People do indeed love their pets.
We spend billions of dollars annually on pets in this country (This “Pet Bailout” is somewhere near $50,000,000,000.00 a year).
One of the simple little things that is part of that number is pet doors installed in the door to the garage. These simple little pet doors cost about $30.00—-perhaps another $30 bucks to get someone handy to install it—-unless of course it is on the “honey-do” list, which of course, as we all know, would then be “free of charge.”
What that initial cost won’t include is replacement of the door itself as soon as the first home inspector comes along.
Installing these things in the fire-resistant door between the house and the garage negates the fire-resistance of the door and thus the door would have to be replaced. A new door (assuming the existing jambs and threshold can be re-used) would cost somewhere around $160.00. Installation would likely require the services of someone that knows what they are doing (so NOT on the “honey-do” list)—-which might add another $160.00—perhaps more. Now with some serious number crunching, we arrive at a new total cost of the pet door at $380.00—-at least.
Fortunately the house didn’t burn down and no one died—-so the adjusted cost is still within acceptable limits—-I guess.
So let’s get back to the $50,000,000,000.00 pet bailout. Do we have to add all these extra “hidden costs” to the total? Do we have to start adding to that number the costs of new carpeting throughout the home? Replacement of other damaged fixed items in the home? How about the damaged blinds or curtains, chewed moldings, scratched door jambs and ductwork full of pet hair? There is also the re-grading/re-seeding the back yard where Rover got creative.
Well, we may not be up to the “infamous” $700,000,000,000.00 bailout—-but I think you can get the picture—pets are expensive and hard on a home.
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Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector
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Should we construe your remarks to indicate that you don’t think pets are a Good Thing? Because I could substitute the word “child” for the word “pet” in the sentences above and the result would be just as true.
Kids and pets can indeed be expensive and hard on the physical side of the home. I would suggest, however, that they are essential (and priceless) for said home’s heart.
Sophia, I don’t think I would touch that question with a ten foot pole 🙂 Homeowners are perhaps the hardest on most homes—especially in tough times. I could not agree more that keeping the home’s “heart” as healthy as possible is the bottom line and that requires lots of “living.”
How can you tell if the door is fire resistant? The door between the kitchen and the garage in my 1970 ranch house looks like all the other interior doors in the house, which are hollow core with birch plywood facing. The door to the garage does feel a little heavier when it swings, so maybe it’s different? It looks very much like the door in the photo of “Typical pet door cut into a garage door,” complete with marred finish (but without pet scratch marks).
I thought of putting a pet door there, but decided against it. I couldn’t find one that seemed well made. Instead, I had one installed in the exterior wall of the house. It cost a lot more than $30!
Elena, if it is a solid wood door and it is at least 1-3/8″ thick it would likely meet “fire-resistant” requirements of 1970. Today it also needs to be weatherstripped all four edges and have a self-closure mechanism. An interior birch hollow core door is going to look exactly like a birch solid core door so to tell which you have you should be able tell by knocking on it. If it sounds the same as the interior doors it is likely hollow. They are usually solid from that time period—but stuff happens 🙂
ps I am not surprised that the pet door through the wall was more expensive—quite a bit more involved for sure.