Repairing exterior wall (removing dog door)

[Basenji]

In the past my first instinct would be to look at Angie's List and call a "guy," but now that I'm growing a mustache I think I can tackle this.

We have an old dog door in a back room that came with the house. Although I can see the advantages of having a dog door, the reality of it doesn't work for us (i.e., the opening is HUGE and a person could crawl through it, giving me security willies, and general health and sanitation issues like, doggies with muddy paws, strange gunk they might would bring in the house, having the dogs unsupervised in the garden digging up all our expensive landscaping, ruining my vegetable garden, etc.). Anyway, the giant dog door is going.

I've looked around a bit on home repair sites/videos, but thought I'd ask here, too.

I feel pretty confident I can handle the drywall repair on the inside, but the exterior is a little worrying. The exterior has cedar shingles on the entire wall. My assumption is we can fit plywood into the hole flush with the existing exterior wall sheathing and then cover the seams with some of that waterproofing tape used around windows or skylights on roofs. I'm thinking of blowing a small amount of foam on the back of the plywood from the inside before repairing the inside drywall.

Then I'd add/layer in new shingles as in this repair vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5Otrqupc8

Anything I'm not thinking of? Sound generally ok? Thanks for any advice you can give!

[Greg]

You have the right idea.

To start, if the existing hole is framed all around using 2x6 or whatever size studs you have, add framing so you have nailing for the exterior plywood and the interior drywall.  If the opening is in between the studs, you will have to install backing plywood "splices" to give you something to attach to, and use screws on your drywall and plywood patches as well.

For a shingled wall, you have to remove some of the shingles around the opening so that you can install some tar paper or other waterproofing housewrap (best to use what is used elsewhere) and "shingle" the patch correctly.  Meaning, the top of your patch should tuck under the existing, and overlap the wrap at the bottom, to shed any water that gets behind the shingles.  Then reinstall the shingles.  If your shingles are painted, pre-prime both sides and let dry, then install, then paint to match the color.

I use a 1/4" crown pneumatic staple gun for shingles, you may know someone with one you could borrow.  If not then hand nail using small galvanized shingle nails, which are like very small box head nails, not finish nails, which can split the shingle.

Hope that helps.

[Basenji]

Awesome, exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[Rural]

What he said, and definitely do the foam. More is better than less, and don't be afraid of it expanding too far. It's easy to trim (I did a couple of places our whole-house professionals missed with a steak knife).

[Basenji]

What he said, and definitely do the foam. More is better than less, and don't be afraid of it expanding too far. It's easy to trim (I did a couple of places our whole-house professionals missed with a steak knife).

Thanks! So excited to get this done and paint the room and generally spruce it up Mustachio style.

[danmartin]

Thank god i don't have the same problem with you. I have a shih tzu and our pet door is not that big. But there's one time a raccoon got inside the house and stole dog food. But it neve happened again.