Message Forums

Whenever the post comes through my door my dog bites at the letter box and last week managed to break the plastic surround so it fell out. I bought and fitted a new letterbox. To stop it happening again I'm thinking of putting a cage behind the door to catch the post.  All the ones I've seen screw to the door but I have a upvc door. Is it possible to drill and screw into a upvc door. If so do I need to use rawl plugs and what type. Or is there any other way of fixing these cages.

Any help would be welcomed

Yes is the answer.

Drill a small pilot hole for the screw and use a self tapping type of screw. Don't use a screw that is too long or you may cause damage to something inside the door. You may find that the door has some steel re-enforcing under the upvc but you should be OK if you have drilled said hole first.

I've cut through a UPV door to fit a cat flap, it turned out to be expanded polystyrene with a plastic skin, so there wouldn't be much there for a screw to grip on to.  A better approach might be to bolt some sort of sheet to the basket then glue it in place.

Patrick - where you have cut for a cat flap is an infill panel - can either be glass or, as you found out, a piece of plastic-covered polystrene - and is not a structural part of the door.

Where the OP wants to drill - presumably the central horizontal bar - IS part of the door's structure and the plastic is much thicker and may be metal reinforced.  Although I wouldn't want to hang 50kg item on the back of such doors, a light metal/plastic cage can easily be supported by suitable self-tappers.

Del