Do you have a dog? If yes is the answer, then you would need to build a dog door so that your dog can easily gain access to the house. Not all dogs can open doors, the easiest way for your canine buddy to get inside the house is through a doggie door.
In this article, we have compiled a list of DIY dog door projects that you can build. Feel free to glance through and make a pick.
Table of Contents
1. How To Design A Doggie Door
When it’s a matter of being in or out of the house, dogs can’t bring themselves to make up their minds. It becomes tiring and annoying to always get up and open the door every time your dog wants to go out. That is why you need to design a doggie door for your dog.
To get the right size of the dog door, you need to measure your dog when he/she is standing on all four legs. Measure from top to bottom and create the same marking on the door. The rest of the process is quick and easy to build.
2. DIY Heavy Duty Doggie Door
Here is one heavy-duty doggie door that goes through a concrete wall. It is advised to use a strong heavy-duty dog door if your house is made of concrete. If it’s made of wood, a wooden doggie door should do the trick. This door is made out of steel and aluminum.
Depending on the size of your dog, for security reasons, it should not be big enough for a human to be able to pass through.
3. Homemade Doggy Door
A homemade doggy door is just what you need. Something that you can easily make and change from time to time. This doggy door is temporary although, you can make yours permanent, feel free.
The doggy door was made out of a doormat. The beautiful thing about this door is that you can make it using one of the floor windows in your house if you have any. You don’t have to damage the window, you can slide it out, or carefully remove and install the dog door. That is why I said it was a temporary doggy door in the first place.
4. DIY Dog Door
This is not stressful work, you just need a few tools and materials to get going. The size of your dog will determine the size of the door and also the size of the wood you will be using. This guide will teach you how to build you can adjust the size to suit your dog after learning.
You need plywood, scrap wood, eyebolts, oak dowel, fine wire, silicone sealant, wood glue, and more. The tools for the job are some clamps, chisel, hammer, drill, saw, and a utility knife.
5. How To Install A Dog Door
If you have a really big dog, you might not want to use your front door as your dog door. You need 3 major materials, sealants, a pen, and the dog door. The tools are power drills, plier set, and hand saw. This guide won’t teach you how to make the dog door but only how to install it with the required materials.
6. How To Make A Dog Door In A Wall
Making a dog door in a wall is not a day job and it’s not going to be easy, but with the right tools and a careful look at this guide you might find it quite simple. This project will take you up to 2 days to complete, it will cost you about $350, and you don’t need to have much experience in carpentry work to do the job.
7. DIY Magnetic Dog Door Flap
A magnetic door flap is a great way for you to create a dog door that always closes tight after the dog passes through it. The magnetic dog door flap is easy to make, all you need is a multi-grip deep pile carpet protector, and a flexible magnetic strip. For other details check the tutorial video and get the right dimensions for everything.
8. DIY Doggy Door
I found this tutorial on youtube. It’s amazing, the step-by-step guide is simple and anyone can build this. After making your doggy door with wood, follow this guide to add a nice mini slide door also made of fine pine wood.
9. How To MakeA Screen Dog Door
You need some wood, a table saw, and wood glue. You can also decide to change the screen of your door completely and replace it with a new screen that has a dog door opening that you will create, making the job easier for yourself.
10. How To Install A Dog Door In A Metal Door
Is your door made of metal? Then, follow this guide, you will need some essential materials and tools. You need hand clamps, automatic center punch, speed drill, yardstick, hammer, measuring tape, screwdriver, and metal cutting blades. The first thing to do is to measure your dog’s shoulder height then measure the space to cut out on the door using your dog’s measurement. The rest of the steps are simple and easy enough.
11. DIY Dog Door Installation
You’re not going to be making a dog door from scratch but learning how to install it to your door. The first thing first is to measure your dog. This has to be the very first thing you must do before cutting any space on your door.
The next step is finding the best location for the dog door, either on a wall or door. Once you have overcome that little challenge then, proceed to install the dog door with ease.
12. DIY Doggie Door Deck
This is an amazing dog door deck. Why is it so amazing? This is because the dog door comes with a deck. The deck can be built from the ground up and it is quite easy to do. The same goes for the dog door. You can choose to install a dog door that you bought to ease the stress of building a small deck as well.
Here are the materials you need. You need some wood, wood boards, back spray paint, solar deck lights, wood glue, wood screws, wood dowels, and a drill.
13. DIY Dog Door Flap
Some people don't know how to make a flap for their dog door. Here’s what you need to get that done. You need an epoxy E6000 glue, tape measure, magnets, and screws. For this tutorial video, a car mat is used for the flap and you can use anything you can find around your house similar to that.
14. DIY Dog Door For Sliding Glass Door
Today you’re going to learn how to build a doggy door to fit into a sliding glass door enclosure. Here are the tools you need, a treadle machine, miter saw, Dewalt combo pack, and other machines and materials that you might not have at home if you’re not into carpentry.
This will be a lot harder for you if you don’t have the tools required and the skill set needed. You can make a different kind of dog door and use this guide to install it into your sliding glass door.
15. DIY Temporary Dog Door
In order not to change the style of your house with a permanent hole or space, you can make a temporary dog door. This is done by attaching a wood frame to your door to create an edge where there is a space for your dog to pass through. You can take the frame down at night and put it back up in the morning. It's easy and budget-friendly.
16. DIY Window Pane Dog Door
If all the doors in your house have window panes and you think it will be impossible to fix a dog door with the windows panes, well I have come to let you know that you can build and install a window pane dog door with ease.
You just need the right plan to initiate an amazing window pane dog door. This will cost you about $80 though, it might take a long time to finish.
17. How to Make a Doggie Door Burglar Proof
Any dog door you create must be moderate enough in size to only allow a dog to pass through and not a human. Although there are dogs that are so big that you feel the need to open a larger space for a dog door to enable the dog easy access in and out of the house. If you do that you will also be allowing uninvited guests access into your house.
Your next bet might be to switch to an electronic door, don’t do that because it will require your dog to wear a dog collar, and if you’re not keen on a dog collar or transmitter, it won’t work for you. The process of building this is a super easy one.
18. How To Build A Large Dog Door
Here is what to do first. Measure the dog, examine the door that the dog will pass through, mark the outline for the dog door, confit that your dog can pass through the door, make the dog door hinges, use a polythene sheeting for the dog door, frame the holes that will make with a drill, attach the door flap and finish the job.
19. How To Install A Pet Door In Glass
You need to be careful, it’s glass and in making this you need saw blades that are specialized in cutting thick glass. You can attach it to your table saw if you have one or take the glass to any company you know you can cut it. After that install the god door and mount it back from where you took it from.
20. How To Build A Hidden Cabinet Doggy Door
Your house can be built in such a way that the kitchen area faces the open yard or garden that your dog likes to play with. Instead of making a dog door somewhere else, you can create a space through a hidden cabinet and make a dog door there.
This is also a great way to hide your door. To make this door, you need to cut through your cabinet and wall. The wall will be thicker, so you can start the cutting of the wall from outside while the cabinet is cut from inside. You need a pet door kit. This might cost about $30 depending on the size of your dog.
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Conclusion
That’s a wrap on our collated list of the best DIY dog door projects. We tried our very best to pick some of the best dog door projects that you can build for wooden doors and even metal doors.
If this article was helpful to you, feel free to share with your friends and family. Someone might just need this information.
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