Last Updated on June 4, 2025 by PorchLightReading
How to make an easy DIY dog door for a backyard screen room. No more ruined screen doors with this budget friendly project.
Our new home has a beautiful screen room facing the backyard and tree line. It’s an absolutely wonderful little space except for one problem.
To let the dog out, you also have to go out to open the screen room door. To let the dog in, you either need wait for them to finish their business, or head back inside, get distracted, and find the dog at the sliding door because they clawed the screen door to get in.
Ok, this is a problem we need to fix ASAP.
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- Table of Contents: How To Make a Simple DIY Dog Door
- Tools and materials
- Step by step directions with photos
- Important tip
DIY DOG DOOR FOR SCREEN ROOM
I mentioned above how this DIY dog door came out of desperation but the truth is, about a week or so after moving into our new home, our dog had found her own door in a partial broken screen in our screen room.
It was great that we no longer had to go out to let her through the screen door, but now that it is was getting warmer, the flies were finding their way into our screen room. Completely defeating the purpose for a screen room all together.
It was time to find a real solution.
This is our own personal experience. Be sure to seek professional guidance and practice tool safety.
MATERIALS
- Dog door replacement flap- sized appropriately for the pet
- 1- 2x4x8 pressure treated board
- 2 ½ in. pocket hole screws
- 6 washers with 1 in. wood screws
TOOLS
- circular saw
- pocket hole jig
- square
- saw horse
- razor blade
- staple gun with staples
- safety glasses
- pencil
- dog treats
STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS
The first thing we did was measure the area we wanted to put the dog door. The screen was already partially off and this was our dogs favorite way to leave the screen room.
So we ordered an XL replacement flap dog door and framed in the area using a pressure treated 2×4. We used a pocket hole jig to hide the screws along the new door.
Then we attached the replacement flap to the 2×4 using appropriately sized washers and 1 inch wood screws.
Amazon: Petsafe Replacement Flap- Sizes offered, small through extra large.
Next, we stapled our old screen back in place and cut the screen around the DIY dog door with a razor blade.
Note- In the future we will be adding trim pieces over the stapled screen to give a more finished look and stronger hold.
- Keeps dogs from scratching at the screen door.
- Keeps mosquitos and flys from entering into the sunroom and house.
IMPORTANT TIP
It was a little confusing to our dog at first, wondering where she was supposed to exit the screen room. She’s an old lady puppy so it was important for us to help teach her how to use the door properly.
It only took a few treats back and forth for her to get the hang of things, and then a gentle reminder the next day on where the door was. After a few days she was able to go in and out with ease. Saving our screen door from paws, and keeping all the flys out of the screen room by having everything all buttoned up.
This was a simple solution to our pet door problem, and one that was budget friendly with huge results.
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This is what I’d love to do for my cane corso. He helped us redecorate our screen porch too! Can you recommend some faux wood or aluminum, instead of wood? It’s Florida (think bugs, rain, sun), and in the actual screen door. I think pressure treated would be too heavy.
Hi Christina! Oh a cane corso, I bet he is a beautiful big puppy! Depending on the door you could possibly use a 1″x2″ instead but it would be a lot of custom woodwork to make it look right. Now just giving a quick search around Amazon I found that they do offer a couple of pet doors that fit into a screen door. They look lightweight and are reasonably priced. My only concerns would be getting a door large enough for him and also if he gets overly excited he might go through too fast and rip the surrounding screen. Or perhaps looking into a magnetic screen door to work with your existing screen door. I agree that keeping it to the screen door would be nice, but since our dog can get a bit rambunctious it was best to make it a bit more sturdy and large dog proof. I hope you find something that works for you guys and give that puppy a nice big hug from us!