Even if you don’t have a blundering kid, pet, or spouse, your screen door is likely to accumulate nicks and punctures. You can patch tiny holes, and if you do so when you first see them, you might be able to stop them from getting bigger. But the screen is easy to replace, so as soon as your home starts to look like a bug motel, just follow these steps, excerpted from Sharon and David Bowers’s Shop Class for Everyone.
HOW TO REPAIR OR REPLACE A SCREEN
Tools
Measuring tape
Scissors
Screwdriver or awl
Spline installation tool
Utility knife
Materials
-Replacement screen
-Replacement spline (optional)
HOW TO FIX HOLES IN THE SCREEN
Make the patch. Use scissors to cut a piece of screen a couple inches larger than the hole from a roll of extra screen, or use a patch from a kit.
Bend the wires. Screen is made of wire woven horizontally and vertically. Pull out the horizontal wires for ½” around the edges of the patch, leaving the vertical wires poking free. Bend these free wires directly backward at a 90-degree angle.
Attach the patch. Push the patch onto the screen so that the bent wires go through to the other side of the screen (most people choose to patch from the outside, with the bent wires pushed inside). Using your fingers or needle-nose pliers, bend these wires down on the other side of the screen to hold the patch in place. Push the wires down completely so they won’t snag.
HOW TO REPLACE THE SCREEN
Remove the screen from the window or door. Remove any hardware that intrudes on the face of the screen—most will come free easily with a screwdriver. Check screen hardware for dings, discoloration, and wear. Replace if damaged.
Remove the spline. The screen’s edges are almost certainly held in place by a thin line of rubber called the spline. This piece presses on top of the screen into a tight groove, and the friction of the spline in the groove holds the screen taut. To remove the screen, you’ll have to remove the spline first. Use a thin screwdriver or awl to pick at the spline near one of the screen corners, trying to lift it free without breaking it. If possible, pull the spline free in one long strip. Repeat this procedure to remove all four sides of the spline, checking to see if there might be spline on both sides of the screen.
Lay the new screen across the frame. Start with a piece of replacement screen at least 2 inches larger than the opening—later you’ll trim it to size. For now, align one edge of the new screen along the corresponding edge of the frame to make sure you don’t start installing the screen cockeyed.
Install the screen. A spline installation tool should have small, pizza-cutter-like circles on each end. One circle has a convex edge (it bulges outward), and the other circle has a concave edge (it is grooved inward). Run the convex edge of the spline installation tool on top of the screen to push it into the groove that runs along the frame edge. Press the screen firmly into the groove without ripping it.
Reinstall the spline. Use the concave side of the spline installation tool to push old or new spline into the groove on top of the screen. Pushing too firmly can make the tool’s wheel run against the screen and potentially damage it. Slightly angle the tool away from the inside of the screen so that any rips occur on the overhang rather than inside the spline. As you push the spline into the groove with the roller, use your other hand to pull the screen tight in front of the area you’re seating. However, be careful not to pull so hard that you tilt the screen in the frame.
Use a utility knife to trim the excess screen. To avoid scratching the frame, you can cut directly into the outside gap created by the spline.
Replace any needed hardware, including rollers or the handle of the door.
More About Shop Class for Everyone: Practical Life Skills in 83 Projects
Did you remember your goggles?
There used to be a time when pretty much every high school offered Shop class, where students learned to use a circular saw or rewire a busted lamp- all while discovering the satisfaction of being self-reliant and doing it yourself. Shop Class for Everyone now offers anyone who might have missed this vital class a crash course in these practical life skills. Packed with illustrated step by step instructions, plus relevant charts, lists, and handy graphics, here’s how to plaster a wall, build a bookcase from scratch, unclog a drain, and change a flat tire (on your car or bike). It’s all made clear in plain, nontechnical language for any level of DIYer, and it comes with a guarantee: No matter how simple the task, doing it with your own two hands provides a feeling of accomplishment that no app or device will ever give you.
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