Okay, I know this DIY floor vent cover isn't going to be for everyone, and that's okay. It wouldn't even have been this projectMeinCup of tea if it wasn't born out of necessity.
Look, we have cats. 10 of them. And sometimes cats can be idiots. And sometimes, when cats are particularly uncomfortable, they pee on things. Or in this case, they peedownThings. Because that's what our cats did—they peed down our floor vents.
Well I know this is really, really gross. So disgusting that I considered not sharing it and our subsequent solution on the blog. But you know I'm always trying to keep things real around here and I know if I'm having this problem then there must be other cat owners out there who are having this problem too. So if I can help some other cat lovers out there solve this very crude problem, I risk losing a few readers along the way.
However, this problem arose when we first moved into the house we now live in. We didn't have this problem in our old house because it didn't have floor vents, so we were mortified when we discovered our cats had made it their job to flush down our nice, clean air vents in our brand new home.
We've done everything cat owners should do in a situation like this - make sure there's plenty of clean litter boxes available, use cat pheromone diffusers, etc., which helped somewhat, but we still had the issue from time to time . I finally decided to strategically arrange the furniture to cover as many vents as possible, but there were still some vents exposed. We looked around for floor vent covers that we could buy to solve our problem, but the only ones we could find that would work remotely were plastic and would certainly shatter into a million pieces if stepped on . There was no way I wanted to put up with that and have our house smell like we had too many cats even though we have too many cats, so we had to come up with a solution.
We made these to fit over the standard 4" x 10" and 4" x 14" bottom vent registers. Registers come in all different sizes. So if you're not the same sizes as us, you'll need to do a little measuring and calculating to get a good fit. We made these to fit snugly in the back and front so they don't slide around too easily, but made the length of the cover 3″ longer than the bottom vents to prevent pee from getting under the sides of the vents that open are to allow airflow.
Now I can hear some of you at your computer screens yelling, "But people will trip over it!" Let me ask a question: how often do you actually step on the floor vents in your home? Floor fans are typically installed in remote locations and/or next to a wall. People naturally leave about a foot of space between themselves and the walls when walking around indoors. And as long as you don't paint them close to the ground you're going to use them on, they're very easy to see.
Materials:
- 10″ x 3/4′ wood planks for the top of the vent cover. They usually come in 6- to 8-foot lengths, so you'll need to do some math to figure out how many you'll need depending on how many vents you want to cover. We made these out of pine, but any type of hard wood will work (softer wood might splinter if ittutever step on it, but I still think the chances of that happening are pretty slim).
- 1″ x 3/4″ wood planks for the base of the vent cover. These can be hard to find so you may need to cut a larger board to that size. If you can find them, they usually come in 4- to 6-foot lengths. So you'll need to do some math to figure out how many you need depending on how many vents you want to cover. We have these in pine, but any type of hardwood will work.
- 16 gauge 1 1/2″ finish nails
- Varathane Wood Stain in Weathered Gray (buy at Lowes)
- Valspar Chalky Paint in Kid Gloves (bei Lowes kaufen)
- Valspar Sealing Wax (undyed) (buy at Lowes)
Please note:I share the type and dimensions of the wood I purchased so you know what I used for this project, but feel free to use other types/sizes of wood if you don't have the same type/size of You can find wood at the hardware store or you have scrap wood that you want to use.
Tool:
- cordless saw
- nail gun
- Palm-Sander
- Paint brush
- cloth rag
directions:
Cut the top and sides of the wood to the measurements that will fit your floor vent register. The measurements we used for the 4″ x 14″ vent register are 17″ x 9″ for the top of the vent cover (two pieces of 10″ x 3/4′ lumber trimmed to fit) and 17″ x 3 /4″ x 1″ for the vent cover sides (two pieces of 3/4″ x 1″ wood boards cut to the 17″ length for the large vents. The measurements we used for the 4″ x 10″ Vent registers are 13″ x 9″ for the top of the vent cover (two pieces of 10″ x 3/4′ lumber cut to size) and 13″ x 3/4″ x 1″ for the sides of the vent cover (two pieces of 3/4″ x 1″ wooden planks cut to the 13″ length for the large vents.
Nail the two top pieces to the two side pieces as shown above.
Now for the really fun parts! 🙂 Paint on some of the wood stain and wipe off the excess with a rag. Allow at least a few hours to dry before the next step.
Paint on the chalk paint and let it dry for at least a few hours before the next step.
Not with the hand sander. How little or how much you torture yourself (or if you do it at all) is entirely up to you! 🙂 Wipe off dust with a clean rag.
Apply a coat of sealing wax and wipe off excess wax with a rag. There is a lot of debate about whether to wax before or after distressing; I always do it afterwards because it protects the exposed wood as well as the chalk paint (and these will need all the protection they can get if my cats decide to pee on them; which they haven't already). 🙂
All of our vent covers are finished and ready to be put indoors!
I hope this DIY floor vent cover is helpful if you have a similar issue with your cats as we do! So far our cats have ignored the newly covered vents and it's so nice to actually have them back in use, especially with the 100+ degree temps of our summers just around the corner!
Thank you for visiting and let me know what you think or if you have any questions!
