Designing the Petflap
Imagine a cold winter’s evening, warm and cosy in the house, rain and wind outside. Now imagine all that damp and cold staying outside and the cat nipping in and out through a gentle, draughtproof and robust cat flap that shuts behind itself every time. We knew we could design one, and we have.
What we didn’t want to do
Brainstorming things we’d rather avoid, was quite easy..
- Not clang open and shut a million times day with every breeze
- Or huff and puff every time someone opened or closed a door in the house.
- No flapping back and forth repeatedly once a pet managed to open and pass through
- Not to trap a tail or paw
- Not drag along your pet’s back
- There must be no scary noises and no jittery cats and dogs
- Not break inside a year or two
- It must not spoil the look of your nice door
Designing to a high standard
The Petflap pet access door is cut and weighted to ensure that it closes perfectly every time. We understand that our solution could work for Passivhaus designs through both doors and walls as the thermal bridge is now much reduced. Please see the Passivhaus page for the stats.
We’ve trialled several materials and continually review their role in our design and manufacturing. As always, to do a job well you need to start with the best materials, so our focus now is on a range of materials to help make the Petflap light, durable and robust.
To help insulate and reduce radiated heat loss we use high quality plastics and riot shield material; these are UV stable and allow your pet a good view through from either side. We’ve replaced a large section of acrylic with tricoya, a sustainable and durable form of MDF. A draughtproof cat flap doesn’t need to compromise on looks or functionality.