Sunday, April 25, 2010

Re-screening

One of our favorite aspects of our current home is the screened-in porch.  Unfortunately, recently after we moved in, our family proved to be especially harsh on the screening.  Many factors went in to the deterioration of the screening.  Namely, our 12-year-old dog Rex. 

 

Bless his heart - he has cataracts.  He proceeded to bust out every screen within a year's time.  You see, Rex doesn't know he's old.  He likes to take off after birds, skunks, armadillos, or anything else seen or imagined in the yard. Nothing makes a home look more scrappy than ripped and torn screens. So we decided just to rip them out.  This has made our porch very accessible for Rex, which he has no doubt enjoyed.  But the dust and dirt blow in, not to mention mosquitoes and flies. 




I have tolerated this eyesore for about 3 years.  We had an estimate for replacing the screen with cement board ($600) and also discussed taking the screening frame out all together, but the best solution was to re-screen.  I have resisted the urge to re-screen, knowing that Rex was just going to get stimulated and bust it out again.  However, I simply could not stand it any longer and decided to roll the dice.  Some Internet tutorials and a trip to Lowe's later, I had the following tools for my project:

  • A roll of vinyl screening ($40) 
  • a giant 100 foot roll of spline (maybe around $9) 
  • a cheap pizza cutter spline tool (about $3 and I don't know it's real name) 
  • and a new razor blade tool ($7 or so)  
  • I also needed some scissors (not pictured) and a flat head screw driver. 

And I had to stop by Dillard's for a new pair of shoes ($90) and the kids and I ate at the Food Court ($20 Chinese since Chik-Fil-A was closed because it was a Sunday.  Why do I always crave Chik-Fil-A on Sundays?)  So all-in-all, it cost less than the $600 estimate from our contractor, and momma got a new pair of shoes.


The first step was to remove the old spline.  This is where the flat head screw driver comes into play.  I decided to make an abstract art piece out of the removed spline.  "Homage to Old Spline."

Lovely!  The next step was rolling out the screen and cutting it very liberally to the size of the screen frame.  I was concerned because my Internet tutorials were a.) men and b.) the frame was laid flat on the ground.  But the fact that I was a.) female and the screens were b.) upright, did not seem to matter.  I used my little pizza cutter to roll the spline into the groove on the frame.  I wished I had not cheaped out on the pizza cutter tool.  I had to press really hard (in fact, I was sore for at least two days after this project.)  Sometimes, my hand slipped and I injured myself on the metal framing, which caused me to use a Chinese version of my increasingly favorite home improvement curse word.   I was surprised and a little concerned at how easily it flowed from my mouth.


Notice how I posed my finger so that you could see my injury and possibly garner some sympathy?  Anyway, this step looks much easier than it is.  I did 5 screen panels, and it took me about 3 hours, so it's not like you just roll it in and breeze away.  I asked my husband to help, but even he struggled with it because apparently it's not just strength, but also finesse involved.  He out-did me in the  strength department, but my finesse was the deal breaker.

The last step is trimming the excess screen.    Notice how I angled the knife toward the frame rather than inward toward the screen?  That is because it is easy to do this:
Which makes me very NOT happy after working so hard to get to the trimming step in the first place.  Live and learn people.
The screen product I purchased (vinyl) did not match the screen product from 1994 on the top portion of the patio, but I think I can live with the two-toned effect. 

Also, I ran out of screen, so one panel (not pictured) was left open.  I thought this was a  fair compromise for Rex, since he'd still be able to rush out of the patio to chase any would-be intruders in our yard.  Unfortunately, the phrase "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" appears to be true, since Rex has gone face first into the new screens multiple times already.  However, so far they seem to be holding up against the geriatric force of my dog. 
In closing, I have to mention that our recent rain made my job somewhat dirty, since I had to sit in the yard to access the screen frames.  My pushing and straining and overall unwillingness to give up on my project no matter the fact that I was sitting in mud and my hands were bleeding yielded this little product right here:

Yes, that is grass you see wrapped around my button.