Window Screens & Storm Windows
The window screens and storms in your home may be the kind you can remove, or they may be aluminum-
frame combination storm and screen windows you can leave in place year-round. The frames may be wood or metal, the screening metal or fiber-glass.
With regular maintenance, your storms and screens should last for years. Clean screening periodically
with a stiff bristle brush; apply thinned screen enamel, paint, or varnish to gal-vanized metal screening. Paint wood storm and screen frames when neces-sary to protect them from weathering.
Clean aluminum frames with aluminum polish or steel wool and coat them with paste wax.
Mending a frame. If a frame begins to separate at the corners, you can mend and reinforce the corners with glue or with metal reinforcing angles, corru-gated fasteners, wood screws, or glued-in wood dowels (see below).
Lay the screen or storm on a flat surface and clean out the gap in the joint. If the frame is in good condition
and the joint is clean, simply pour wa-terproof glue into the joint. Clamp it until the glue dries.
If the frame is still loose, attach metal reinforcing angles or corrugated fasteners at the corners, or fasten with wood screws.
To reinforce the corners with glue-coated dowels, clamp together op-posite frame rails, using a long bar
clamp. Tap the dowel into a predrilled hole, as shown below.
Repairing or replacing screening. If the screening has a small hole or tear, patch it (see below) before the flaw gets any bigger. You can fix a small hole in fiberglass screening by gluing a patch in place.
If the hole or tear is very large, or if the screening is old and worn, it’s best to replace it (see facing page). To replace fiberglass screening in a wood frame, follow the instructions for replacing metal screening, but cut the screening with a razor blade and turn the edges under11/2 inches to form ahem.
If you are replacing fiberglass screening in an aluminum frame, use a screen-spline roller to roll both the
screening and the spline into the channel in one operation.
Replacing storm window glass.
Glass in storm windows is replaced in the same way as glass in permanent windows.
Three Ways To Repair A Wood Frame
Three Ways To Patch A Screen
Replacing Metal Screening In A Wood Frame
Replacing Metal Screening In An Aluminum Frame
