Screen Cleaning, Rescreening, or Replacement: Which Do You Need?
Four different jobs get called screen repair, and they cost very different amounts. Here is how to tell them apart before you call anyone.
What you need | When you need it | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
New screen build | Frame is bent beyond straightening, badly corroded, or missing entirely | A new frame built to your window's measurements and screened |
Frame repair | Frame is bent, or a corner has pulled apart | Corner keys replaced or frame straightened, then rescreened |
Rescreening | Mesh is torn, punctured, sagging, or brittle, but the frame is straight | Old mesh and spline removed, new mesh installed in the existing frame |
Screen Cleaning | Mesh is intact but grey, dusty, or pollen-clogged | Screens removed, washed, dried, and reinstalled |
Most of what we see needs rescreening, not replacement. A screen frame is aluminum and it usually outlives its mesh by decades, so if your frame is straight there is rarely a reason to buy a new one. We will always quote the repair before the replacement.
Why Dirty Screens Undo a Clean Window
This is the most common frustration we hear: the glass got cleaned, and a week later it looks dirty again.
Screen mesh is a filter. Every square inch holds field dust, pollen, and ash, and the tighter the weave the more it holds. When the wind comes up or the next sprinkler cycle throws mist at the house, that trapped debris moves straight onto your freshly cleaned glass. Cleaning the glass and putting a loaded screen back over it is why the results did not last. It was never the glass.
Airflow
A pollen-packed screen measurably reduces the amount of breeze that gets through an open window.
Allergies
Screens hold cottonwood, juniper, and grass pollen right at the opening you are pulling air through.
Visibility
Grey, oxidized mesh dulls the view even when the glass behind it is spotless.
Bugs
A tear you can barely see is an entry for unwelcome pests. Ants, flies, and wasps in particular find them fast.