid. When the French windows were being designed, the joiner obviously didn't give a moment's thought to whether the glass panes would be big enough for a cat flap to be inserted.

Typical. :wink:

What's the construction of your house? Would it be practicable (and acceptable to the CO) to put the cat-flap in a wall instead of a door? Some friends of ours have done this - a bit of pipe of appropriate diameter has been mortared into the wall, with the cat-flap fixed the the outside wall. It took moggie about an hour to get used to this Great Escape method of getting in and out of the house.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Does the cat really need a flap?

I'm reliably informed that 4.6 billion years of evolution has been invested in the felix model. They have now pretty well sorted the external coating (durable, waterproof and breatheable, apparently). I would try leaving moggy out overnight.

 

[middi]

I do feel sorry for the CO. He/she could have been saving same indiscriminte builder from demolishing an historical fature on some house istead of wrecking his brain on behalf of "felix". I'd get the cat listed to justify my actions :wink:

 

[Penners]

As always, Middi has the obvious, logical solution to the problem.

 

[ljn]

I have a cat flap in the wall. It is less obtrusive than in a door or window.

I found building regs to be the worst when it comes to cats.

When renovating our previous flat, we were obliged to put springs on the doors. Now how is the cat going to open that?

In our new house, the cat has to have the bedroom window open all night until I figure out where to put the cat-flap.

 

[ljn]

Are you too late to go down the bonzai route?

http://www.shorty.com/bonsaikitten/

 

[Hatster]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

I think we may end up putting it through the door after all since the alternatives seem to get more and more convoluted - seems a bit of a shame to cut up a nice heavy door to put in a cat flap, but the alternative is going to be putting it in a window, which isn't much better.

And the CO wasn't actually called out to consult on the cat flap - I just tried to enlist her support on a matter of domestic dispute while she was agreeing that our cement render was not of historic importance.

 

[MdB]

A better solution:

 

[biffvernon]

We used to have a cat that did that but it never bothered to close the door behind it.

 

[AMc]

If the pane is 16.5cm wide would one of these work http://www.staywell.co.uk/pages/small.php
They have PDFs of the fitting instructions and the dimensions.

I would imagine by removing the glass, mounting the flap in a board and attaching the board to the door on one side or the other you could get a the actual door swing through the empty space even though the unit was a bit bigger?
It would take some skill to make it look good, but it could be a less destructive route?


Our old cat weighed 1.5 stone at his fattest - I doubt he could make it through 150mm door - depends how wide your moggy is.

 

[Anita]

We had this problem in different houses and managed to get hold of a totally clear cat flap (aaprt from it's little red locking mechanism).

My O/H then replaced one corner pane out of georgian sash windows with perspex, and fit the flap into that. Hardly noticeable - unlike cats muddy paw-prints on cream dining room carpet after it's come in through the window!!!!!

Could probably hunt out the make/model if you are interested.