I'd like to hire someone with experience to build a catio for us. We have a window that swings open for access, and the catio would be on our back deck (abutting the house).

Location is at the north end of Toronto - so it would have to be able to withstand our winter season.

Please either respond to this post or DM me if you are interested or if you can recommend someone to me.

Thanks

I’ve been admiring everyone’s catios here for a while, and I’m finally starting to plan one of my own.
The plan is to have it connect through a window and extend out into the yard. One thing I keep getting hung up on is bugs. Most of the builds I’ve seen use welded wire, chicken wire, or similar mesh, which is great for keeping the cats safely contained, but it still leaves the house open to mosquitoes, flies, and other insects whenever the window is open.
I’m curious how people have solved this.

A couple of ideas I’ve been kicking around:

Cover the entire catio with insect screening and have the welded wire or other mesh inside it for strength and cat safety.

Build the catio with welded wire as normal, but have the entrance from the house be through a cat flap or pet door so the house isn’t directly open to the outside.

For those of you with window-access catios, how do you handle bugs? Have you found a solution that works well, or am I overthinking it?

A couple of years ago, I made a nice little window box catio for my boys. I’ve been dreaming of adding an addition for some time. Here’s my elevated catwalk that leads to a round tower. The roof is a fire-pit cover and I grabbed some acrylic domes and some solar lights to finish the look. It came out really nice, and the boys LOVE it. I already have plans to add more!

My 4 yr old cat has a love/hate riding in cars as most do Taking her to the vet we’ll use a normal size carrier and have my gf sit in the back with her. We’ve done a couple longer trips (2-3hrs) like camping and bought a semi bigger carrier. She starts out ok but eventually wants to claw out. Wanted to see if anyone has ever built a catio for their car. Something bigger for them to walk around a bit. Maybe even with a higher view.

One time I picked her up from the sitter after camping with a rental with our stuff still in it and we sat her in the carrier at a higher view where she could see out the window and she seemed to love it. Maybe that could help ease the stress? Would love to hear any ideas or thoughts? Would love to sometimes take her with us on short camping trips instead of leaving her back or at a friends place. I know we shouldn’t put more stress on her and leave her home but I also know she enjoys it when we camp and she can look at nature and birds and squirrels too.

https://a.co/d/0gAAJMKH

Our previous catio was getting worn down so we upgraded! This one fits all six cats comfortably. We attached a tunnel to the basement window so they can get in and out easily (when the window is open). I weather treated the wood so hopefully this lasts awhile! We’ll also get some polycarbonate sheets for the parts of the roof that are not covered to keep the rain/snow out.

PawHut makes great catios but I would say the quality of the wood is pretty flimsy and not built for Canadian winters.

But for now… the cats are thrilled. ☺️

After buying a house, we turned the door that led to the old pantry into the catio entrance. Made with no pre-planning, using pallet wood for shelves and whole palets for flooring.

For those of you who wanted to see an update... my little guy's catio is almost all done. All I have to do is add a few more shelves that have to be reworked a little. I also will design a cat grass planter in the next few weeks.

I'm even planning to add some raised patio squares before the winter!

hii me and my bf are planning on getting cats. we dont have a balcony but still want to let them have some piece of the outside world.

i would love some ideas on how i could do it, the one who owns the building has said we can do whatever we want with the outside space, as long as the neighbours dont complain.

one thing i would 100% do is putting down a plain board of wood, since theres so many insects etc and i dont know what else, so just for protection.

would love to hear your ideas !

ps: theres no space between this building and the roof, it's all one big building pretty much

No, I do not grill next to the catio 😅

Smaller one (Stained Maple) was for my own cats, Larger one (Painted Pine) was a commission I landed with family as a result.

Belly in the sunbeam.

I really want to be able to give my cat some space to experience the fresh air.
The new apartment I am moving to will have quite a large second story patio.

I don’t think the property management is too keen on me drilling into the stucco
.
I was thinking about using a room divider set like the one pictured and adding a lower compression bar for anchoring the fencing on the bottom.

Will be using this pet fencing.

Any thoughts?

My dad didn’t want me building/installing anything semi-permanent so this was my solution.

Hi. We want to make the bottom of our basement well egress window a catio area. There's a large window that opens to it and the top is sealed with bars and screen. The only issue is the bottom is covered in dirty rocks. We want to put in some sort of "flooring" so the kitties aren't walking directly on the rocks. We need it to allow drainage from rain and snow though.

Any good ideas on some sort of grate or grill type floor that would allow moisture drain below it? Other ideas for the area?

Hey folks. I have an indoor cat and one formerly feral that will tolerate indoors for 30 minutes at a time, unless weather is severe. A family of cardinals just moved in, and if i see red feathers, I will feel this on my soul. I tried keeping the outdoor cat in longer today, but it was extremely stressful.

I'd like to try cat fencing or a very large catio where i can include plants and natural ground. The catios i see for sale, no matter how large seem like jail. Add to that I am retired and my income is lower than i want even to confess to anyone, so these wonderful custom builds are about a year's income for me. I think of getting a Home Depot pergola and having that enclosed with cat safe screen. Anyone have experience with something similar? The best thing, if affordable might be cat rollers plus a permitter that prevents keeps cats from reaching birds. Anyone used the rollers of have other ideas?

Do you close up the catio overnight or let the cat/cats hang out after dark? They probably are drinking and smoking out there.

And do cats get bitten by mosquitoes? We had dogs our entire adult lives. We don't know much about cats.

My first ever DIY project was this thing ha ha. This took my husband and I seven hours today. We made a few little mistakes here and there but we're so happy how it's looking so far!

Edit: sorry, I wasn't clear when I first wrote my post. This is a WIP and a roof, shelves, and other fun things for the cat will be added in a few days. I just wanted to post what I have so far because I was really excited and proud of ourselves!

We have a concrete back patio and I’m thinking of installing a catio. However, I definitely want to have grass on the floor. What is the best way to do that? Laying down sod directly on concrete seems weird - some kind of flooring plus sod?

Hi, all! Since I'm not seeing anything posted recently, would any of you mind sharing the cat door you use to allow your furry friends access to their catio through a window? My catio is almost finished, and I need to get something ordered so my guys can access it this weekend.

We have two possibilities for adding a catio to the rear of our house, enclosing an existing cat flap in the wall--one would be on a small space of wall between two windows (roughly 5 ft wide x 4 ft deep x 7 ft high), and the other would be larger (about 10 ft wide x 4 ft x 7 ft), which would enclose not only the cat flap, but also the French doors that are currently the only way into our back garden, so it would act more like a mini screened porch. However, if we did that, the only route for us, the kids, the dog, etc. into the back yard would be through the catio.

I know the larger size is preferable in terms of being able to provide more enrichment and variety for the cat, but it seems there are potential downsides in terms of allowing the cat chances to bolt when the catio door is opened for us/dog to go through, and maybe durability issues as the catio door would get a lot more regular use than in the small version. A potential upside is that we could put insect screening on the catio and leave the french doors open in warm weather without bugs getting in (we're in the UK, so it's not like a Florida problem, but would still be nice), although that means the dog would also have free access to the catio in that situation, which has the potential for annoying the cat (although he would have shelves and things to get up high.) The smaller one has the benefit of the cat having his entirely own space. We've never had a catio of any sort before, so any help with those who have lived experience of the pros and cons of either of these setups, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Almost ready to cover the outside of my converted patio, with some sort of netting. I’ve actually bought both netting (steel wire reinforced) and the vinyl coated 16ga steel. The Catio is framed in 2x4’s, and 2 more on each wall to support shelving and walkways. I also plan on putting trim strips over the net after install. The net seems easier to work with? Although, I’m a one man band and the stretching without help is tough. The 16 ga, seems more secure as far as not letting any of the 6 cats escape. Any thoughts, experiences? TY!!!