Replace the door, don't put it in the wall, not good for resale. Good Luck in your new home.

We have always had out doggie door in the bottom of a door but never off an eating space IMO one in the wall could be deterrant for anyone who does not have a dog and hard to match brick if they wanted to close it. I would get a new door with it at the bottom and glass at the top.

Just replace the door with the doggie door in it. Keep the existing door to use in case of selling.

thank y'all!

I thought they were called raccoon doors.

I thought they were called raccoon doors.

Skunks come in my mom's door too -- but only if she leaves it unlocked overnight. They don't dare come to the house during the day.

Get a new door with dog door after you move in. Then you won't get a change order fee. Keep the old door to switch out when you sell. Plus is the old door won't be dinged/scratched for the new buyer!

I agree with others to just get another door and add the dog door.

As to a change-order, if you initially told them (hopefully it is in writing) you wanted a dog door there instead of a glass door then that's at their expense, not yours.

Agree, don't make holes in the brick wall.

If my big dog had a dog door she would be out jumping the fences and chasing squirrels and rats all over town!

"If my big dog had a dog door she would be out jumping the fences and chasing squirrels and rats all over town!"

However, if your big dog had a big door then the homeless would have a place to visit during the day.

We installed a "cat door" in the wall next to the french doors at our old house. It was just to let the cats get to the 3-season room. The buyers did not have a problem with it. But our exterior walls were siding, not brick. I wouldn't put one in a brick wall.

i have an extra large dog door for my dogs, built into the wall. they have access to the outdoors during the day but i lock it at night. i had to give baths to 3 great danes at 2 a.m. because of a skunk encounter. night time dog door privileges permanently suspended. i live in the boonies and the lane dead ends at my house. if i didn't have the dog door, i'd be up and down like a puppet a thousand times a day! LOL

the door is 6" thick with a double flap for extra insulation.

A lot easier to replace a door than to cut a hole in a brick wall and intend to repair it later.

(Our cat door is also a raccoon door. I laughed at that comment. They love cat food. Or any food.)

@Mrs Pete, thats cause they are nocturnal.

I wouldnt do it in the wall. Selling your house, it WILL, not it might, deter a potential buyer. Maybe even some with a dog. A door is a simple swap.

It's rare this community agrees so heartily on one home-building option over another. I also vote for in the door, not the wall.

@Carolina, True but fortunately I'm always right.

Yes, this wouldn't be Houzz without Tony Montana!

I had a cat door in the wall once. No big thing.

I bought the house with dog/raccoon door in the brick. It leads from the porch into a dog wash room. I store dog supplies in the wash room and wash the dogs at the self-service dog wash. Let the dog wash deal with the hair. This little room has a door that I can close. I close it at night. Mr. Racoon is locked out.

I'm the person who bought the house because of the dog door. Still, I would advise putting the dog door in a door and not the house structure.

In my area raccoons are a nuisance, but a secondary issue is the fact that many of these doors are big enough to allow an intruder to squeeze in.

FYI there’s a product called suralink which has a cat/small dog door that works on a microchip and can be locked on a timer. For me a house with an existing door would be a gigantic plus. Right now my house has a giant dog door painted shut in the kitchen, which is fine because at this time I don’t have a big dog but if ever I did I’d be happy to use it. However you must have a door that locks at night for sure one way or another

We sold a house with a cat door in brick. We have extra brick in the basement. I had planned to cover it when we listed but there were too many other things to do. It sold in 3 days and I am pretty sure the door is still there. And the new owners don't have cats.

Mojo mom, that's ingenious!

BTW you get a chip for your dog and the doggie only opens for that chip .

Our Great Pyrenees does not get a doggie door. If we had one her size, at least one of our miniature horses would consider it an invitation to come in and sleep on our bed. (It's bad enough that his corral looks into our bedroom, and he lets me know if I'm late with breakfast...)

Mojomom’s solution is like what we are doing!!

I'd never seen a dog door in a cabinet, but that's really clever. I did do a laundry room job with a base cabinet that had a small hole cut in the side so the cat could get in and use the cat box! Not exactly my thing but the customer is always right, right?

Carolina Kitchen & Bath I am currently actually building a laundry area with the express purpose of it one day housing a litter box. Every home I have ever owned, having a place for a litter box is a dealbreaker

It would be easier to have a doggie door on a door. The next owner would be much happier changing a door than fixing the wall.

Why didn't we think of that earlier? lol

@ mojomom, your dog door may increase the value of your house!

Cut the dog door into the brick and save a few brick in the garage attic. After you close on the house, please.

So why not in the door? Still will effect value as it would in brick and won't need to also save mortar and pay mason twice.

When house hunting (6-mos ago) we toured a home in which the owners left 3 pugs at home, in a gated room. Ok that was cute and we walked around minding our business.

At the back patio doors, up runs three pugs. "Oh my! They have 6-pugs and they left them in the back yard!?" Wait..that pug looks familiar (the jowls/folds were distinctive).

We went back to where the first 3 pugs were and who was there to meet us? How in the world did they get out? There was a dog door in the bedroom wall and the 3rd bedroom was their dog room!

Aside from that, the smell was horrible. We declined moving forward.

Someone bought the home but don't know if the sellers changed the room or not. To say the least, the real estate ad showed a bedroom set up not a dog kennel.

One problem with a dog door in the wall is if the buyer's dog is bigger than yours:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T5GOAEJD4A

You can get dog doors that have a magnetic opener as well. You put a collar on your pet with a magnet and then it only opens when the magnet is close enough to release the latch. I'm sure there are more high tech options available as well. Those would keep the raccoons and other unwanted animals out. Another option is you can get dog/cat doors that fit into your sliding patio door. You lock and put a slider brace in the door against a full height panel and the door is at the bottom. I wouldn't want it on a door I use often.

But in this situation, it is such an easy thing to find a door with half glass and you can install your dog/cat door in the bottom. You might get lucky and find something that would work for you at a Habitat for Humanity restore. As suggested, keep the one the builder has installed for later if you sell or if you no longer need the pet door.

Has anyone put a doggie door on a screened porch?

When I had cats, I took the end base cabinet, removed its side and saved it, and then had my carpenter make a new side and cover it with trellis. It had a hole built in just big enough for the cats, but not my small dogs. Cat box went in bottom cabinet. Accessible to clean through cabinet door. Also put in a pull-out wire basket as at that time, cats ate canned food. Perfect! DD had three cats and has a hole in the door of a base cabinet for them to get into their cat box. Easy to clean!

Finding a place for the cat box where it is close enough to tell you it needs cleaning, but not right out in the house, can be tricky. We've found using a cabinet helpful.

The old cubby in my kitchen ended up with the door off and used it for a dog bed for years. When I redid the kitchen 2 years ago, I had the door left off again - dog bed for two dogs in there for when I leave the house (gate on one doorway, locked swinging door and locked outside door on other two doors.

Then I lost my beloved Godfrey a year ago Jan. Shimmer has never again slept in that bed - she is still waiting at the gate for Godfrey to return. She will use the bed to sit in to eat her meals or if there is a lot of foot traffic in the kitchen, but not to sleep when left (she sleeps with me at night).

So, on Monday, the kitchen company that did my kitchen is coming out to give me a bid on two deep drawers for this space. I ordered a shelf and door but I'd much prefer two drawers. If the price is right, Shimmer will now have her food dish on the floor when she eats breakfast and dinner. She will survive. I would have left it as is if she used it, but I'm looking longingly at this new source of storage space in my kitchen, since she is not!

"Has anyone put a doggie door on a screened porch?"

Yes, I did it for my father-in-law. I used a regular door type doggie door then made a custom aluminum pass through with longer bolts to the exterior. I made and installed an aluminum rain hat on the exterior too.

Did the same thing for my sister too.