Idaho door & window repair
Window screen repair
Window Screen Repair
The cheapest repair in the building, and the most neglected.
Torn mesh, frames that have gone out of square, screens that drop out when you touch them, and mesh the sun has made brittle enough to split at a fingertip.
Can you rescreen my frames?
Yes, and it is usually the right answer.
Nothing off the shelf fits.
Normal here. We build to your actual opening.
How long?
Usually under an hour per screen, done on the visit.
Start here
A screen is three parts, and any of them can be the problem
People assume a torn screen means new screens. Usually it means new mesh, and sometimes it means the frame was the real fault all along.
If nothing at the store fits your openings, that is not unusual — particularly in older Idaho homes and anything built before sizes standardised. Building to the opening you actually have costs very little more than buying one that nearly fits.
The frame
Usually aluminium, held square by corner keys. If the corners have let go, no amount of new mesh will hold tension.
The spline
The rubber cord pressed into a channel to grip the mesh. It hardens with UV and lets go long before the mesh does.
The mesh
The consumable. Standard fibreglass, fine insect mesh, heavy pet mesh or dense solar mesh, depending what the screen is for.
The tension
The part that gets done badly. Mesh fitted slack bows and pulls out; fitted properly it stays flat for years.
The fit
Screens sit in a channel or on clips. A screen that keeps falling out is usually a fit problem, not a mesh problem.
Diagnosis
What is wrong with it
Screens fail in a small number of predictable ways.
| What you are seeing | What it usually means | What we do about it |
|---|---|---|
| A tear or hole in the mesh | Ordinary wear, a pet, or UV making the mesh brittle | Rescreen the frame with mesh suited to the exposure |
| The mesh is loose and bowing | Spline has hardened and released, or the mesh was fitted slack | New spline, mesh retensioned and reset |
| The screen keeps falling out | Frame out of square, or worn clips and tabs | Square the frame, replace the clips, refit |
| A corner has come apart | Corner keys corroded or pulled out | Rebuild the corner or build a new frame to the same size |
| The room is unbearable by late afternoon | Standard mesh does nothing about solar gain | Solar screen mesh on the west and south elevations |
| Mesh grey with dust and smoke residue | Agricultural dust and wildfire-season smoke loading | Clean, or rescreen where the mesh is already degraded |
Idaho conditions
What Idaho does to screens
Sun at elevation, dust from the fields, and a smoke season nobody planned for.
01
Ultraviolet at elevation
Idaho sits high and clear, and UV intensity rises with altitude. Fibreglass mesh goes brittle years before its rated life and then splits at a touch rather than stretching.
02
Agricultural dust
The Treasure and Magic Valleys move a great deal of fine soil in the air through the working season. It loads screen mesh, restricts airflow and leaves frames holding grit against the sill beneath them.
03
Wildfire smoke season
Late summer brings weeks where smoke and fine ash settle on everything. Screens take the brunt, and homeowners frequently find after a bad season that mesh has gone from serviceable to shot.
04
Mosquitoes along the canals
Irrigation canals and the Boise and Snake river corridors make screens genuinely necessary in the evenings, which is when a torn one gets noticed.
The honest version
Rescreen, rebuild or replace
Three different answers, and the cheapest one is usually correct.
Repair is the right call when
- The frame is square and the corners are sound
- Only the mesh has torn or degraded
- The spline has hardened and let go
- You want to change mesh type while it is apart
- The screen simply needs refitting to the opening
Replacement is genuinely warranted when
- Corner keys have corroded and the frame will not hold square
- The frame is bent beyond straightening
- There is no screen at all and one has to be built
- The opening is a non-standard size and needs a purpose-built frame
Even the replace column is a new screen, not a new window. We will tell you if someone has suggested otherwise.
What the visit looks like
Usually finished while we are there
Before we arrive
Send a photo
A picture of the screen and the opening tells us the frame type and roughly the size.
On arrival
Measure and quote
A firm price, including custom frame work if that is what it needs.
Same visit
Rescreen
We carry mesh and spline, so most rescreening is finished before we leave.
If needed
Custom frames
Built to your opening and fitted on a short return visit.
Where we work
Window screen repair across Idaho
We are a mobile service covering the whole state. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Window Screen Repair Across Idaho
Questions
Screen questions
Can you rescreen the frames I already have?
Yes, provided the frame is still square and the corners are sound. That is the cheapest and best option, and it is what we do most.
What is solar screen mesh?
A denser mesh that blocks a significant share of solar heat and glare before it reaches the glass. On a west-facing Idaho room in July it makes a noticeable difference.
Do you have pet-resistant mesh?
Yes. It is several times stronger than standard fibreglass and is worth fitting anywhere a dog or cat leans on the screen.
My screens are grey after smoke season.
Common here. Sometimes they clean up; where the UV and ash have already made the mesh brittle, rescreening is the better spend.
Nothing at the store fits.
Very normal in older Idaho housing. We build to your actual opening rather than the size it was supposed to be.
Is it worth doing just one screen?
Yes, and we are happy to. Plenty of companies will not come out for a single screen.
Everything else we do
Other repairs we handle
Doors and windows are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Get your screens sorted
Free estimates across Idaho, and we are glad to take the small jobs.
(208) 886-4699