any tricks or hints on installing fiberglass screen on my pool enclosure
the ends have triangle openings, 8ft. x8ft. x12ft. thanks

"Joe Wos" wrote

any tricks or hints on installing fiberglass screen on my pool enclosure
the ends have triangle openings, 8ft. x8ft. x12ft. thanks

Need more info Joe. What is the enclosure made of? It's totally different
depending on if it's metal or wood.

it is aluminum. 2x2 and 2x6

"sam left" wrote

it is aluminum. 2x2 and 2x6

The easiest way if you can, is to dismount the pieces that need rescreening.
Caution note, if they are there for structural integrity, without
dismountable inside screen portions, this wont be 'good'.

Easier done flat on the ground, the process is the same however if you can't
dismount the screening portion. You'll find it esier with 2 people and 2
ladders if cant dismount the unit.

They sell these long rools of thin rubber-like material which looks like a
thin 'pipe' usually about 1/6 inch but some are larger for other
applications. Put up a layer of the screen material over the area leaving
plenty of edge all around. Start at the top of the triangle and work evenly
down about 1/3 on each of the top portions, using the rubber bit to tuck the
screen into the channel. I have a blunt ended metal tool that fits
perfectly for this. You work both sides evenly so you can get a fairly
tight fit. Once you have it all the way to the bottom, if you did it right
it will be taut. Having a second person on the other side makes this much
easier to do!

Then, cut a piece of the rubber (leaving a bit over on each end) and work
the bottom portion of the trinagle, starting in the middle. The reason for
that is you will probably find it wasnt fully taut so will have a slight
ripple effect once you have the bottom all done. You fix this by peeling up
the end of the top parts of the triangle just a little bit and re-seat the
rubber. Second person holding the screen taut while first person puts the
rubber back in works best. Then, tighten the other end. Once done, with
small clippers, carefully trim the screen edges back flush.

I know there are other ways to do this, but this one worked for us and made
a very nice finish.

In article , cshenk wrote:
"sam left" wrote

it is aluminum. 2x2 and 2x6


They sell these long rools of thin rubber-like material which looks like a
thin 'pipe' usually about 1/6 inch but some are larger for other

Now, what if the frame is *wood*, like on a porch of an *old* house?

Any tricks you can suggest? (Otherwide it's a real bitch -- many hours).


Thanks!

David

"David Combs" wrote

They sell these long rools of thin rubber-like material which looks like a
thin 'pipe' usually about 1/6 inch but some are larger for other

Now, what if the frame is *wood*, like on a porch of an *old* house?

Totally different setup. That earlier answer was for a fellow with a metal
framed enclosure over a pool if I recall it right and a high 'triangle'
portion that needed reworking.

Any tricks you can suggest? (Otherwide it's a real bitch -- many hours).

David, I have just such a style 'porch' though my house may not be as old.
It's got your basic 'stud' like risers over what in my case is about a 30
inch 'wall' and screen above that to the ceiling. We have to rescreen it
every so often (pets, then the renters when we were gone a few years).

We use thin 'slat' wood (its about what you'd use to lay carpet along a
cement slab floor or shim a doorframe). Call it 1/3 inch thick? It's a
little hard to find long pieces so sometimes we've used 'pretty molding' of
the small thin sort.

Take down the old 'slat wood' or 'pretty molding' (almost impossible to save
it) then place the screen over the opening between the pillars (which are
hopefully flat! If not, you'll see another way below for round ones) then
cut it a bit longer than you need and fold the edges under 2 or 3 times.
Use a staple gun and hang it up. Next, cover the stapled edges with the
slat wood (pretty molding, whatever). If you get it thin enough, you can
use the staple gun to put up the slat wood.

If they are round poles, find corner molding that fits fairly neatly to the
dimensions of your poles and use that instead.

In both cases, it's a little easier if you paint or stain the slat wood to
match the existing porch wood fairly closely before you cut it and put it
up. Later then, you need only do a touch up and perhaps a little caulk at
where the corners meet top and bottom. Then again if you plan to paint the
porch after, you can wait but I find it easier to paint with no screens to
have to worry about, then paint the slats, then put it all up, and touch up
after.

This last time? We took all the old screen (most was badly damaged or
missing) from the 44ft long screened porch off the back of the house,
painted the 'pretty molding', stapled the screen up, then put the molding
up. Oddly the porch itself didnt need painting except later we need to do
the ceiling.

Don and I did the 44ft porch in about 3 hours, not counting the time to cut
and prepaint the pretty molding in a contrasting color to the wood studs,
but counting the time to dab paint to cover the staples.

There are 14 'window screen areas' along that porch. 56 portions of molding
to cut with all but a few of the same size (the corner section needed
shorter top and bottom pieces). We did those assembly style the day before.

Not sure if you want hints on how to make that part go fast, but harmless to
add it if you do need it.

---
Cutting the 'pretty molding or slat wood'. It really helps if you have a
child at least age 8 who can handle a basic tape measure accurately.
Charlotte is 14 and this is easy for her. While Don got the saw ready (fast
easy cutting didnt need the high power tool but what the heck, we love our
toys!), Charlotte and I laid a big piece of plastic out in the yard. The
sort folks use to help winterize windows and comes in 10foot rolls, we used
a 20ft long swatch 9 feet or so wide.

Once the plastic was laid out, Charlotte got her markers while i laid out
all the pieces of wood 'ugly side up'. Before I was done, she had marked
most that fit on the plastic 'tarp' we'd made up and I was carting that to
Don who was cutting faster than we could mark.

Charlotte first marked off all the long tall pieces and Don cut those. The
remaining piece was longer than we needed for one bottom or top but not
quite enough for a bottom and a top. The long pieces once cut we stacked to
the side as the top and bottoms were marked then cut out. I believe it was
8 pieces of molding that were used just to make the extra top/bottom pieces.
Yeah, lots of little 12-14 inch bits left over.

Time spent on this: about 45 mins. Keep in mind you probably do not have
to deal with 56 portions but may not have help of 2 others.

Next stage, lay it all out and start painting. With it being in the yard on
the grass it's kinda lumpy but you cant mess up the driveway and any paint
you 'spill' will go away when you cut the grass ;-). Wear messy clothes and
dont worry, just paint fast. Drips not relevant unless extreme and on the
actual wood. Takes about 2 mins per 'slat' so in our case 112 mins divided
by 3 so 'gee a little over 30 mins'. It actually took a little longer as we
decided to decorate one another ;-)

-----
Total time, about 5 hours. Use of child labor, only for the fun parts and 2
hours. Use of second person on day to hang it, minimal but did make it go
faster to have another to hold the parts up while staple-gunning it in
place.

Helps?

In article , cshenk wrote:
....

Any tricks you can suggest? (Otherwide it's a real bitch -- many hours).



David, I have just such a style 'porch' though my house may not be as old.
It's got your basic 'stud' like risers over what in my case is about a 30
inch 'wall' and screen above that to the ceiling. We have to rescreen it
every so often (pets, then the renters when we were gone a few years).

We use thin 'slat' wood (its about what you'd use to lay carpet along a
cement slab floor or shim a doorframe). Call it 1/3 inch thick? It's a
little hard to find long pieces so sometimes we've used 'pretty molding' of
the small thin sort.

Take down the old 'slat wood' or 'pretty molding' (almost impossible to save
it) then place the screen over the opening between the pillars (which are
hopefully flat! If not, you'll see another way below for round ones) then
cut it a bit longer than you need and fold the edges under 2 or 3 times.
Use a staple gun and hang it up. Next, cover the stapled edges with the
slat wood (pretty molding, whatever). If you get it thin enough, you can
use the staple gun to put up the slat wood.

If they are round poles, find corner molding that fits fairly neatly to the
dimensions of your poles and use that instead.

In both cases, it's a little easier if you paint or stain the slat wood to
match the existing porch wood fairly closely before you cut it and put it
up. Later then, you need only do a touch up and perhaps a little caulk at
where the corners meet top and bottom. Then again if you plan to paint the
porch after, you can wait but I find it easier to paint with no screens to
have to worry about, then paint the slats, then put it all up, and touch up
after.

This last time? We took all the old screen (most was badly damaged or
missing) from the 44ft long screened porch off the back of the house,
painted the 'pretty molding', stapled the screen up, then put the molding
up. Oddly the porch itself didnt need painting except later we need to do
the ceiling.

Don and I did the 44ft porch in about 3 hours, not counting the time to cut
and prepaint the pretty molding in a contrasting color to the wood studs,
but counting the time to dab paint to cover the staples.

There are 14 'window screen areas' along that porch. 56 portions of molding
to cut with all but a few of the same size (the corner section needed
shorter top and bottom pieces). We did those assembly style the day before.

Not sure if you want hints on how to make that part go fast, but harmless to
add it if you do need it.

---
Cutting the 'pretty molding or slat wood'. It really helps if you have a
child at least age 8 who can handle a basic tape measure accurately.
Charlotte is 14 and this is easy for her. While Don got the saw ready (fast
easy cutting didnt need the high power tool but what the heck, we love our
toys!), Charlotte and I laid a big piece of plastic out in the yard. The
sort folks use to help winterize windows and comes in 10foot rolls, we used
a 20ft long swatch 9 feet or so wide.

Once the plastic was laid out,

You're laying out the plastic to the exact size of one of those 14 windows,
and then using it as a template or jig for the other 13?

Question: how many mills thick is the sheeting? 2? 4?

To insure that it doesn't stretch, doesn't blow away with the slightest
leaf-rustling weak-breeze?

Do you pin it to the ground, perhaps, to keep it rectangular?



Charlotte got her markers while i laid out
all the pieces of wood 'ugly side up'. Before I was done, she had marked
most that fit on the plastic 'tarp' we'd made up and I was carting that to
Don who was cutting faster than we could mark.

Charlotte first marked off all the long tall pieces and Don cut those. The
remaining piece was longer than we needed for one bottom or top but not
quite enough for a bottom and a top. The long pieces once cut we stacked to
the side as the top and bottoms were marked then cut out. I believe it was
8 pieces of molding that were used just to make the extra top/bottom pieces.
Yeah, lots of little 12-14 inch bits left over.

Time spent on this: about 45 mins. Keep in mind you probably do not have
to deal with 56 portions but may not have help of 2 others.

Next stage, lay it all out and start painting. With it being in the yard on
the grass it's kinda lumpy but you cant mess up the driveway and any paint
you 'spill' will go away when you cut the grass ;-). Wear messy clothes and
dont worry, just paint fast. Drips not relevant unless extreme and on the
actual wood. Takes about 2 mins per 'slat' so in our case 112 mins divided
by 3 so 'gee a little over 30 mins'. It actually took a little longer as we
decided to decorate one another ;-)

-----
Total time, about 5 hours. Use of child labor, only for the fun parts and 2
hours. Use of second person on day to hang it, minimal but did make it go
faster to have another to hold the parts up while staple-gunning it in
place.


After or before doing the slats/pretty-moldings, you staple-in all 14
screen-spaces.

What difficulty did you have in getting a window's screen stretched
tight enough to not experience a wave-action when there's a breeze?

As I recall from here, getting it evenly stretched and holding it
that way while stapling it -- didn't end up being a whole lot
of fun!

What ideas for getting that done?






And once that's done, the slats/molding cover them up (and by providing
pressure along the entire length, relieves the staples of some of their
"hold screen tight" atasks).

(In fact (is it true that?) the job of the staples is to hold the
screen (somewhat) taught *until* the slats get nailed down tight?)



Helps?

For sure!


David

"David Combs" wrote

toys!), Charlotte and I laid a big piece of plastic out in the yard. The
sort folks use to help winterize windows and comes in 10foot rolls, we
used
a 20ft long swatch 9 feet or so wide.

Once the plastic was laid out,

You're laying out the plastic to the exact size of one of those 14
windows,
and then using it as a template or jig for the other 13?

Nope, one big sheet. It was just so we could paint the wood easily while on
the grass. It wasnt a breezy day so no need to anchor it with spare bricks.
9ft by 20ft I think what what I used that time. It's only there to make
cleanup go fast since it allows us to paint in the grass. Any spills will
go away when you cut the grass later.

I'm all into labor saving and we have reused that same piece several times
now.

Question: how many mills thick is the sheeting? 2? 4?

Not really sure. This is the thick stuff folks staple up around here over
windows at the backside of the house in winter to help keep the cold out.
They leave it up all winter. Thick. Since the roll is no longer in it's
casing, I cant check for mill. It's normally seen around industrial sites.
It's definately *not* the cheap flimsy dropcloth stuff sold at dollar stores
thats little more than large saran wrap.

Got an old shower curtin? It would be just as good and probably big enough
for your needs.

Do you pin it to the ground, perhaps, to keep it rectangular?

In a windy day, I'd have used bricks I guess?

-----
Total time, about 5 hours. Use of child labor, only for the fun parts and
2
hours. Use of second person on day to hang it, minimal but did make it go
faster to have another to hold the parts up while staple-gunning it in
place.

After or before doing the slats/pretty-moldings, you staple-in all 14
screen-spaces.

Doesnt matter. We find it easier to have all the parts cut and ready at the
same time as adding the screen. We staple the screen, then the wood over
the screen (staple twice, it's faster and easier). We do one section with
the wood and the slats, then move to the next. No need to move ladder
multiple times.

Tool note: You will need thin slat wood and a good staple gun. Cheap
staple guns will just break down. A nail gun with flat largish head load
capacity would work too but we use a staple gun. Craftmaster, highest end
manual they have.

What difficulty did you have in getting a window's screen stretched
tight enough to not experience a wave-action when there's a breeze?

None really. Use the 'plastic' screening material, not metal. It has a
little give.

I forgot to mention you start at the top but that shold be pretty obvious,
then work down evenly both sides. Since i help, it's not hard to do this
quickly. A child about age 12 should be handy enough to help as well.
Adult staples, child just holds it tight for you as you staple. Can be
second adult ;-)

As I recall from here, getting it evenly stretched and holding it
that way while stapling it -- didn't end up being a whole lot
of fun!

Second person. You staple the top, then a section on one side (lets assume
right for ease) down about 6 inches, then left 6 inches, then right another
6 and so on til you hit the bottom. It *can* be done by one person but as
you note, it's awkward.

What ideas for getting that done?

Cut the screen so you have 2 inches (or near that) on each side. This is
what you will roll under so you staple a double layer (can be triple too but
we find it easier to do double then trim excess). To make it easier to
hang, follow the screen grid closely so it's as even as you can get it. The
reason is visually you may create 'ripples' if not cut right. We are lucky.
The openings are just right so we only have to cut the top/bottom for all
but 2 of the openings. For those 2, we use the scrren natural edge for one
side then cut the other.

If you do not have even sizes to cut for screen, this will actually take the
longest to cut it all right.

And once that's done, the slats/molding cover them up (and by providing
pressure along the entire length, relieves the staples of some of their
"hold screen tight" atasks).

Exactly. Lasts longer this way. Most of the screens we hung in 2000, were
still there and if the sun-fade coloring hadnt bothered us, we would not
have bothered to replace them.

(In fact (is it true that?) the job of the staples is to hold the
screen (somewhat) taught *until* the slats get nailed down tight?)

Yup! Thats probably why Don always has the slats ready to go right then.

Helps?

For sure!

;-) Oh another tip, if you have pets. If you have a choice to put the
screen and slat wood on the outside (leaving the ledge inside) do it. Pets
are less likely to damage the screen if from inside the porch they can put
their feet on the rail to leer at birds and squirrels etc. If you put the
screen on the inner side, they go through it before they notice (oops) and
also your 'swmbo' will get mad as she can't tuck little plants and things
along the rail.

Then again, my most frequently rescreened bit is the ledge where the cat
likes to loaf and watch birds. She leans against it and loosens it up a bit
at the bottom over time. Lovely cat but her fat little sassy ass is a bit
big for the ledge!

Lets see, since we dont have to cut the screen except the top/bottom for
most of it, once the wood is ready to go, we screen a section in about 5
mins and about 5 more for the wood? 6 per hour easy but we take breaks and
sometimes are tending a cookout on the BBQ at the same time.

OK!

Thank you for a fine lesson on screen-replacing!


David

"David Combs" wrote

OK!

Thank you for a fine lesson on screen-replacing!

Most welcome! There's a huge wealth of good information in this newsgroup
once you filter around the 'not so good'. I'll be posting in a bit for some
tips on a project I've delayed.