It’s summer and the time for all sorts of nasty biting insects. Fortunately for you, all your window screens are nice and tight and rip free. If they aren’t, they should be as it is so easy to repair them. If you happen to have a ripped or damaged screen and want to repair it without paying a fortune, you’re in luck because I am going to tell you how to do it.
Before you start, you are going to need a few supplies. You will need:
Screening material that matches your current window screens.
A roll of rubber spline
A spline roller tool
Utility Knife
Most modern windows have window screens that are made of light weight metal. This goes into the window frame. My window screen frames have metal clips at the top and bottom that get compressed when you put the window screen in and hold it in place against the window. Pop that old window screen out by lifting on the metal or plastic tabs at the bottom of the screen and lift and easy the bottom out of the slot and then let the screen drop once it is clear of the frame and it should be free.
I think that it is easier to replace the whole screen then to try and patch the window and it looks nicer too! To replace the screen, you are going to need a flat surface as large as your window screen or larger to work on. Place the screen flat on the table and look carefully at the screen. You will see that the old screen is held in place by a piece of small round rubber material called the spline shoved into a grove on the metal frame. Using a flat head screwdriver, start prying the old spline out of the groove in the frame. Once you get a little bit of it out, you should be able to just pull the rest out. When the spline is out, the old window screen will no longer be attached to the window screen frame and you can just throw it away.
Take the new screening material you purchased (larger amounts usually come on rolls, but sometimes you can buy smaller amounts by the package) and lay it across the screen frame. Make sure there is a couple of inches on each side that is extra. We will get rid of the excess once we have finished. Mark your screen where you are going to cut and move it to a safe place to cut. Cut your screen cleanly with the utility knife (it needs to be very sharp) or you could use a good pair of scissors if you have one.
Once you have your screen cut, you need to lay it over the screen frame and work to smooth out the wrinkles and bulges. It needs to lay tight and smooth. Sometimes, it is best to smooth it out several times or put weights on the corners as you tighten it so that it stays taut. Now take your spline roller tool and roll it over the groove, pushing the screen material into the grove. Do this all the way around the screen. The screen has to remain taut while you are doing this, and the weights help it to do this. Now look at your screen. If there are ripples or spots where the screening sags, now is the time to fix this. You can do this by pulling the screen out of the groove, getting it taut again and re-rolling the screen into the groove. Now take the new spline and starting at one of the corners, place it into the groove. Continue around the frame until you have the groove all filled in with the new spline. Now take the spline tool and start rolling it over the new spline and pushing it into the groove on top of the window screen. The spline is just large enough to fill the entire groove and lock the screen into place. Go around the whole frame with the spline tool, pushing any excess in front of you so that when you get completely around the frame, the screen is locked in place. The corners can be a bit of a challenge here, so take the time to make sure the spline is well down in the groove at the corners.
Now your screen is in, but you have an inch or two of excess material around the edges. Take your very sharp utility knife and on the outside edge of the spline, run the knife along the edge of the spline to remove the excess. Careful here, because if you cut the screen on the inside of the spline, you will have a hole in your new window screen.
That’s how you can simply and easily repair a window screen. You can also repair a screen door screen the same way. So simple and probably about 20 minutes of your time and a few bucks for screen and spline.
