Do these doors have internal "structure"?

[Roger465]

I need to fit a cat flap to the rear door out of my garage – this involves cutting a hole about 180 x 170mm. Now the thing is, I don’t know if these doors have hollow and solid bits, bracing etc, inside, or whether they’re just a solid moulding. I suppose I could just stick a fine drill in to find out, but I’d prefer not to…


So I want to cut this hole at the bottom right of the first picture. If I do it all in the recessed part of the door, it would be much neater, but too high for kitty to climb in, even though it probably doesn't look that ways in the pic – so I’m probably going to have to cut it half in the recessed central portion, and half in the thicker bit at the bottom of the door. But I don’t want to destroy the structure of the door if it has got hollow sections, internal bracing etc.


The bottom pic shows the door from the outside. The house is all 1994-vintage uPVC, and this door has those “rhino horn” locks, so it probably is plastic too…?

 

[Jadele]

cut it all in the recess bit cutting in to the wider bit will seriously weaken the door and look awful

 

[Doggit]

Cats are a lot tougher (and agile) than they look, so I wouldn't cut in to the stile at all, as the different thicknesses will cause problems with the cat flap. Set it into the lower corner of recessed part.

Edit: no there's no internal structure, and it won't be that thick either.

 

[Roger465]

Cats are a lot tougher (and agile) than they look, so I wouldn't cut in to the stile at all, as the different thicknesses will cause problems with the cat flap. Set it into the lower corner of recessed part.

Edit: no there's no internal structure, and it won't be that thick either.

This no ordinary cat…

He weighs over a stone and is very muscular, so has a tendency to wreck things which aren’t well fitted to him. Also, as he gets older, he may struggle to lift and fit his massive bulk through awkward apertures etc.

Anyway, I took your advice and set it into the bottom corner of the thinner bit. Cutting the hole was a real laugh – turns out the door is solid mahogany, and I broke two jigsaw blades cutting this hole:

The finished job:

The reason I wanted to cut it much lower in the door is that the ground outside is much lower, and it really is too high where it is now, so couldn’t think of a better solution than this:

 

[Jadele]

Lol love it

 

[JohnD]

norwegian forest?

 

[Roger465]

norwegian forest?

Maine Coon

 

[foxhole]

The bricks are unnecessary, cats , even big ones are very agile, my mother in laws cat negotiated louvre glass window 7ft of the ground , and also opened the window with his paws if it was left shut.