Aivituvin Cat House Outdoor Catio Kitty Enclosure with Super Large Enter Door,Wooden Cat Cage Condo Indoor Playpen with Platforms,Small House 74 Inch

After thinking long and hard about how we were going to contain two rambunctious kittens on our raised deck, we settled on this catio. We read all the reviews and, at first, we were hesitant because of reading the negative reviews, but we decided to order anyway. We are glad we did. Here is what we found ... PACKAGING & LABELING: We found absolutely NO problem with the packaging or with the labelling. All parts were shipped in two boxes, packed appropriately, nothing was missing, and nothing was broken. Each wooden section was either stamped with the appropriate letter or had a clearly visible label on it. The directions were clear and concise. ASSEMBLY: Yes, it did take some time, as to be expected, and it did take two people for some steps. But, if you take the time to lay out each piece in separate piles according to sections as it is to be assembled, you shouldn't have any trouble. Much of it is a matter of common sense. STURDINESS: It does seem flimsy as you are putting it together, HOWEVER, once all sides are fastened, the screws are tightened, and the shelves and brackets are in place, the unit does become sturdier, and when the roof is in place it is definitely substantial. We live on a hill, in a development, and we get some fairly high winds at times, but because the sides are open and there is weight, to this unit it's not going anywhere. TIPS: BEFORE we did ANYTHING, we sealed each piece of wood AND the asphalt roof with Flex Seal. For the wood pieces, we brushed on two coats of the clear liquid gel, allowing them to dry completely between coats. For the roof, we brushed on a coat of the clear gel then applied a coat of the clear spray just to be safe. Flex Seal comes in clear, black, and white and is guaranteed for 30 years. We've had two rains, one was a heavy downpour, and we had no leaks. Another thing we did was add a strip of wood along the top of the front side of the frame under the three asphalt roof pieces creating a slight slant to allow rain to run off. Any rain that did remain puddled because of the Flex Seal (see photo) The wood strip also allows for extra airflow on those windy days. This helps with any concern of high winds blowing it away. Finally, I wasn't happy with the sturdiness of the side ledges where they meet in the middle, so I took a zip tie and fastened it around the brackets on each level of both sides to tighten them. Worked perfect!! SUMMARY: All in all, we are very pleased with this catio and we don't understand all the negative comments. We are especially puzzled by the photo of the collapsed roof. If the wood strips were used and applied properly, we don't see how that can happen. If you decide to purchase this catio, take your time and commit to assembling it properly. Don't rush and don't take shortcuts. Take the extra time and effort to properly seal the wood. Your kitties are worth it, and they'll love you for it. Ours have spent ours in their catio (and into the evening) watching the birds, enjoying the sounds, watching daddy do lawn work, and even taking their afternoon naps.

Catio arrived well packaged and very quickly given the size of the packages. Two boxes, no damage to the contents. Generally easy to assemble. Instructions were good. We were either short a couple screws of one size or we used them in the wrong place. No issue with some extra screws lying around. The wood is very flimsy and this definitely takes two people to assemble for the sake of not snapping any pieces. A drill was helpful but at times the torque was too much and almost screwed straight through the wood. The wood seems like cedar, it’s very soft. Once it’s all put together it’s sturdy enough. We will be moving it to another location, attaching a plywood flooring and attaching it to some 2x4s on the bottom to give it more support. Our cats vary in weight but we have 3 13-16 pound cats. Overall good product for a good price. Would buy again. 5 stars would be if it had a few more pieces to make it sturdier. Even just small reinforcements on the inside of the base where each piece attaches. Some of the holes and pieces didn’t line up 100%, there were some small gaps places but it was all manageable.

The directions say “2 people, 60 minutes.” It took us 4.25 hours. We modified one of the boxes to form the secure walkway accessing the house. Directions were clear. All the pieces were there. It is a little delicate. Take your time setting up, as the wood will break easily. The cats can’t break out but the front flexes a lot anytime I open the human sized door, will need some additional structural support added eventually. It will likely need an additional coat of paint to survive our wet environment. Over all, a well designed product, the cats love it.

We’re very happy with the ease of assembly of this catio. From start to finish it took us 1 hour 45 minutes the first day (we ran out of daylight) and 30 minutes to finish up the second day. The first day we got everything done besides putting the roof on and positioning it in its desired location. We found the instructions easy to understand and follow along. Once we got the first couple pieces done, and figured out how this was going to assemble, it was smooth sailing. We referred to the instructions more to just confirm which screws to use rather than how to assemble it. At first it seemed flimsy but the more pieces that were put together, the sturdier it became. Our 3 bengals took to it right away. We placed it against the house in front of a window. When we first assembled the catio, we assembled it with all the panels attached and once it was completed we removed the top center panel before we attached the roof. This didn’t impact the sturdiness of the catio at all. Once we opened the window, they went right into the catio without hesitation. We did have to make a slight modification at this point. Our window slides left and right and is taller than the catio. In their rush to be the first inside the catio, two went through the window into the catio and the third one went through the window, on to the catio roof and then on to the house roof. We’ve attached a temporary piece of wood to the catio roof to block off that part of the window. I will be purchasing a cat door and some plexiglass and placing that in the window, which would replace the need for the temporary piece of wood. All in all we are very pleased. From time of order to delivery, to the convenience of having everything we needed delivered right to our doorstep; from the simplicity of the instructions, to the gratefulness of having everything labeled for ease of assembly, we would recommend this to any cat owner.

The instructions were a little lacking, but fairly straight forward (pictures helped!). It took my husband and I about two hours to build it and two days to rig it fully for our household needs. We ended up skipping one of the inside boxes in favor of assembling a walkway from our sliding door to the catio- about a 6in gap. We had to cut away a small section of wire for the entrance we needed, and we covered the snipped ends with mesh so it wouldn't poke the cats. Overall, the construction is simple and sturdy enough. For added weather resistance (PNW) we opted to caulk the seams of the roof and add some clear spray paint to the whole thing. We also added a two inch board to the back of the roof because it had zero pitch and we didn't want it to accumulate rain. Our cats love it and spend probably half the day outside just hunting bugs and listening to the neighborhood. We were originally going to build them one ourselves, but our busy schedules made that difficult to plan. Since this one is pre-planned and easy to construct, it's definitely worth the price and time savings (we would have spent at least this much on materials and even more time designing and building our own). Maybe one day we'll build one, but this does the job just fine for a fair price and like I said our cats love it.

Pros: - Catio is huge and super cute! I painted it a soft orange and I’m excited to start decking it out for my kitties. I built a platform for it and set it up outside our office window so the cats can come and go as they please. I took off that back door and they use that as their entrance. There are 5 other doors, besides the back one, and I placed a new latch+lock on each just to ensure no one can access the cats. - Instructions were easy to follow and assembly was not difficult. Aside from needing someone to hold the walls up so I could screw them together I was able to assemble it on my own. Definitely recommend having a cordless drill to make your life easier. Not counting the time it took to paint, assembly took me just a few hours. Cons: - As I expected (but hoped otherwise) it’s pretty flimsy. Trying to maneuver the walls after assembling them was nerve-racking since the slightest imbalance in movement would have the wall bending where the pieces were screwed together. I tried to increase the stability of the walls by using extra 2.5” screws at all the connecting surfaces but it didn’t help that much. If you slightly push on one wall it will start bending at the connecting seams. Not that big of a deal if you’re not moving the catio but since I’m a renter and will eventually have to move, I’m not sure it will withstand being picked up and moved again. - One of the pieces arrived slightly cracked. It was bent and cracked near one of the door hinge sites and, on that same piece, one of the screws had gone in diagonally and popped out of the wood. I contacted the seller for a replacement piece and they said they would send one but I never received it. I was able to roughly fix it by removing the bent screw and using a bunch of wood glue. After painting the whole thing it isn’t noticeable. - Overpriced for the quality of the build. For almost $400 I shouldn’t have received a cracked piece and the walls shouldn’t be as flimsy as they are. I even went out and bought extra screws to reinforce the walls and they are still pretty sketchy. TL;DR: Super cute, easy to put together, but overpriced and flimsy.

This was quite a project, especially considering I built this completely by myself!! I've been wanting to build a screened in porch for my cats but didn't have the money at the moment as the deck has also reached the end of its lifespan and needs replacing. I had read a lot of reviews of this inexpensive catio and knew that I would need to factor in some improvements to make it safer and longer lasting for my three kitties. The wood it's made from is young fir and very soft and easy to crack, so keep some outdoor wood glue on hand, drill pilot holes when you need to, and use caution with a high torque electric drill or electric screwdriver, (having these will save your hands and sanity). Remember to use clamps for the panel assembly, that helped a great deal. I also added mending plates to strengthen the panels at the joins. The hardware cloth seems secure but has holes big enough to allow mosquitoes in, so I added screens on the outside since cat heartworm is really bad here. The "waterproofing" looks sketchy, plus the grey color didn't go with my house. I liked the idea of the Flex Seal treatment but it sounded like a pain to do and super messy, so I opted for outdoor waterproof spray paint. It went on pretty easy. It remains to be seen how well it stays on, but the catio has been in several hard rain showers during assembly and it held up fine. Opted not to use the cheap tarpaper wrapped heavy plywood roof that came with it and used SunTuf polycarbonate panels. I had to cut some braces to screw them in but they make it much brighter inside (and easier for a single woman to install on her own!). The rise was too low to really allow rain to run off well so I cut a couple of boards to raise it a couple of inches. Used the sections for the nest boxes to create a tunnel for the cats to use to go into the catio from the window. I got the Ideal pet products aluminum window insert which they use to access. Wrapped a 2x4 with sisal rope for an outdoor scratching post. I don't want them to get the idea to start scratching the wood - as soft as it is it wouldn't hold up for long. Also replaced the flimsy latches on the door with more durable locking latches, screen door handles on the inside and outside of the big door, and a latch on the inside to hold the door shut in case I need to go in it while the cats are occupying. It's much more sturdy after you attach the roof and I also secured it to my deck with L brackets. Added some solar lights, an outdoor rug and the essential cat toys. It's a good size for my 3 big cats and offers them plenty of sunbathing, birdwatching, bug hunting opportunities. I'm starting some cat grass and catnip in containers to grow around the catio and offer to the kitties occasionally. I hope to get at least a few years out of this thing.

First off, I probably read at least 400 of the reviews before ordering this catio kit. The one thing that kept jumping out at me, were the people who took the time to use FlexSeal on all the wood parts prior to constructing. I decided to do this as the wood is maybe a little cheap, and I would like this to last a long time. It took me two weeks…working probably six hours a day to FlexSeal all of the pieces. FlexSeal is really a toxic coating, so make sure you are doing this outside to protect your lungs. It took 3.5 quarts of FlexSeal to seal this…which is about $100 worth of FlexSeal. I also bought about two dozen small crappy brushes and just threw them out after using, because cleaning up FlexSeal is pretty much impossible. I painted with rubber cleaning gloves on because you do NOT want to get this on your skin. Knowing each part intimately after the long process of sealing, was good, as the instruction manual was laughable! The illustrations are essential in building this kit out, because the written directions are either indecipherable or just not inclusive. My spouse helped me in the construction, and it took us maybe 6 hours to complete…would have been less but it was 100 degrees outside and we were moving in slow-mo. You definitely need two people to put this together, as the walls are unstable until completely secured with the final screws. Pop that roof on and it is incredibly stable! We chose to use L brackets to secure this in two places on the deck. I highly doubt wind could pick this up, but better safe than story. The other tip I picked up from reading the reviews is around drilling pilot holes in to the second piece of wood prior to installing screws. If you do NOT do this, you will likely find the back piece of wood splitting. Only took me once to verify that. 😂. We’ve ended up really liking this catio. The price was right, especially as I do not have the time to design and buy the raw materials, nor the power tools to build this out. Our cat really loves this space. He was a street cat that joined our household and this is a nice place for him to still hang out outdoors, without killing off the bird population. This catio is good looking…I am looking forward to next summer when I can landscape with plants and containers to fully integrate it in to our decks and gardens. If I were a retired street cat now living in a house, I’d be thrilled if my parents built this for me!