Porch Screens

[bankeny]

Several years ago when we were house hunting we walked onto the front porch of the home we ended up purchasing and fell in love immediately. It seems most front porches in town have been enclosed with windows creating a three season porch.

Our porch is open with only a screen between us and the bugs. We love the open air feel and unobstructed views.

The screens are in need of repair and we are looking into our options. The screen frames are probably due to be replaced and with three young boys and a dog, the old way of stapling the screens to the frames doesn't lend itself to easy repairs.

I'm looking at either the Screen Tight rails or Mosquito Curtains attached with marine snaps. I'm leaning towards the curtains because I think I could get away without having vertical supports obstructing the openness of the porch.

Does anyone here have any experience with either screen-tight or mosquito fabric?

Thanks!

Brandon

[Lower Brambly]

There is a heavier "pet" screen that has worked well for me on screen doors. I think it is fiberglass, but is much sturdier than normal fiberglass, and also more expensive. I got it from True Value Hardware, which has been taken over by Ace Hardware. It may be available else where as well. Everyone who has seen it and has pets has been impressed.

[phil]

if you are picking which screen to use note what kind of bugs you have. Here in the city I get mostly flies moths , wasps, a few mosquitos but most are larger bugs which are kept out with a more coarse heavier and hard wearing screen.

contrast that to our property at the lake where we have millions of mosquitos and billions of what we call no-see-ums.. I'm not sure how to spell it but they are teeny, they don't bite but if you leave a light on and one of those coarse screens is installed they will fly right through and in the morning you'll have billions of the buggers to clean up.. so at the lake we need finer mesh screens.. but your cat or dog might tear them.
..so you need the coarsest screens you can have but also you need to have a small enough mesh to keep most of them out.

a while back someone mentioned Velcro screens and by having one part of the velcro on the frame and the other on the screen itself made for easy removal. It might be tacky in some places but it was a good idea for cetrtain ones like where you might need to remove a screen to get to a window latch for example.

Phil

[wletson]

I was just in Home Depot (here in Canada) yesterday, and they had large screens that were marketed as for covering opened garage doors. If you wanted to go with something large like that, they may fit your project. (if they are available in your area)
This is project I am just in the middle of. Building the roof was the first step, now I have just moved on to building the screens. I'm building all of my frames out of 1x3 pine. Cutting a grove with the tablesaw, and pushing in the splines with the screen-spline-roller-inny-thingy. Sorry for the technical speak.

[wletson]

... just started another screen this afternoon, so I thought I could grab a quick pic of my process of producing custom sized screens. I put the grooves along the edge that is flat with the framing. This, in my theory of screening, keeps the spline from working its way out of the groove. Believe me though, I have the fit awfully tight.
The simple friction of the screen wrapping around the corner will also add to keeping it tight.

[TexasRed]

Howdy wletson -

Your screen design is ingenious, I'd love to use your idea down the road for my back porch / sunroom.

Maybe you could start your own topic in the Construction Zone. It would make a good reference for those wanting to screen a porch or could even be scaled down for custom window screens.

Are you using fiberglass or metal screening? How will the screens attach to your porch?

Nice job on the porch, very cute & inviting.

[wletson]

Maybe you could start your own topic in the Construction Zone. It would make a good reference for those wanting to screen a porch or could even be scaled down for custom window screens.

Will do! I'm still plugging away on this project. Once I have it "complete" I will start an individual post. In a couple of weeks I'm hoping to have the porch insect free!

[TexasRed]

I look forward to the tutorial wletson.

I remember when I first joined WG in 2013, I had just completed re-screening the porch of my country house.

You mentioned then how you would like to have one someday .... And now you shall.

[wletson]

I look forward to the tutorial wletson.

I remember when I first joined WG in 2013, I had just completed re-screening the porch of my country house.

You mentioned then how you would like to have one someday .... And now you shall.

Now I have to remember to take pictures of the process. My project isn't nearly as large as most porches here, but the "how to" will apply to anyone's application. ... will start with photos today.