Hi there. My name is Nils with LRN2DIY. And if you've got any sort of a hole or a tear
or issue with your window screen, I'm going to show you exactly how you can take care of that.
First if
You just have a small hole like this. You can barely see it. So I put a piece of paper behind
it, just a teeny little hole like this. You can purchase a little patch. There's small patches
like this for about $3 or for $6 or $7, you can buy a larger patch that is heat adhesive. Now with
these, they have a little hook shape all along the outside. And the objective is pretty simple.
Basically, you're going to, if you just need to cover this up and you're not too worried about how
it looks, then you can feed some of the hooks in one side. Once I get those in one side, I'm just
going to use my fingers from the other side of it. Kind of hook those around one of the lines
like, so then you can push the other end in and the same thing you're going to just
kind of bend it in the opposite direction to just attach those hooks on there.
And that's pretty much all there is to it with that. The whole is patched. It doesn't look great.
So if you're just looking for a functional fix, that's a good way to go. But if you really want
to do it right, I'll show you how to replace the entire thing. So this is actually really
inexpensive to fix. You can pick up a roll of screen material. This stuff is anywhere from
about $7.50 (USD) to $15 or $20. Depending if you get fiberglass, aluminum or pet screen,
those are three different types. If you have pets, you might want to go with a pet screen. It helps
deter the holes that come from scratching. If you have aluminum, which is the metallic stuff that
doesn't bend very much, then you would probably want to replace it with aluminum. Or you can go
with fiberglass, which has a little more give it's a little bit lighter, a little bit softer.
And that's what I'm going to put on here. Now, a couple of other items that you will
most likely need is the spline itself. You can see in here, this little piece,
that's a little rubber hose looking thing. That's called a spline. It's typically black
and it comes in multiple diameters. There's a 0.14 or 9/64 of an inch. And that's the most
common size. That's what I've got right here. So before you go to the hardware store to purchase
some of this, if you feel the need to do so, then make sure to take a look at what size you've got
and if possible, bring some with you so that you can make that perfect comparison.
Now you don't always need to buy new spline. Sometimes you can reuse the stuff that's in here.
The other thing you're going to need is some sort of a spline roller.
These are about $5to $6. They're really inexpensive. You're also going to need a straight
edge blade and then maybe a Flathead screwdriver, or a slotted screwdriver to help with the corners.
The first thing we need to do is remove the existing spline. And I noticed that in mine, it
looks like it starts and ends right up here. So I'm going to dig in here and see if I can
get that spline to come out. Now, I have a very rigid frame on this door,
so it doesn't bend much, but if yours is something that's bending quite a bit,
it might help to tape it down or to clamp it down to a work surface and that'll help the frame stay
in place and just make your life a little bit easier. So you're just going to remove this all
the way around. And typically there'll be in one piece like this little bend around the corners.
Now, once you have the, the spline released, then it should be fairly easy to poke, poke out the
screen itself. And again, some of these might be a little more
deteriorated or in bad shape than others. This one's coming out pretty easy.
And on mine,
I might have to cut it. Nope, it's mostly already cut.
Um, there we go.
I want to keep this, this piece is trashed in my case. I'm just
Going to do that.
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So hop on over to fixer.com/lrn2diy today to move ahead with confidence. Now, once you've got your
screen out, that's a great time to clean up your grooves here. I've got a lot of debris in here,
for example. So I'm going to clean that up real quick and then get ready to put the new ones.
No,
We've got our work surface ready. Next up. We're going to take some of our screen material,
and this is just extras that I had from a previous job,
but you want to lay it out to where it covers everything and then just get out some scissors.
If it's fiberglass, you can actually usually cut the aluminum stuff. Um, and certainly the pet
screen with scissors as well. Now, once you've got it laid out like this, if you're able to
reuse your spline, go ahead and do so. I'm just going to put a new spline because I have some,
the different ways you can put this in. If you've got a regular kind of pizza slicer roller,
then you can just start by putting in the rounded side and then follow it up
with the grooved side of your wheels. And in my case with this mouse, you actually insert
The, the
Spline right in through it like this,
And then you feed it underneath.
So I'm going to pick a corner to start in. Let's start down here and
I'm going to actually use my screwdriver to sort of push this in, to get us going.
There we go.
You go all the way in and really pucker on that, uh, on that screen,
like you see here. And then once I've got it started, I'm going to use the wheel to push it in.
And then you let the back wheel on this one ride along and that kind of double seals it in. .
If it starts to come out like mine just did then just readjust. But basically you're just
riding this one handed along the groove.
Should give you a pretty nice fit here. And when I get to a corner,
I'm just going to use the screwdriver,
Continue doing the same thing. So we'll push this in.
Now as I do this bottom piece, if you've got window tabs that are fragile and broken, these
little window tabs are often just brittle. They just snap right off. So you can buy corner Springs
and pull tabs and you can actually just put those in and they go right under the spline. So I would
lay one right here and then one right here, for example, and then run the spline right over them.
Those tabs sit in. And that allows you to pull the frame of the window out when you need to.
And when you get to the end of your section, let's use your sharp blade slice to off that spline.
And then the screwdriver to put those last pieces in place.
Here we go.
Now I've got a nice screen here. Nice and taut. Now the last thing we have to do is to remove the
excess and this goes pretty easily. The idea is you're going to run at a 45 degree angle
on the backside or the outside of your spline, and it's going to go up against the middle groove.
Like, so keep your hands out of the way. And then this fiberglass should cut pretty easy.
Even the, uh, aluminum should cut. Okay. So here's the angle we're shooting for.
Yeah.
All right. And with that, the new screen is in place. It's nice and taut and everything
looks good. Now, if there's more to it in your case, for example, if you have a bent frame,
you can actually bend that back into place like I'm doing in this video here. Like you can see
by using a straight edge, pulling it up against it, and then replacing that
screen. Oftentimes it's that tension that where the screen got pushed.
And so if you can reframe it and straighten out that frame, then you're in good shape.
Or if you can buy a whole new screen or you can custom cut when yourself with the kit
and all you need is a Hacksaw and the same tools that you see us using here. And then the kit comes
with everything except for the screen material, which you would need to purchase separately. And
that's it for this project. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time.