"SMS" wrote

I own a rental townhouse in a complex where the builder did not put in A/C
units. The location for the A/C units, for those that wanted them, is under
a wooden deck that has about 5 feet of height underneath. The underside of
the deck is enclosed on three sides with siding, and on the fourth side is
the building.

How many units and how much time do you mind spending?

The problem is that as people have added A/C units, they've cut openings
of various sizes and shapes in the siding, and covered the openings with
wire mesh. It looks terrible, and these homeowners will be paying for the
replacement of the siding.

The question is how to replace the siding and how to include venting that
is not unsightly. A long time ago we were having problems with

What I would do is prebuild (can be bought premade) several screens with the
dark colored fine mesh material you use for window screens. I would
actually make wood frames which you can pre-paint (using something fairly
sturdy like 1x2 wood) then take the siding down and add L joint screw in
brackets to the studs. Use a staple gun to add the polymer dark mesh at the
backside (wont show, will be on the inside). Add siding and have it cut so
you can just remove the screen panels to fix as needed and put them back up.
(could use butterfly holders too but that would require you make a backing
to hold it against).

To keep pets from damaging them, get fancy and use a trellis like wood
overlay on the outer part with thin (usually 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick stuff).
This would go on the front side and be painted to look like the siding and
wood frame, or in contrast to the siding. (My house is almond-sand with
dark brown trims, dark brown garage door and front door, and a dark brown
sunroom). You can get that pre-made too but it's pretty simple to do
yourself.

More expensive would be regular window screens where the screem material is
laid in with thin rubber tubing in a tunnel to hold it in place. Thats
faster to assemble at the start of the job if you have alot to do, but will
take longer to rescreen when the time comes and will not keep a dog etc from
going through it.