The excess screening material must be cut away from the outside of the frame after the spline has been installed. The new screen is installed the same way as the repaired screen would be, but with one additional step. Begin by removing all of the old spline and screen. Screening is generally sold in rolls and you should be able to get a roll fairly close to the size of your door.
If you need to replace the screen because the cloth itself is damaged, make sure you buy enough material to cover the entire opening. They are very inexpensive and should be available at any hardware store.
The best and safest way to install spline is with a spline roller. If you make one small slip, the screwdriver will punch a hole in your screen. While you can also use the screwdriver to re-install the spline, it's not recommended. You can use a flat-headed screwdriver to remove the spline. When you have it out, lay the screen material back over the frame and then put the spline back in over the top of the screen. Begin by removing the spline (the black rubber material that holds the screen cloth into the frame). If the screening material itself is not damaged, you can reuse it. You may already have some of the tools lying around the house. It isn't too difficult, and the tools are less than what you would pay for one repair job. While there are service shops where you can take the door to get the screen repaired, it may be worth it to you to make a minimal investment and purchase the tools necessary to fix it yourself. If you have pets that are constantly pushing at the door, or kids who mistakenly walk through it, then you realize that having a screen door with the screen pushed out of it isn't really very helpful. Damaged or Stretched ScreenĪnother common frustration with sliding patio screen doors is with the screen itself. You can gain as much as 1 1/2" of height from your door by making this simple adjustment. Once you've increased the length enough to allow the door to fit properly, re-tighten the screws. Simply loosen those screws, without taking them all the way out, and extend the length of the door by sliding the slots along the screw. You should find the top and bottom rails of the door are attached with two screws that are located in slots about one inch long. Almost all sliding patio doors are adjustable when it comes to height. Again, this is a fairly simple problem to fix. If it fits too loosely in the tracks, any vertical movement of the door will cause it to come unseated and it will fall. In some instances, the sliding screen door will fall out repeatedly because it is too small. Install the new rollers in the same way that you removed the old ones and you should find that the door operates much smoother. When you go to the home improvement store to buy new rollers, make sure you take the old ones with you so you can match them correctly. These are generally specific to the manufacturer of the door. There are many different styles of brackets that the rollers come attached to. You should find that they come out quite easily with a screwdriver. Take a look at the top and bottom and remove the rollers from each location. This can be frustrating and can lead to all of the circumstances mentioned above, such as the door getting stuck or falling out.įortunately, these rollers are quite simple and inexpensive to replace. Regardless of the cause, if your roller is broken, then you are dragging the door open instead of allowing it to roll open as it was designed. In some cases, a twig or a stone may have gotten caught in the track, causing the roller to jamb and break. In climates that have large temperature swings, the plastic can become brittle and break. This keeps the manufacturing costs down, but doesn't make them very durable. Generally, the rollers in your patio screen are made of inexpensive lightweight plastic. The most common problem is that the rollers are bad.