How To Install A Pet Door In A Screen Door

Below is a video on how to install a pet door in a screen door.

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Today we will be showing you how to install a pet door in a full screen storm door or screen door.  Most people think you can only install a pet door in a patio door or a half glass storm door. This pet door is made by pet safe and will work with metal or plastic screen.

To start we will need to remove the screen from the storm door. If you have a wooden storm door with the screen built in you will need to remove it by undoing the screws from the hinges. For this Anderson storm door we will need to loosen the bolts and swing the tabs out of the way.

Now that we the screen out you will need to place it on a hard work surface. You could use your concrete floor in your garage; saw horses with plywood or the bed of your truck. Now with the screen on a hard work surface we will make sure we have the side that faces in face down with the outside facing upward. Next you will need to grab your pet and take a tape measure and measure the height on their back. Once you have that number we can apply that number to the screen. Shelby’s back is 10” so we will use a permanent marker and make a dotted line on the screen at 10”. Next we will take the height of their back and add 6” and mark that out on the screen with a solid line.

Now that we have those two marks on our screen we can grab the pet door and separate it. We will set the back half aside for now. If you look at the back side of the pet door you will notice there are different tracks on the back. Now depending on your screen material you will have to use a different track to cut your screen out. If you have a plastic screen you will cut track A which is the track closer to the door. If you have a metal screen you will cut track B which is the second track out from the door. Well take the front part and turn it over and place it under our screen and align the top edge with our top solid mark on the screen. In our case it is 16”.

Take your time and align it with your top mark and square it up with the door frame. Once you have the door where you like it we can now take a utility knife and cut on the track to go along with your screen type. Since our screen is plastic where are going to cut on track A. So use the knife and cut along the track until you cut out a square and can remove it. It helps to have a new blade in your knife.

Now that we have that square removed we can grab the back half of the pet door and flip it over. I like to use some clear silicone caulk and put some on each corner of the back of the pet door. I like to do this just to ensure that the two halves of the doors don’t separate during use but you could separate it later on if your screen gets ripped. Now that we have the silicone on all four corners we can flip it over and align it with the front half and push it together. Once we have it started we can take a hammer and tap it together. Now that we have the two halves snapped together we can flip the screen over and then reinstall in our storm door.

Now that we have the screen reinstalled into our storm door we can slide the two slide locks towards the center of the door to unlock them so the pet door will swing open and closed. Now for training your pet to use the pet door its best to start by holding the door wide open so it doesn’t touch your pet as they go though and coax them though with a treat a few times. Then hold the door half way open so it will touch there back as they go though and coax them though with a treat a few times. After a bit your pet should go though the pet door by themselves. Some pets take a few training sessions.

So if you have a fenced in yard or a wired, wireless pet fence it’s a great way to give your pet the freedom to go out whenever he or she pleases. That’s it we just showed you how to install a pet door in an all screen storm door.

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