When building a home, most of us plan based on human needs. But that’s not the case for everyone. Of course, planning the home should include the needs of the entire family and that includes your cat/s and dog/s. While some residents are great at DIY projects using the Best Orbital Sander and other power tools, there are just a few features that will require professional help. Let’s focus on cat flaps. While it sounds easy for DIY enthusiasts, think again. Read more below.

Pet Door – The Cat/Dog Flap

Not all cats are pure “room tigers” in everyday life. And especially in the traffic-calmed atmosphere of a new development area, many building owners like to decide to make their previous domestic cat a free-litter. But as cats are like that, it can be very stressful for human residents – as soon as the temperatures are not high enough to leave an outer door permanently open at least a crack, the owners often ask the Stromer to open the door to be opened, just so that it can be closed again immediately – of course without the animal having entered or exited.

Of course, there is a solution in the form of the cat flap. But regardless of whether you are comparing a new building or a refurbished old building, the Energy Saving Ordinance EnEV now applies to both of them. And that sets extremely strict standards for how well a building as a whole is insulated. In this sense, the conventional cat flap, which is usually nothing more than a piece of plexiglass hanging on hinges in the door or in the wall, is simply a hole in the wall and therefore a gaping gap in the thermal insulation. If you integrate something like this into your home from scratch, you may even have problems with acceptance because such “insulation gaps” for blower tests to measure airtightness must not be sealed. And if KfW funding is integrated into the financing, the cat flap is also a problem that prevents the building from reaching the associated efficiency standard.

The end of the cat flap? No, not really. Only the end for cheap cat flaps. The market is extremely thin, in fact, there is only one manufacturer, but there are “passive house cat doors”. They are not only at a contemporary level in terms of U-value, but are also full of digital technology: the cat wears an RFID collar or is implanted with a corresponding chip and only she can use it to open the door – which then closes again automatically. In fact, these super doors are also available in a size that is sufficient for dogs. However, the whole thing has its proud price.