Screen Maintenance

      

Although window and door screening materials are manufactured from tough stuff-aluminum, copper, fiberglass-the materials are still subject to damage that must be repaired before you're bugged into taking action. Repairs are fast and easy to make.

Most home center, building material, and hardware stores offer a selection of screening and you almost always can find the two standard screening products: aluminum and fiberglass. Copper screening may be difficult to locate; enameled and/or uncoated galvanized steel screening has disappeared from the marketplace in lieu of aluminum and fiberglass which doesn't rust.

It's a coin-toss as to which screening product is best. Aluminum screening will not rust, but it does corrode. The metal is difficult to tear or rip. Fiberglass won't corrode, but it sags somewhat and it is more prone to rips and tears than metal.

Most screening is attached to screen frames with a metal or plastic-like spline that fits into a dado or groove fashioned into the frame. Some screen frames are wood and the screening is fastened to them with large-headed tacks or staples. The fasteners are covered with strips of molding. Check the type of fastening device your screens have before you go to the store for replacement parts.

SCREEN MAINTENANCE:
Regardless of the type of screening, the screens on your home should be removed and cleaned annually. Once-over with sudsy household detergent mixed in warm water and applied with a soft-bristle brush provides enough cleaning action; rinse with spray from a garden hose. Let the screens dry; replace them.

Aluminum screening and frames, as mentioned above, tend to corrode. An annual cleaning with steel wool, lightly rubbed over screen and frame surfaces will remove the corrosion in a jiffy. A coating of household wax on the frames-especially the frames of screens in combination windows and doors (screens and storm windows)-will help prevent the frames from racking and binding in their respective window/door channels.

If you reside in the Sunbelt and own an outdoor swimming pool that is enclosed with fiberglass screening, clean this screen enclosure in the spring and fall months by hosing it from the inside of the enclosure. This way, the dirt, nits and gnats, and so forth are forced "outside" the screening and are not washed down into the area as hosing from the outside would tend to do.

Aluminum screening may be painted with regular screen enamel. Or you can buy trim paint and thin it 25% for a screen coating. The very best way to apply the paint is with a spray gun outfit. The second best way is with a screen painter device sold by most hardware, home center, and building material outlets that inventory painting supplies. The third best way is with a short, stiff-bristled paintbrush.

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