How to Install a Cat Door
Updated on : 19 May 2021
At Kitty Korner Door, we get asked all the time how to install a cat door. It’s a fair question considering the words “kitty” and “door” are right there in our name! Since we are indeed the experts, we made a video that shows you – step by step – how to install a cat door. Well, it shows you how to install our cat door, the Kitty Korner door. The truth is, our DIY cat door kit makes it so easy, you probably don’t even need a video, but we’ve got it for you just in case.
The other question we get asked a lot is “why Kitty Korner Door and not one of the other interior cat doors I see online?” Great question! And we’ve got an even better answer: to avoid forever changing the look and feel of your home when it simply isn’t necessary. The problem with all those other cat doors is they require you to permanently modify your door. Once you cut that big hole in the middle of your bathroom door, for example, you’ve got a hole in your door forevermore. But what about when you have guests and you want the place to look its very best? What about when you go to sell your house and the prospective buyers wonder why there’s a big hole in the bathroom door?
That’s why the Kitty Korner Door is literally the ideal pet product: it gives you flexibility! With our patented SlideLock™, you can lock it in the closed position and no one even knows it’s there. You maintain the appearance and performance of your interior door, and at the same time you enjoy the flexibility and freedom of a cat door.
While there may indeed be many ways to install a pet door, there quite simply may be no better door to install than one that – with a simple slide, flip and lock – allows you to restore the look and feel of having NO cat door.
So, back to that first question – ways to install a pet door. For good measure, let’s walk through the actual steps involved with installing the Kitty Korner door. It may look like a lot, but we’ve known some true handymen who executed all 15 steps in less than 15 minutes! We’ve also known a few first timers who didn’t even know the difference between flathead and Phillips head screwdrivers – and while it took a lot more than 15 minutes, they got their Kitty Korner Door installed just the same.
INSTALLING A CAT DOOR IN 15 EASY STEPS
- Remove the door hinge pins to free the interior door from its upright and hanging position. Note that our kit is compatible with solid and hollow doors.
- Set the door on a couple of sawhorses or a table, leaving the bottom two feet of the door hanging off.
- Using the Kitty Korner Door template, make a light pencil mark on the bottom and side of the door where the cut will start and finish.
- Run a piece of tape diagonally that covers both pencil marks. This piece of tape ensures a smooth cut with no rough edges.
- Lay the template on the door so it is flush with the bottom and side edge and tape it down to secure it.
- Use a circular saw to cut along the cut line.
- Remove all tape and clear the sawdust.
- Place our patented SlideLock™ on the freshly sawed angle and mark the door where the holes line up with the door filler. If your door is solid, you can use any or all of the holes. On a hollow door, typically only 2 or 3 will line up – don’t worry, as you only need two!
- Predrill holes where you marked the door.
- Using the screws provided, secure the SlideLock™ to the door.
- Set the section of the door you cut off in step 6 on top of the door, positioned such that the two sawed edges are flush with one another.
- Flip the SlideLock™ up and mark the locations where the holes align with the door filler. The solid/hollow door information from step 8 applies here, as well.
- Using the screws provided, secure the sliding mechanism to what is now your cat door.
- Put the door back in its rightful location and reinsert the door hinge pins.
- Lock the DIY cat door in the up position and watch your feline friends explore. Warning: your canine may not be too happy with this new development…
So, there it is: how to install the best cat door on the market in 15 easy steps. But you know what? Just watch the video – it explains the process visually in a way that can never be duplicated with words. As the old saying goes, a picture (or in this case, a video, is worth a thousand words).
Oh, and if you’re looking for gift ideas, check out one of our previous blogs on finding the “purrfect” gift for cats and cat lovers.
