Thread: Best timber for outdoor cat run

Have you thought about using 25mm aluminium tubing? It's about $4/m and you can get black poly connectors to make it easy

I really want to use solid wood. Much more attractive. I have a sack of poly connectors and tons of Al tubes that I used to build everything with. Really sick of it. But thanks.

If you want information on building cat enclosures and source of suitable netting ,clips, s/s wire, toggle bolts etc go to web site- Cat Enclosures Cat nets Cat Netting Cat Runs.
Cheers
Malcolm Eaton

I'd just use treated pine personally. I've enclosed the entire area down one side of my house just using the fence, house and putting bird netting on the top. I haven't had any breakouts but have had one break in from a neighbours cat which couldn't get out.

I'm going to replace the bird net with some bird wire down the track, not due to any security issues but I have a jasmine down there which I think will pull the bird net down soon.

I can post pics of my set up if you're interested.

If its hardwood you are after, any of the class1 durable hardwoods would do the job. In the Sydney area these would include Ironbark, Greygum and Turpentine.

Thanks, I've decided to go with 3 rows of blackbutt floor boards giving me a total width of 300mm. Barrenjoey timber seems to have a good price on these, $14.9 per meter at that width. I'm going to mount them on a rectangular steel runner probably 75mm X 50MM X 3mm with 5mm thick cross supports every 800mm or so. The runner will be supported via the fence posts. I think they are about 2.5m apart. One side of the walk will be walled with SS mesh supported with semi circular strips of aluminium. The opposite wall and roof will be clothed with plain polycarbonate sheet supported by the same Al strips.

I don't much about wood, but I know it bends and buckles over time and I believe it's easy to underestimate the forces involved. I wonder if I will get any twisting over that 2.5m span? The floor boards in my house are supported every 450mm. I'm assuming that's to account for the weight of furniture etc. rather than to keep the wood straight. So I hope 800mm with be adequate for my job.

I have some cypress floor board on my patio that I replaced in a hurry 4 years ago, left untreated and exposed to sun and rain. I'm amazed at their condition, even the joint appears to be good but I'm wondering weather that will be the first to deteriorate. Fine cracks are appearing but they're still in good nick so I hope blackbutt will be almost as resilient but I will be treating it with decking oil although I'm still concerned about the fate of the joint.

What about Pussy Willow