Am i too crazy to use this for a cat house?

[Alex Shestopalov]

I’m building a patio cat house for my tubby cat. I picked quarter-sawn white oak boards for rot resistance - live in upstate ny. After gluing-up the top, I’m having 2nd thoughts... should I use something nice like that for what will be sitting in a snow and rain for most of the year? It’s made of a single board, book-matched pieces and I didn’t apply the finish yet. Tell me I should give it to my cat :).
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[Bruce Mack]

I’m building a patio cat house for my tubby cat. I picked quarter-sawn white oak boards for rot resistance - live in upstate ny. After gluing-up the top, I’m having 2nd thoughts... should I use something nice like that for what will be sitting in a snow and rain for most of the year? It’s made of a single board, book-matched pieces and I didn’t apply the finish yet. Tell me I should give it to my cat :)
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Not crazy at all; cats are wonderful friends. Still, he wants a place to rest and shelter. The aesthetics mean less than being allowed to come into the house at will (I hope this is the case). I would use that beautiful wood for an indoor project (for your cat, of course) and build a utilitarian outdoor house with a nice paint job. Have you checked out Alley Cat Allies? They have plans for a few structures. Though not feral, your cat might enjoy "roughing it". https://www.alleycat.org/resources/feral-cat-shelter-options-gallery/

[Jim Matthews]

It will be excellent.

Once photos of it get out, you'll make more.

[Terry Wawro]

It's up to you but I couldn't make myself use that for a cat house. Not after seeing how nice the QS panel looks.

[Jebediah Eckert]

I wouldn’t worry about it at all. Any cat should be happy with that. But you would know your cat best. Are you concerned your cat is picky and more partial to darker woods like say a Walnut or Mahogany? :D

[Curt Harms]

It's up to you but I couldn't make myself use that for a cat house. Not after seeing how nice the QS panel looks.

I concur. I've used flat sawn white oak for some small outdoor items - bird feeders and such. I don't know what quarter saw but I know flat sawn will cup about the second time it gets wet. It seems durable enough but stay flat? As I said, maybe quarter sawn (that doesn't look as nice as that panel) might.

[Dave Seng]

I know that cats are choosy, but I'm thinking that maybe a nice piece of 3/4" CDX or some T1-11 might prove to be better suited for the task... Covered with a beautiful cedar shingle roof, of course;)

[Don Coffman]

That would be a tool chest or some other piece to be cherished, the cat would get a plastic house from Petco; but that is just me...

[Bob Riefer]

Years ago we had a cat that increasingly preferred to be outdoors full time. We regularly offered for him to come into the house or barn, and he would visit... but he'd want to go back out again in short order. Worried for him, I built a cat house similar to building a small shed... 2 pressure treated 4x4's as runners to sit on the ground, leftover deck boards as a "front porch" for the cat, T-111 siding painted to match our shed, and a leftover piece of roofing steel for the roof. The entire thing was about 20" wide x 3 feet long x 2.5 feet tall.

After the front porch (which featured an exposed truss for visual interest... lol, this project got out of control), the first room of the small cat house was for food/water. The cat used a small square opening I had cut for his entry, and I could change water/food from the exterior via a flip down hatch on the side. The back room was then insulated with some scrap rigid foam, had a flap to block any wind that may find its way into the the previous food room, and an old blanket for kitty to curl up in. This room was also accessible via exterior hatch so we could swap out the blanket from time to time.

I would routinely see the cat sitting on his front porch enjoying the view of his "kingdom".


When kitty visited the field mice in the sky, we put the cat house out at the curb with a "free" sign on it... A neighbor picked it up to use for their mostly-outdoor cat, and the thing looks good as ever many more years later.

[Ron Citerone]

Upstate NY? It’s not like you wouldn’t be able to get a deal on more wood! My one daughter went to grad school in Ithaca, and my other lived in Syracuse for a while. That is truly beautiful country!!

[Scott Bernstein]

I live north of New York City, and I agree upstate New York is beautiful! I also agree that I would not use that beautiful wood for an outdoor cat project...but to each his own. I built an enclosure for our cat with cedar wood and chicken wire - she loves it. We found a cat door that is integrated into a window panel which can be installed easily into any window - so cat can go in & out as she pleases.

[Steve Demuth]

Doll the panel up with 4 coats of a really good spar varnish (I like Epifanes) and it'll serve the cat and you get to look at it for years. As long as water doesn't actually sit on it, and it's not in direct sun, it'll stay nice for a long time.

[Randy Heinemann]

Use something weather resistant. No matter what you do to white oak it will require regular maintenance to the finish and, over time, deteriorate much faster than wood that you have painted. Nothing protects wood except paint. You can use marine varnish, but it will still need annual maintenance.

[John K Jordan]

I’m building a patio cat house for my tubby cat. I picked quarter-sawn white oak boards for rot resistance - live in upstate ny. After gluing-up the top, I’m having 2nd thoughts... should I use something nice like that for what will be sitting in a snow and rain for most of the year? It’s made of a single board, book-matched pieces and I didn’t apply the finish yet. Tell me I should give it to my cat :).
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Cats are worth the effort. Cats don't care in the least what the housing looks like.

This winter I added a heated cat house to the porch of my shop for my aging barn cats. I took a huge heavy wall styrofoam cooler (the kind they use to send frozen meds to hospitals), 24x22x20" tall, cut an access hole in the bottom, put it on it's side with the open end against the wall. I mounted one of these on the wall, set to low heat mounted:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-brooder-and-coop-heater-1299682

I see at least one cat in this insulated house much of the day and all of each night. When it gets a lot warmer at night I'll unplug the heater.

JKJ

[Curt Harms]

That would be a tool chest or some other piece to be cherished, the cat would get a plastic house from Petco; but that is just me...

You're overthinking it. Cat would probably prefer the cardboard box the tool chest came in, at least until it rained (if outdoors)

[Todd Trebuna]

I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. It really just depends on what your budget and desire will allow. The best thing about woodworking is using it to solve practical problems. Not all of us are busy constructing beautiful pieces of fine woodworking. My last two projects were squatty potties. One from Poplar scraps and one from pine. Both are painted. I had the scraps and didn't realize that Poplar was going for 8 dollars a foot at HD. That squatty potty would have cost me 80 dollars!!! Instead it cost me 15 in pine.:) If you've got it, use it.

[Chris Hachet]

I’m building a patio cat house for my tubby cat. I picked quarter-sawn white oak boards for rot resistance - live in upstate ny. After gluing-up the top, I’m having 2nd thoughts... should I use something nice like that for what will be sitting in a snow and rain for most of the year? It’s made of a single board, book-matched pieces and I didn’t apply the finish yet. Tell me I should give it to my cat :).
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I built a mailbox for friends out of QSWO, its holding up great. it still grows on Trees....Billions of board feet of QSWO never get harvested and rot in place every year.

[Chris Hachet]

It's up to you but I couldn't make myself use that for a cat house. Not after seeing how nice the QS panel looks.

On the contrary, it's getting used for something the cat will enjoy...

[Joshua Murphy]

Anything less than riftsawn will offend your cat's sensibilities equally.

Despite some comments above, I find that white oak is pretty weather hardy, and QSWO is very dimensionally stable. My house growing up came with a 30 year old painted white oak fence and exposed patio swing that held up for a long long time. Looking back, I wonder if what finally did them in was teenage me repainting it poorly with cheap latex that bubbled up and let water get trapped inside with no path to dry.

I have a one-pallet fence outside my office window concealing the compost pile in the back yard. It's made of white oak. It's only heat treated and was supposed to be a short term solution, but has been standing with the bottom in direct contact with the earth for about 5 years. It's totally grey now, but as solid as the day I got sick of looking at the compost pile out my window and put together a "temporary" fix. I can climb it like a ladder.

Keep in mind that cats will spray an outdoor house with urine, and if not really sealed, that QSWO will stain in ways you will never be able to undo without a trip to the thickness planer. Might as well ammonia fume it first.

The cat won't care what its house looks like, but chances are you will. Make something you like to look at, regardless of what materials you use. That QSWO looks like it's made of tiger skin. Very pretty.

[Steve Demuth]

QS White Oak is incredibly weather hardy, as long as not in ground contact or otherwise continuously wet. I've got 40 year old white oak fence boards, and while heavily weathered, they are still structurally sound - they may have lost 3/16" total of the original 1" structural thickness to weathering in that time.

But they are not pretty unless you like dark grey pealing crumbles. Painted with a quality marine paint QS WO finish will last for 5 - 8 years with almost no maintenance. Marine varnish finish on QS White Oak will last 2-3 years if water doesn't sit on it, and not in direct sun, before the grey weathering starts to peal the varnish off.

All experience above based on upper midwest conditions. No doubt mileage will vary depending on your region - rainfall, humidity, freezing, solar intensity ...

BTW, the QS White Oak fence boards when salvaged are wonderful wood for specialty projects and picture frames. Peal the weathering off in a planer, down to where 90-90% of the surface is solid wood, and it's gorgeous. Deep caramel color, with streaks of dark weathering. Very nice specialty look.

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