Lean How to make a heated outdoor cat house. This step by step guide will show you how to build a heated outdoor cat house.
Making a heated outdoor cat house can be a great way to provide shelter for your pets during the winter months. In addition to ensuring warmth, this project also provides your pets with a private space with easy access to food and water. This project is more complicated than most of our other projects and will take about an hour and a half to complete. So grab some friends and lets get started!
Find out which litter box furniture is best for your cat. We review the top products and give you advice on how to make your own.
What you will need
-A piece of plywood that is about 12×15 inches
-A sheet of Styrofoam insulation
-Paint (optional)
-Screws and a drill to screw the pieces together
-Tape measure or yardstick
-Paintbrush (optional)
This project can be completed in two steps. First, you will need to assemble the heated cat house. To do this, lay one piece of plywood on a flat surface and draw a line in the middle at least an inch from one side. Once you have drawn the line, use a yardstick or tape measure to find where 4 inches from either side of that line is and then mark two lines from each end of the middle line that go to those points. This should give you 4 squares with a dotted line between them. In each square, drill 2 holes for screws.
Be very careful when drilling these holes near the edge so it doesn’t break through the other side. Once you have made all 8 holes, turn over your board and drill 2 more holes on top of each original hole for another set of screws. Finally, take another sheet of plywood and put it over your original one so you have a large sheet in front
Step 1. Prepare the materials
One of the most important steps in building a heated outdoor cat house is to gather all of the materials needed for the project. Gather the following items from your local hardware store:
– a PVC pipe measuring 1.5 feet in diameter and 12 inches long
– Also a PVC pipe measuring 1.5 feet in diameter and 24 inches long
– a PVC joint connector
– a PVC end cap
– 2 inch hole saw
– some wood screws
– an outdoor heater with thermostat, rated at 150 watts or more
– some heat tape, rated at 300 watts
– an outdoor extension cord, rated for outdoor use -a drill
Step 2. Cut the PVC pipe
The next step is to cut the PVC pipe. Each piece should be four inches long.
Step 3. Assemble the frame
When assembling the frame, you want to make sure all of the wood pieces are placed securely in the right spot. To do this, it helps to use a clamped jig for alignment. By doing this, it helps to ensure that your wood will be at a 90 degree angle when it is screwed into place. You can use a drafting triangle or a carpenters square for any adjustments needed before screwing in place.
The next step is where you want to place the piece of plywood on top of the frame and screw in place with small screws. When placing the plywood on top, make sure that it is perpendicular to the frame by using a drafting triangle or a carpenter’s square. If not, you may need to adjust it before placing screws through the holes from below.
It’s important that your plywood is straight because otherwise there will be gaps between your boards and this will compromise its stability and integrity. After everything has been placed into position then you’ll want to drill pilot holes through each corner of your plywood and frame so that they go all the way through both surfaces. Then use 1½ inch screws (or longer) with washers if available, which should be positioned on an angle so
Step 4. Add insulation to the inside of the frame
Now that all of the pieces are built and dry, we can start to add insulation. This will help keep the house warm and comfortable for your cats.
Start by cutting some batting material into squares and place them at the bottom of each side of the frame on the inside. Fold the corners of each square over and staple them in place as shown below:
Continue doing this on all four sides. You want to make sure you cover as much space as possible with the batting material:
Once you’ve finished this step, you’ll need to bring some extra insulation material (like styrofoam) and cut it into blocks. The size of these blocks will depend on how big your house is but for this project I recommend using 3″x3″x8″ blocks. You’ll want to place these on top of the batting material we just put down:
Next, staple gun them down so they’re secure. Make sure you leave a small gap between each block so air can circulate:
Finally, once again use our staple gun to attach a sheet of aluminum foil or heat resistant plastic to cover up any holes for insulation purposes:
One last thing left to do is seal up all four sides with tar paper or poly
Step 5. Put the frame on top of the house
Carefully place the frame on top of the house, making sure that all edges are flush with the house. Use galvanized nails to pin it in place. Make sure that the front is facing out.
When building a heated outdoor cat house, you want to make sure that your pet has easy access to food and water. Place two screws through each side of the frame so they go into the house at about an inch from the top of the wall.
Step 6. Add a roof
Now it’s time to add a roof! To make the roof, cut out a triangle from the other side of the foam board that is the same shape as your door. You’ll want to make sure that before you cut, you measure the distance between your door and the top of your cat house. This will be how wide to make your triangle.
Next, use hot glue or another adhesive to attach your roof to one edge of your cat house. Press firmly so that it sticks to the roof and press down on all sides so there are no gaps.
 Conclusion
you can make a heated outdoor cat house for your pet by following the instructions in this article. Simply build an insulated house out of plywood or other materials, attach a heating pad to the bottom, and cover with straw or other insulation. Make sure that you buy a heating pad that’s designed to be used outdoors and cover the wires on top of the pad with cardboard. When done, your cat will have a warm shelter where it can sleep outside!
){kind=link}