How to screen in our porch?
May 7, 2011 6:48 PM
Should we use Screen Tight or standard/old-school staples/tacks + facia to screen in our back porch?
We recently bought a house. We've renovated most of the interior rooms and are now starting on the back porch. The room was originally a screened in porch, then "renovated" into a master suite, and now we're restoring it to screened in porch. Lucky for us, the previous owners/renovators left the treated 4x4s and lower lattice work inside the walls, so once we finish demolition all we really need to do is put up a bunch of screens.
So whats the best way to do that? This Screen Tight system looks attractive, or we could just tack/staple screen to the 4x4s and throw some treated quarter-round or other facia over it.
Has anyone used this Screen Tight system? Was it worth the extra money? Was it as easy as it looks (we're not against extra work, but have just finished renovating the entire indoors and would not mind a couple quick wins here)?
Any opinions on aluminum vs fiberglass screens? FWIW it looks like we can't use aluminum screens with Screen Tight, so if this is a "omigosh use aluminum you'd be fools to use fiberglass" situation then I guess that answers the "should we use Screen Tight?" question.
Besides Screen Tight or tack+facia are there any other methods we aren't thinking of for screening in a room? Anything you wish you'd known before doing it, or think we should know?
We recently bought a house. We've renovated most of the interior rooms and are now starting on the back porch. The room was originally a screened in porch, then "renovated" into a master suite, and now we're restoring it to screened in porch. Lucky for us, the previous owners/renovators left the treated 4x4s and lower lattice work inside the walls, so once we finish demolition all we really need to do is put up a bunch of screens.
So whats the best way to do that? This Screen Tight system looks attractive, or we could just tack/staple screen to the 4x4s and throw some treated quarter-round or other facia over it.
Has anyone used this Screen Tight system? Was it worth the extra money? Was it as easy as it looks (we're not against extra work, but have just finished renovating the entire indoors and would not mind a couple quick wins here)?
Any opinions on aluminum vs fiberglass screens? FWIW it looks like we can't use aluminum screens with Screen Tight, so if this is a "omigosh use aluminum you'd be fools to use fiberglass" situation then I guess that answers the "should we use Screen Tight?" question.
Besides Screen Tight or tack+facia are there any other methods we aren't thinking of for screening in a room? Anything you wish you'd known before doing it, or think we should know?
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Screen Tight is basically very similar to the system that is used to make a screen for a modern replacement window. Once you have the technique down (one or two of them) it's fast and easy, but I think the main benefit comes when you need to replace a screen for whatever reason. You basically pop the old one out and the new one in, using your screen spline tool (roller). While I haven't used it on a porch, I suspect it's harder to get a tight look for large screen spans, but it's so easily redone that probably isn't a huge deal.
posted by dhartung at 10:49 PM on May 7, 2011