Screen Inspection and Cleaning: The Overlooked Part of Window Maintenance

Screens filter everything that drifts toward a window, which is why they clog with dirt and fail without anyone noticing. Here is a five-point inspection, a cleaning method that will not bend the mesh, how to decide between a patch and a re-screen, and what to do with screens over winter.

Share feedback

Why screens deserve their own inspection

A screen is a filter with a frame. It holds pollen, dust, insects, leaf bits and, near roads, salt. A clogged screen cuts airflow and dirties the glass behind it. A torn one lets in mosquitoes and wasps. A bent frame leaves gaps at the edges that insects find quickly.

Nobody looks at screens until a summer evening when something flies in. A yearly inspection, at the same time as the spring clean, catches problems while they are cheap to fix.

A five-point inspection

Sliding screen doors have their own trouble spot: the rollers and the bottom track. If a screen door drags, jumps or will not stay in its track, clean the track and check the rollers. Worn rollers are inexpensive parts and easy to swap, and a door that runs freely puts less strain on the frame and the mesh.

Cleaning screens without bending the mesh

1. Remove and label. Write the window location on a piece of tape inside each frame, so they go back where they came from.
2. Lay flat. Use a clean table, a driveway with a towel under it, or a padded surface. Leaning screens against a wall bows the frame.
3. Brush dry first. Sweep both sides with a soft brush to lift pollen, cobwebs and loose grit.
4. Wash gently. Use warm soapy water and a soft brush or sponge, working along the weave.
5. Rinse with a gentle hose. Use low pressure from both sides. Never use a pressure washer, which stretches mesh and blasts it out of the frame.
6. Dry in the shade, then check the mesh and spline again before you refit.

Skip bleach and stiff brushes, which weaken fibreglass and rough up aluminum.

Repair or re-screen?

Small holes can be patched with a self-adhesive mesh patch, which is fine for a hole the size of a coin. Larger tears and brittle mesh call for a new piece.

Re-screening is a job many people can do at a kitchen table. Pick out the old spline, lay a new piece of mesh over the frame, and press new spline into the channel with a spline roller, working slowly around all four sides. Trim the excess with a sharp utility knife. Take a piece of the old spline to the store, so you can match its thickness. Fibreglass mesh is inexpensive and easy to work. Aluminum mesh is stiffer and resists tearing, and heavier pet-resistant mesh takes claws and a pushed-against screen.

If a frame is bent or has failing corners, replace the whole screen instead of fighting it.

Over winter: store them or leave them on?

Many homeowners leave screens in place all year. Others take them out in fall, so more light comes in and snow and ice do not weigh on the mesh. Either way works, as long as you do it on purpose.

• If you store them, clean them first, label them, and keep them dry, flat or on edge in a spot where nothing will lean on them.
• If you leave them on, check that they are seated firmly, and clear ice and packed snow gently rather than chipping at it.

D&D Home Services quotes window cleaning from $125 for typical Kitchener-Waterloo homes. Ask any company whether screens are included, since quotes differ on that point. To weigh the extras, read window cleaning add-ons worth paying for, and see window cleaning for what a visit covers.

Devon Moore, Operations Lead Co-Founder & Operations Lead, D&D Home Services

Devon Moore is the co-founder and Operations Lead at D&D Home Services, with hands-on experience cleaning hundreds of homes across Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, and Guelph.