Angela wrote:
I hope someone can give me some advice if any of you have done this.

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?

No, we have one which works fine.

One of our cats had to wear one of those plastic conical collars
recently following an combat wound which she kept picking at; as the
collar diameter was larger than that of the tunnel we set up a litter
tray inside for her the house. But oh no, somehow she still managed to
negotiate the tunnel - just took rather longer than usual. It was sight
to behold!

Our tunnel has a substantial wooden frame built into the house side, to
which the catflap is screwed - thus if we ever need a new cat flap,
maybe of different dimensions, it will be pretty easy to fit, ie won't
require 'building' work.

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?

Well for a start the tunnel slopes outwards slightly, so any rainwater
would run outwards. Ours is in a solid wall, and is lined with mortar.


David