How We Built A Cattery
Here at Levin Boarding Cattery we believe in transparency - we built this business to be the type of business we would want to leave our own animals at, and there’s nothing that puts us off faster than a cattery (or kennel) that doesn’t want you seeing everything. So we thought we’d kick off our cattery blog by showing how we built Levin Boarding Cattery! Although we have just popped up, Jessie and I have been planning and saving for this project for years with a vision in mind. Read on if you want to know how we built our cattery :)
We started with an empty garage. We knew we wanted to build a cattery so had to find a suitable building we could renovate within our budget. We chose our property as it had the perfect (very large) garage to convert. I now realise I didn’t get many pictures of the start of the project as we were so busy doing it! The first picture shows the project at about the half way point where the builder has finished their work and we have just accepted delivery of our raw materials to complete the project.
The main thing for us is safety and quality. The first thing we realised about the building was that the interior need a total redo. We brought in a licensed builder to replace the old gib and construct our internal bay walls to building code, and at the same time a licensed electrician completely rewired the building with modern LED dimmable lights. This was our first big construction project so it was a big learning curve - at first we wanting to supply water to the building however the consent cost of this would have been considerable, so we have postponed that phase.
We didn’t want to cheap out on the important stuff that could affect safety so that’s why it was important to do everything properly through licensed professionals. However in order to create our design in budget, it was time to start a DIY journey. We took care of painting, flooring, built the bay entrance ways, and covered up all wall edges with skirting board. For the rest of the blog, I will title each component and how we did it on budget.
The Paint
We decided to use paint from NZ Natural Paint Co. It costs a lot more than other paint, but all up paint was a pretty minor part of the budget. This type of paint is rated for baby products, so we were confident it would be safe for our feline guests. It was important to us that the cats felt like they were in a home - we look at many catteries with a plywood design and while we completely understand the appeal of this design, we wanted to go the extra mile.
The Walls
Looks like a normal wall, right? Wrong! We have used sound resistant gib and insulated between bays to keep noise down. Cats have very sensitive senses so we wanted a building that would not overly stimulate. We also wanted to be able to control the temperature efficiently. We chose to spend a little bit more in this part of the budget.
The Flooring
We decided on vinyl flooring as we want to be able to steam clean and were worried a laminate product would not hold up over time. We headed to Whanganui where the amazing furniture had a stack of off-cuts waiting for us. The fact it didn’t all match was no concern to us as we were able to use one cut per bay perfectly. The flooring is one of the features of our cattery we are most excited about as we were truly able to use a top-end flooring product. It was tempting to leave the floor as bare concrete, but that wouldn’t feel much like a home, would it?
Our nice white hallway didn’t start out so white. It took us a whole week to clean and prep the floor, which to be fair is to be expected after 20 years or so of garage use. Once again we carefully researched the products to use and achieved a great result.
The Wood
There was no two ways about it - if we wanted to get our doors open, we would have to pick up some DIY skills in a hurry. We researched extensively what we would have to build. It can’t be that hard, right? Just like building Lego! Well, it sort of was… Armed with the philosophy of “one cut at a time” slowly but steadily we figured it out after making some prototype designs. We ordered a huge stack of wood and crossed our fingers we hadn’t miscalculated… and we got it right, thankfully. After a lot of sawing, and a bit of swearing, we had constructed the frames that would make the doorways to our cat bays.
We found a door design we liked and got to work creating those as well. We used gate hardware for the fixtures as we knew it would be strong enough for purpose.
To keep costs down and quality up, we did the skirting board ourselves, utilising a rich stained look on pine. The trim around our windows comes from a zero waste recycling centre.
The Cat Scratchers
To us, the cat scratchers were non-negotiable. We have used Comfy Pet scratches with our own pets for years, and we know they are a great NZ-made product made by good people. For what our opinion is worth, they are the best cat scratchers in the world! It was an exciting day when the freight truck pulled up with our order. It was tempting to go for a cheaper option but these are lifetime quality scratchers if you are willing to recarpet every few years.
Our favourite feature of Comfy Pet cat scratchers is that they are made with household style carpet, so they look great in the home, and achieve our home-like feeling in the cattery.
The Heat Pump
It is essential to us that we can control the temperature in the cattery, and we want to do it in an energy efficient way. We invested in a Mitsubishi heat pump for the quality of the unit, and the ability to filter the air. You see it’s not just for the temperature but we want to decrease risk of sickness travelling between cats so it was important to us to have some way to filter the air inside.
The Security
It’s important for us that customers have total peace of mind that their cat is safe, happy, and secure. It’s quite hard to relax on a holiday if you are worried about your pet - don’t worry, we understand. The property is protect by a brand new CCTV system that is powered by AI software to alert us to anything happening on the property. Someone is on site at all times (or only 5 minutes away with camera access). Our lovely dog George keeps look out (he is kept away from the cats) and we have designed the building to look unassuming from the outside.
We have also reinforced all windows with a steel mesh so in the event of a broken window, the cat would not be able to escape.
The Council
Last on the list, but first on the priority list, was checking that we were actually allowed to run a cattery in our chosen location! We chose right in the heart of Levin as zoning allows for home businesses to be operated (within certain rules). A few phone calls to the council and we were clear to open shop as a home business. I thought i’d mention this in the blog as I think it’s so important for councils and governments to have rules that don’t stand in the way of investment. When we were looking for a house / business location, this was critical in what made us choose Levin as many councils have outdated laws restricting cat ownership or business operation etc. The cost of gaining consent in a similar location in another district would have made the project non-viable. As far as we can see this is a big win for the area as we have spent all of our money with local tradies and suppliers, and now get to offer our services to the town.
One day we would like to expand, which will require resource consent as our building is approaching the size limit of a home business in the zone. We don’t mind in the meantime as it means we can give more focused care to a smaller number of cats and keep prices down :)
Levin Boarding Cattery is now a fully registered, insured, functional business and we are ready to pamper some kitties!
