How To Put Up A Window Screen

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Screen windows may become damaged over fourth dimension, but replacing the unabridged screen and frame isn't your only option. Putting a new screen in the frame is relatively easy, whether yous're using a metal, vinyl, or wood frame. With a vinyl or metal frame, you can but pull the seal and screen out and put in a new set with a few unproblematic tools. A wood frame is slightly harder, equally it involves nails or a staple gun, simply it is still a relatively quick project. Often, the hardest part is popping the screen frame back into place!

1
Purchase the materials you'll need. Y'all tin can buy spline (the condom seal), a spline rolling tool, and screen at any hardware store. Typically, you tin only by screen in big rolls, which y'all'll and then cut down to size.
- Fiberglass screen volition requite you a chance to start over if you mess upward. Aluminum will hold up to more than, simply information technology tends to take on the shape of any you're doing. That means you won't get a chance to try again if you make a mistake.^[1]
- If you have pets, consider using pet screen, which is meant to hold upwardly to the weight and claws of your pets.
ii
Pop the screen frame out of your window. It should come out easily. If it doesn't, use a screwdriver or the back of a hammer to help pry information technology out. Lay the screen downwardly on a flat surface so you can work on it, preferably a work table that y'all tin can screw stabilizers into.^[2]
- If yous need to replace the frame, too, you can purchase the sides and corners at a hardware store. Just measure out how long the sides need to be, and then popular them together with the corner joints to create the frame.
- Y'all'll just need to replace the frame if it is bowing severely or rusted out.
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3
Pull upward the rubber spline and take the screen out. ^[3] The spline is the black condom seal holding the screen in identify. It looks similar a black cord, stuffed in the edge of the frame. Employ a screwdriver to help pry it up, so pull it out. Pull up the screen in one case the spline is out. Catch 1 edge of the screen and pull information technology out of the frame. Information technology should come out easily now that the spline is gone.^[4]
- Don't try to reuse the spline. It gets old and brittle later a while.
- Scan each corner of the frame for a spline end. Once y'all detect the end, slip the screwdriver underneath and pry it upward. Slowly pull the entire spline out from effectually the window frame.
- The spline may exist cut in sections. If this is the case, simply repeat the process until the entire spline is out of the window frame grove.
4

Cut out a section of new screen. Lay the roll of screen over the window frame.^[5] Cutting the screen so y'all have 2 inches (5.one cm) or and so of excess on each side. The extra screen gives you room for mistakes. Plus, the spline volition take up part of the screen.^[6]
5
Use terminate blocks to hold the frame in identify. Screw a piece of wood to your work table on the inside of the frame along the long side. The slice of wood can just be a bit y'all have lying around that's at least two to three inches (5.one to 7.vi cm) long. You're only using information technology to brace the frame; don't screw it into the frame. Pull the long side taut against it, and screw in another wooden piece across from information technology along the other long side. These pieces volition keep the frame from bowing in every bit you work.^[7]
- While this step isn't admittedly necessary, it does help the frame keep its shape.
six
Place 2-4 clamps on one long side of the screen. The clamps hold the screen in place against the frame. In addition, they ensure that when you lot are rolling in the spline on the other side of the screen, the screen will remain taut.
- Use enough clamps to hold the screen in place.
7
Press the screen into place along the opposite side with the roller tool. Using the convex end of the roller tool, run information technology over the screen on the side opposite the clamps. Push the tool and screen into the frame's groove. Just exercise one of the long sides for now.^[8]
- Later you roll the screen in, look downwardly the screen. Make sure that there are no bubbles in the screen. If bubbles are nowadays, remove the screen and coil information technology dorsum in, ensuring you don't have whatever bubbles this time.
- Work from corner to corner.
- If your screen has lift tabs, small plastic handles to help remove the screen, place them in the track before you pre-roll the screen. You want these tabs to be on the reverse side of the spline, so that when the screen is put back into the window, the pull tabs will be on the inside of the house.
8
Use the concave side of the roller tool to printing the spline into the frame. Lay the spline on top of the frame track where y'all just pressed the screen in.^[9] Press the roller tool over the spline, and run it along the edge, pushing the spline seal into place.^[10]
- Rolling the spline in may take several passes only brand sure at the finish that the screen is all at the aforementioned depth in the rail. Take your fourth dimension with this step. If you go to fast or push button likewise hard, the screen may rip on the inside of the frame and and so yous take to start all over. Screening is a wearisome patient process; take your time and practice it correct the first time.
9
Do the opposite edge the same manner. Take the clamps off the screen. Stretch the screen over the frame so it's taut, and so printing the screen into the frame's groove with the roller tool. Use the spline, and press it in likewise, using the other side of the roller tool.^[xi]
- If you're using fiberglass screen and you mess up, you tin pull it out and practise it again. If yous're using aluminum, you'll take to cut new screen if you lot make a error.
ten

Repeat the process for the other 2 edges. Pull the screen tight over the frame on one edge, and roll it into place. Roll the spline into place, too. Do the same on the other side, fugitive wrinkles as you go by pulling information technology equally tight as you tin can.^[12]
11
Slice off the excess screen and press the spline into the corners. Cutting off any excess spline first. Lay the knife flat on the acme of the spline, and straight the blade towards the frame.Cut forth that border to trim off the excess screen. With a screwdriver, constrict the spline in at the corners if it's sticking up. Just press down with a screwdriver and then the spline will stay nicely in place.^[xiii]
- Make sure you apply a sharp blade, as a slow one volition just elevate the screen along, not cut information technology.

one
Pay attention when you lot have the screens out. Some screens just become back in one manner, and if you don't put them back in the same fashion, they aren't going to stay. Await at the screen when you're pulling information technology out, and marker the top of the screen if you demand to.
- If yous forgot to expect at the screen when y'all took it downwards, pull out another 1 to see how it goes in identify.
- The spline will always face up outward.
ii

Start from the summit. Information technology'due south usually easiest to begin from the top of the window and work your way downwards. However, as you slide it into place, brand certain the force per unit area clips are falling into the proper runway on the correct. Nigh oftentimes, the springs should go to the right when looking at the window from the outside.^[fourteen]
three

Cheque the springs or pressure clips if information technology won't go in. These springs look like little metal strips that create a bend on one edge. Sometimes, the clips pop out of identify. They should be against the exterior edge only, not flopping to the left or right.^[15]
iv
Place 2-part screens in like a puzzle. The top screen will accept a lip at the bottom that goes over the lesser screen. The pressure clips, if the screen has them, need to be to the right when looking at the window from the exterior. Printing the pressure clips into the track on the right, then press in the left summit corner. Push the screen to the top without pressing in the lesser left corner.^[16]
- Insert the 2nd screen nether the elevation screen's lesser lip with the pressure clips facing right. Push the screen all the way over to the right. Press the bottom left corner in, while still keeping the peak screen's bottom corner and the bottom screen'south top corner out a chip. Once the bottom left corner is in, press on the left centre role where the corners meet to ready it in identify.
5
Set in a 1-office screen with the springs to the left from the inside. If you need to put the screen in from the within, the springs should be on the left. The feathered/pleated border will go on the acme. Slide the top part of the screen out the window, and bring it back flat against the window. Fix the screen in the tracks with the springs in place. Elevator the screen up the window, and set it in identify from the summit if you can.^[17]
- To set it in identify from the top, press in towards the house at the summit corners. You can do this from the outside, or if your house has windows that open up from the superlative and bottom, from the inside.

i

Remove the wooden window frame from the window, if possible. Removing the screen and working on a flat surface will be much easier than attempting to piece of work with the screen while it is nonetheless in the window.
2
Pry the molding out of the window that's belongings the screen in place. Use a sparse pry bar to gently pull up the molding. It'southward important to be gentle because yous want to exist able to use the molding again.^[18]
- Tap on the end of the pry bar with a hammer to help work it under the molding.
- Once y'all get the molding out, tap the nails on the pointed end and remove them with a hammer.
3
Accept the old screen off the frame. Use the claw side of a hammer or pry bar to pull out the staples or nails that hold the screen in place. Every bit you practise, the screen should offset to come up off the frame. Pull it up, and set it aside to discard it later.^[nineteen]
- If any nails or staples are left in the frame after you remove the screen, pry them out.^[20]
4
Cutting a piece of screen to fit the frame. Leave at to the lowest degree i to two inches (2.5 to v.1 cm) of actress screen on each side of the frame. It's better to cut more than you need than to have to cut it again because you don't have enough.^[21]
- You should have at to the lowest degree at least 2 sides that see at a right angle. That volition make it easier to attach the screen.^[22]
5
Starting stapling or nailing at i border of the right angle. Lay the right bending of the screen into a corner, fitting it into the grooves for the screen, and staple it on the curt side of the corner. Staple the other side of the corner into place, and start working forth that long edge, pulling the screen taut every bit y'all become.^[23]
- Add together staples or nails every 1 inch (2.5 cm) or so.
- Make sure the staples are as flat every bit possible against the frame.
half dozen

Set the height in place with staples or nails. Go along the short side connected to the correct angle. Pull the screen tight as you lot go across the edge, stapling every i inch (2.5 cm) or so.^[24]
vii

Staple the reverse long edge in place. Pull the screen taut across the frame. Get-go stapling from the short edge that's already stapled in identify. Make sure the screen is tight going across and downwards the frame as you staple.^[25]
viii
Attach the bottom edge. Stretch the screen as much as you can beyond the frame, then staple or nail it into the lesser corner. Run staples or nails across the bottom edge.^[26]
- With this step, you should cease stapling the screen into place.
ix
Trim the screen using a utility knife. Run a utility pocketknife forth the inside edge of the frame. Attempt not to cut the wood behind information technology with the knife. Trim the 2 sides that accept excess screen, and discard information technology.^[27]
- Yous can trim the screen earlier if it'due south in the manner while you're stapling. You lot should only have to trim the screen on 2 sides if you used a right angle.
10
Put the molding back in identify. Lay the pieces back down where they belong. Use nails to drive them dorsum into place. Create new holes, or use larger nails in the old holes.^[28]
- If a slice bankrupt, yous tin glue it back together or buy a new slice of molding.

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Can you purchase replacement screens for windows?

Kevin Turner is a handyman and the owner of Red Gator Maintenance, a handyman business organisation based in Fresno, California. Working on handyman-related projects since the historic period of 12, Kevin specializes in a wide variety of home comeback projects such every bit (only not express to) lighting/electrical, plumbing, deck staining, drywall repairs, chiffonier installation, air conditioning, trash removal, and window, roof, and apparatus repairs.

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Is information technology hard to replace window screens?

Kevin Turner is a handyman and the possessor of Red Gator Maintenance, a handyman concern based in Fresno, California. Working on handyman-related projects since the historic period of 12, Kevin specializes in a wide variety of habitation improvement projects such equally (but non limited to) lighting/electrical, plumbing, deck staining, drywall repairs, cabinet installation, ac, trash removal, and window, roof, and apparatus repairs.

Commercial Handyman

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What tools practice I need to replace a window screen?

Kevin Turner is a handyman and the owner of Red Gator Maintenance, a handyman business based in Fresno, California. Working on handyman-related projects since the age of 12, Kevin specializes in a wide diversity of home improvement projects such as (simply not express to) lighting/electric, plumbing, deck staining, drywall repairs, cabinet installation, air conditioning, trash removal, and window, roof, and apparatus repairs.

Commercial Handyman

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You only need a roller and a utility knife. The roller is kind of a specialized tool, and it's a small metal disc on the cease of a handle. That disc fits along a groove of the window screen and you utilize information technology to button the spline dorsum into place.

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Things You'll Need

Flathead screwdriver
Spline roller
New screen
New spline
Utility pocketknife
Scrap wood, optional
Screws, optional
Drill, optional

New screen
Utility knife
Staple gun or hammer
Nails or staples
Pry bar

About This Article

Article Summary X

To supersede a window screen, beginning past popping the screen frame from the window. Then, utilize a screwdriver to pry upward and pull out the spline and the one-time screen. After that, lay a roll of screen over the frame and cut out a new section, leaving 2 inches on each side. Next, printing the screen into the frame'due south groove using a roller tool, and and then employ the concave side of the tool to push button the spline into identify. Finally, repeat this process on all edges, slice off the excess screen, and tuck in the spline at the corners. For more tips, like how to replace a wood framed screen, read on!

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