Anyone make a cat door

[Cecil]

I am going to put a through the wall cat door in my garage.  The garage is vinyl sided.  I do not find any cat doors with a "J" channel and they all have radius edges, meaning I have an unsightly gap at the edge.  I am thinking I can simply make a plywood door frame through the wall, flash it, add the J channel and rehang the siding.  At this point, I could put in my own swinging door or buy a commercial cat door and hang it.

[Robert Adams]

I put one in from our laundry room to the garage. I have a box out there with two automatic litter boxes that dump into a trash box underneath. Works great. 

    Just a plain wall but I made a box that slid in the wall and flush with the drywall then installed a commercial flap onto it. I have done the diy thing aand I'm cheap but I buy them as its allot easier and the commercial ones work better. 

     In your case I'd just make a wood tunnel through the wall then put the door on it. Not sure if there is one with j channel. Never looked as there aren't many houses with siding here since they don't meet code from the 60's on(gotta be brick or stone).

[atgcpaul]

Whatever you do, don't put the cat's food near the opening. My Uncle put a cat door with tunnel in and they were visited by a raccoon. The door was in their kitchen/breakfast nook so lots of tasty smells.

[Cecil]

The cat is an outdoor cat - not allowed in the house.  Therefore the cat door will be from the outside to the garage, but not to the house.  While other animals will be an issue - raccoons, opossums, woodchucks and skunks - I have less concern with them in the garage.  I don't want them there, and will do what I can keep them out.  One thing I can do is lock it at night.

I will set up the door so that there is a right angle cat sized hallway immediately inside, to keep people out!  It is unlikely an adult could fit through a cat sized door.  One place I had was broken into and the foot prints were about a size 6.  They may be able to fit through a pet door.  I can make the through the wall tunnel for a larger animal, but put a 6.5x6.5 inch door on the front.  My cat can fit through the small opening, but I am not sure it would scoot through that small space for any distance.

[MsNomer]

When I put vinyl siding on my house, I avoided J-channel altogether on the front porch. My method should work for you.

Trim the opening with a narrow 3/4" board, vinyl abutting. To that thin board nail your final trim piece, overlapping the vinyl. Together, those two boards function as your j-channel.

[Snipe Hunter]

Vinyl siding mounting block

It's got the J-Channel built in. Cut a door into it and reattach it with a couple tie wraps or a piano hinge at the top so it swings.

[Cecil]

Thanks Snipe Hunter.  I should have looked for the mounting block.  I used them to mount lights, but they were much, much smaller.  I did not realize they made them this large.  That is the perfect size.  I can create the plywood tunnel so that the mounting block fits over it, and then mount the 6.5x6.5" door at the proper height.

[Cooler]

I built a "cat house" 
 which is a 4' x 4' screened in area where the litter boxes reside.  I put the cat door through the wall.  This keeps the litter outdoors and away from my dog who would scavenge the droppings if he had a chance.  

Most of the cat doors seem to be of similar quality.  

My cat house has storm windows for the winter and screens for the summer and chicken wire to keep the raccoons out.  

I had two red tailed hawks nest in my back yard a couple of years ago.  They stayed the entire summer.  I suspect that the local cat population went down significantly during that time.  I don't let my cats outdoors.