Window screen repair
Window Screen Repair
Torn mesh, frames gone out of square, screens that drop out when you touch them, and mesh the sun has made brittle enough to split at a fingertip.
At a glance
- Service
- Rescreening and screen repair
- Usually
- Finished during the visit
- Custom sizes
- Built to your actual opening
- Mesh options
- Standard, pet-resistant, solar
- Small jobs
- Welcome — one screen is fine
First question
Is this urgent, or can it wait?
Screens are rarely urgent, but a few situations are worth moving on.
Fix now
Safety or an open window
- A screen missing from an upper-floor window
- A frame that falls out when the window is opened
- Torn mesh on a bedroom you sleep with open
- Sharp or protruding frame damage
- A screen door that will not stay in its track
Fix soon
Before the season turns
- Mesh torn enough to let insects through
- A frame flexing at the corners
- Spline lifting out of its channel
- Mesh gone grey and brittle
- A room that is unusable in afternoon sun
Can wait
Cosmetic for now
- A small hole in a rarely-opened window
- Mesh that is dusty but intact
- A slightly loose but functional screen
- Discoloured frames
- A screen you intend to replace with solar mesh later
Second question
What has actually gone wrong?
A screen is three parts: a frame, a spline pressed into a channel to grip the mesh, and the mesh itself. All three are consumable and all three are replaceable, which is why this is the cheapest repair in the building.
People assume a torn screen means new screens. Usually it means new mesh. Sometimes it means new spline, because the rubber cord hardens and releases long before the mesh wears out. And occasionally it means the frame was the real fault all along — if a corner key has corroded or pulled out, no amount of new mesh will hold tension and it will sag again within a season.
The fourth variable is which mesh. Standard fibreglass handles ordinary insects. Pet-resistant mesh is several times stronger and is the only sensible choice where a dog or cat leans on a screen. Solar mesh is denser again and blocks a substantial share of solar heat before it reaches the glass, which on a west-facing Indiana room in July is the cheapest cooling improvement available.
What the technician will call it
- Spline
- The rubber cord pressed into a channel to grip the mesh. Hardens and releases over time.
- Corner key
- The plastic or metal insert joining two frame sides. Failure here is why a frame racks.
- Tension
- How tightly the mesh is fitted. Slack mesh bows and pulls out of the spline.
- Half screen
- A screen covering only the lower sash opening, common on double-hungs.
- Solar mesh
- Dense screening that cuts solar heat and glare before it reaches the glass.
- Rescreening
- Replacing the mesh and spline in a frame you already own.
Third question
Can it actually be repaired?
Screens are small enough that people accept bad answers about them.
In practice
Three calls from last season
Composite examples of how screen calls usually go.
Case 01
- The call
- “The dog went through the screen door again.”
- What we found
- Standard fibreglass mesh in a sound aluminium frame, torn in the same place for the third time.
- What it took
- Rescreened in heavy pet-resistant mesh. Under an hour, and it has not been back.
Case 02
- The call
- “The screens keep falling out of the windows.”
- What we found
- Corner keys corroded on four frames, so the frames had racked and no longer sat in their channels.
- What it took
- Corners rebuilt on three, one frame rebuilt to size, all four rescreened and refitted in a single visit.
Case 03
- The call
- “The back bedroom is unbearable after four o'clock.”
- What we found
- West-facing windows with ordinary mesh and no shading of any kind.
- What it took
- Rescreened in solar mesh. The glass still gets the light; the room stopped getting the heat.
Fourth question
Why does this keep happening in Indiana?
Indiana works screens hard for half the year and then leaves them out in the weather for the other half.
Harvest dust
Indiana is a serious farming state, and late summer into autumn puts a great deal of fine dust in the air. It loads screen mesh, restricts airflow noticeably, and holds moisture against the sill beneath it.
Insects along the rivers and farmland
The Wabash, White and Ohio river corridors and the irrigation around them make screens genuinely necessary through the evenings of a long warm season. A torn screen gets noticed quickly in June.
Spring hail
Indiana's severe weather season punches holes through screen mesh most years, often across a whole elevation at once. Screens are usually the first thing on a house to show storm damage and the cheapest thing to put right.
Screens left up all winter
Most people do not take screens down, so frames and mesh sit through snow, ice and months of freeze-thaw. Corner keys corrode and spline channels split, and the damage is discovered in April rather than when it happened.
Fifth question
What is involved, and how long does it take?
Almost all of this is small, quick work.
Screens are the one job where doing all of them at once is dramatically cheaper than one at a time, because almost all of the cost is the visit rather than the materials. Count them before you call.
Coverage
Window screen repair across Indiana
A mobile service covering the whole state. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Window Screen Repair Across Indiana
Anything else
What else should I know?
Can you rescreen the frames I already have?
Yes, provided the frame is square and the corners are sound. It is the cheapest option and most of what we do.
Nothing at the store fits my windows.
Normal in older Indiana housing. We build screens to the opening you actually have rather than the size it was supposed to be.
What is solar mesh?
A denser screening that blocks a significant share of solar heat and glare before it reaches the glass. On a west-facing room in July it makes a real difference.
Do you have pet-resistant mesh?
Yes, and it is worth fitting anywhere an animal pushes against the screen. It is several times stronger than standard fibreglass.
Will you come out for one screen?
Yes. But ask about the rest while we are there, because the second and third cost far less than the first.
Should I take my screens down for winter?
It extends their life noticeably if you have somewhere to store them. If not, we will tell you which frames are getting tired before they fail.
Everything else we do
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Get the screens sorted before summer
Free estimates across Indiana, and we are glad to take the small jobs.