Pet door removal?

[test user]

In my just-bought house, there's a rather large pet door going out the
west side of the house.
The people living there had a good-sized dog, and the heavy rubber pet
door is an eye sore, since I only have an indoor cat.

I'm also concerned since it's moderately large, that a neighborhood kid
could climb in there and ransack the house.

Can a pet door be covered up, or do I need to just spring for a new
door?

If covering up, how would that be accomplished?

[Des Bromilow]

It can be covered up......
What you've got to do is look at the finish of the door... is it wood
grain or is it coloured (painted) masonite etc?
If your door is woodgrain feature you'll be in for a lot (LOTS) of
work.... I'd seriously consider buying another door.
OTOH if you want to repair it.....
First of all remove the pet door., then remove any "trim" installed
around where the door used to go. You should now be able to see inside
the door and see of it's solid or if it's hollow core.
If it's solid, you'll need to build a frame to fit inside the opening
but make the thickness of the frame thin enough to allow it to be
cladded with the two sheets (one each side) of masonite or ply.
Depending on the size of the opening you may consider placing wooden or
metal bars within this frame.
If it's a hollow core door... cut four bars of timber which are longer
than the sides of the opening. What you're going to do is build a frame
which fits inside the opening with half the width of the bars inside the
old door and half of the width exposed through the opening. This will
allow the new pieces of cladding to be fixed all round on these new
bars.

Once you have the frames built up, in the hollow door case... fix the
bars in place with an adhesive such as "Liquid Nails". In the solid door
case.. I'd use screws and "Liquid Nails" The screws go in through the
frame and into the door. the screws will be hidden by the cladding.
Once the frame is fixed into position.... Cut the appropriate cladding
and fix it to the frame using a strong water resistant adhesive. Ideally
you want the cladding to have a tight, close fit with minimal gaps. if
you're working with a wood grain door, try and chose a ply of similar
wood and grain orientation.
Once the cladding is in place, with glue dried and no adhesive squeezed
through any gaps... Putty up any gaps with a weather resistant putty
(coloured appropriately for woodgrain) and then paint/seal to match the
rest of the door.
This technique is used to repair any holes in doors from Kicks to
removing pet access panels HOWEVER, it can take a few hours of work so
judge that against the cost of replacing the door with a new or salvaged
one.

Hope this helps,
Des

--
Des Bromilow
Queensland Rocketry Association
Brisbane
Australia
"Inner Child" be darned... I'm having WAY too much fun rediscovering
my "Inner Teenager"!!! dyb 11/2/99