Cat ramp materials

alphaomega16 · 22 May 2025 at 22:52

Want to build a ramp for cats as they are ageing going from the extension roof to my bedroom window ledge

Roof to window ledge = 1.15m rounded up
Roof width from wall to edge is minimum 2.54m

Was thinking of doing a ramp with wooden blocks going up it rather than a stair type thing but I am wondering what material would be best for the weather.

I could do it along the wall side but no idea what the measurements are but its probably 2.5-3m from edge to window ledge.

Zefan · 22 May 2025 at 23:22

I'd use decking boards.

aVdub · 23 May 2025 at 04:17

For my high fence I built decking steps (roughly between 30cm - 40cm in length) and finished the top lookout/sleeping step with a length of scaffold sized timber, around 60cm in length and with 10cm sides.

She loved it, spent time sleeping on most of the steps and being a nosey neighbour, would often shoot to the lookout to be in prime position for judging

alphaomega16 · 23 May 2025 at 14:03

aVdub said:
For my high fence I built decking steps (roughly between 30cm - 40cm in length) and finished the top lookout/sleeping step with a length of scaffold sized timber, around 60cm in length and with 10cm sides.

She loved it, spent time sleeping on most of the steps and being a nosey neighbour, would often shoot to the lookout to be in prime position for judging

That is what I was thinking of doing but seemed like a bit of a pain, I might give the one piece ramp thing a punt but will still need to do a frame to attach it to but that should be easy enough, 4 square bits of wood angle cut so the board sits flush should do the trick and maybe weigh each end down just a little to keep it secure.

pastymuncher · 23 May 2025 at 14:21

I built a ramp/tunnel for our cat flap out of decking boards with a frame of 50x50mm and a pair of 75x75mm posts going into the ground to support it. It's strong enough for me to sit/stand on it. The reason I did this was because our cat flap is under the worktop that the washing machine normally goes in and the outside has a three foot drop so I built a ramp big enough for the cats to step off the top step onto the ramp and get in through the flap. I then found out that rain was coming through the flap when the wind was from a Easterly direction so I built a tunnel to go around the top part of the ramp. The result is that the cats like to sunbath on the ramp and the roof of the tunnel plus they like to sit in the tunnel when it's raining. It's been up for several years now and is still as strong as when I first built it although it does require a coat of paint this year.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 23 May 2025 at 14:48

If you want it to be more weatherproof (rot resistant) then use composite decking board

alphaomega16 · 24 May 2025 at 00:56

Will keep the decking board in mind, was having a look at the stair route again and have started to give myself a headache lol, steps only need to be maximum 30cm wide but the rest of this was giving me a headache on how to implement since ive not done anything like this before.

Will need some beams to go along with it, I was thinking of doing something like this but with beams that you see added on both sides so it stands up by itself and weighted down for the cats but with no sides on it like there are in the picture