How to make wood window screens 11: Installing the screening material and finishing your screen

The sky is just lightening, birds chittering, cats only just waking, I'm sitting here with my first cup of coffee, and I am excited for two reasons. One, because I am going to spend the entire day where? You guessed it. In the garden! We've had 100 degree weather for most of three weeks then three days of rain, and the vines and crabgrass and poison ivy have just exploded. Today should be partly cloudy and 84 degrees. Perfect for a long mid-July day of battling weeds.

But second and at long last. Today. Right this minute. Finally. Woohoo. The long promised final post on installing screening.

Whew! We are almost done. (Well, with a demonstration of screenmaking, that is. Personally, I still have many, many screens to make). In this post we will cover how to install the screening material and finish your screen. These are the steps remaining:

10. Put the screening in
11. Nail the trim over the screening
12. Put in the fasteners and install the screens

10. Put the screening in

Here we are with our screening. Charcoal grey aluminum screening. We picked it up at our favorite local hardware store, the Melrose Lumber and hardware store right around the corner.

It's quite a bit longer than our frame, as you can see.

We start by unrolling it and--without cutting anything--begin by placing one end of the screening material along one edge of the frame. We square it up (and here is where two people are handy), I hold it even while Capel staples, beginning in the center and working out from the center alternately on both sides.

You can see we have left overlap on both sides. Leave enough to make it easy to grasp the screening material and pull it taut, don't skimp.

Here's a close-up. There's nothing fancy here. In fact our stapler may not be strong enough, because our staples don't go all the way in and we wind up having to hammer them flat. Hopefully, you have a better stapler than we do.

Now we are working on the side that is OPPOSITE to the first side we already stapled, and you can see me pulling the screen taut. Not too tight, or you will get wavy unevenness, just taut and even. Screening has lines and you can pretty easily see when it is straight.

Once the two opposite sides are stapled, we cut off the end of the screen, so the roll of screen is not in our way. That first cut we do with those yellow metal shears you see off to the left, and we do not cut it too close, so there is still four inches or so hanging off the second side that we just stapled.

And here you see a corner of the second side up close. 

Now we work on the third side, here you see Capel holding the screen and stapling as he goes (leaving me free to take a photo). Again, he starts with one staple in the center and then works out alternately on both sides. When that's done, he staples the fourth side, opposite.

Close-ups.

Now we've stapled all four sides and since the staples are sticking out, I invent a way to hammer them down without gouging out the screen frame ...

Then Capel takes a box-cutter with a new, sharp blade and cuts the screen around the edges, putting the edge of the blade right up into the edge of the rabbet. The screen can get a little torn and raggedy-edged on this step, but as long as the part that will be visible is not mangled, you'll be fine, don't worry.

11. Nail the trim over the screening

Now we are ready for step 11. All the edges are trimmed, and we lay out each piece of trim. As I explained some time ago, we cut each piece of trim to fit the rabbeting in each screen exactly and labelled the pieces with tape flags and sewing pins, so these pieces were labelled Screen 5T (for top), 5B, 5L and 5R. Here they are laid out.

And, again, a close-up.

A close-up of one of the tape flag labels, 5L.

Now, we start fastening them down. We're using wire nails 1/2" by 19. You want to make sure they will go through the trim, screening and into the frame, but not be so big that they will split the trim. They're really minuscule and yet they work and are remarkably easy to put in.

So here is the first piece in.

And now the second, and then we just work all around in a circle (rather than doing opposite sides), to make sure the mitered corners are snug and matched up as we go. You don't have to worry about putting too many nails in. Fewer is better. Just enough to hold the trim on and keep the screening secure. The staples are doing most of the work of keeping the screening attached to the frame.

And, that's all. It's finished. Now, these screens are under a porch, so I didn't countersink, fill and paint the nail holes. I might do that when I get to the second story screens. Not sure. I haven't seen any rust stains on the screens we made last year.

The reason not to counter-sink and fill them would be to leave them visible so that the trim can easily be removed if the screening ever needs to be replaced. Your call.

12. Put in the fasteners and install the screens

And that's it! The screen is in the window. What an amazing feeling!!!

'Yay,' says Minky, who discovers it within 3 seconds flat, natch. 'A new perch!'

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For the entire series on making wooden window screens, click on the category "How to Make Wood Window Screens Series", in the Topics list along the right-hand side of the home page. There is also now an index tab at the top of the home page, listing all the posts in sequential order, with a link to each one.

How to Make Wood Window Screens 10: Bug Stop in Action

Long ago, in the dead of winter, in this post about construction, I promised to show pictures of what I've affectionately named the "bug stop" in action. I didn't have any photos then, because the screens weren't in.

Now they are, and I've taken a couple of photos, showing what this piece of wood is designed to do. But first, let me back up and define the problem. If you have cats, you'll understand immediately.

As a temporary measure, I've been using expandable half-screens, which work fine up to a point. Setting aside aesthetic considerations, a not inconsiderable issue, an expandable screen a) does not provide quite enough peace of mind for the cat owner who loves to feed birds in the backyard, and b) cannot prevent bugs from flying up over the screen and down into the window. Many a time, I've come into the bathroom (where this actually quite charming, old expandable screen is installed) to find a moth or other large bug fluttering or zooming around the room.

Personally, my bigger worry is the cats. Phantom, my trusty model, will demonstrate.

The bug stop, however, which you can see clearly here running along the back of the top edge of our original model window screen, completely eliminates that gap between the top of the screen and the window.

Totally foils the cat ... 

... and bugs. With these screens in, I don't see moths or wasps inside the house. I'd claim no flies, but there are, always, flies. Who knows how they get in.

So that's it, folks, the American farmhouse bug stop in action.

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For the entire series on making wooden window screens, click on the category "How to Make Wood Window Screens Series", in the Topics list along the right-hand side of the home page. There is also now an index tab at the top of the home page, listing all the posts in sequential order, with a link to each one.

How to Make Wood Window Screens 9: Choosing and installing fasteners for wood window screens

So, the screens are in. It's about 6 a.m., a Saturday morning in early May, and still a little too dark to take photos, but its supposed to rain all day, so gardening is out, and I finally cannot procrastinate any further on writing about screen fasteners. I'm not even quite sure how to start.

When I was growing up, in Ohio, there was a park in our small steel town of McDonald, Ohio, and in that park, there was a --what do you call it-- a shelter. Yes. This was an old shelter, probably built when the town was built, which was in the twenties. It was built of fieldstone, with green wooden trim, open on three sides, and on the fourth, a fabulously old-fashioned kitchen with a great, great wood stove, a giant thing. Truly giant. I've never seen anything else like it.

We'd hold our annual church picnic there, every year, and every year, that stove would get fired up.  The women would cook and the men would play horseshoes, some one would throw hamburgers and hotdogs on the grills, and us kids would run about screaming at the tops of our lungs--me and my three little sisters, girls. But this is all beside the point. What I remember, vaguely, is that the windows in this shelter had screens, giant green wooden things, and in my mind's eye (who knows if it's accurate), looking at them from the outside, underneath the overhanging eaves, I can see that they were fastened with turnbuttons.

I guess the window in a park shelter wouldn't need storms, so maybe that's why there were screens. I don't know. Or maybe my memory is false. Why would there be screens when the shelter is open? Got me. Maybe there was another room, beside the kitchen, like a park office, closed off, with windows, and thus, screens.

In any case, there is also, in Philipse Manor, not far from here, a dutch colonial house, with beautiful old storms that are fastened in with turnbuttons. I used to walk to the train, right past that house, every day, before we bought this house.

So, this is a long way of saying that I feel pretty certain -- without any paper to show for it -- that wooden storms and screens used to be fastened in with turnbuttons. Wood originally -- for photos of  wooden turnbuttons, see my own post, here -- and then metal.

I cannot find any good, clear close-up photos of windows fastened with turnbuttons on the web. However, one can purchase turnbuttons at House of Antique Hardware here, and at Vintage Woodworks in BC, Canada, here. The Vintage Woodworks website also includes a photo portfolio of storms, and if you look closely, some of their storm windows are fastened with turnbuttons.

My own storms are hung with storm window hangers. There is a long, good blog post on making and installing storms along these lines on the This Old Farmhouse blog, here.

All of which is a very long preamble to the real topic: fasteners for new window screens.

Twice now, I've pretty exhaustively searched local hardware stores and the web for fastener options for wooden screens. There's nothing that I can find except the one page at House of Antique Hardware here. Since my screens cover half the window, not the full window, I can't hang them from the top with the same hangers used for storms. So, that leaves me with three options, as far as I can tell: retaining clips, snap fasteners or turnbuttons.

Last summer, when we made our first two screens, I purchased one of each of these options, to see which might work best.

I kept worrying over the turnbutton idea, because with original windows, some of which are now approaching 175 years old, I really don't want to put anything into the exterior wood that may create moisture penetration. Snap fasteners, too, as far as I can make out, are installed in the exterior casing of the original window frame.

In the end, while none was perfect, I decided to go with the retaining clips shown here.

They're designed to hold in the bottom of a full-window-sized screen or storm that is hanging from storm hangers. They come in packages of two. But, in a pinch, they work fine in groups of four, one at each corner, to hold in the half-size screens I've got.

Now it's light enough to take photos, so here we go ...

One of our new screens in the window:

A slightly closer view. You can see the heads of the four fasteners in the four corners.

There is a fastener in each corner. Here is a close-up of the bottom right fastener, from the outside:

Here is a  close-up of the same fastener, from the inside:

And, for a second example, here is one of our original screens, installed.

And, in somewhat closer up view ...

Again, the bottom right fastener, seen from the inside, showing how it attaches to the frame of the screen and tightens up against the blind stop. This fastener is designed for stops at least 5/8" thick. Mine are a full 1" thick, so the fastener doesn't fit around the stop. The smaller edge of the loop butts up against it, as you can see.  But it works fine. The screen is tight and stays tight all summer, even when put to the test by our two restless cats.

Demonstration:  Phantom, the full-grown monster kitten, desperately seeking a way out ...

... foiled ... I missed the shot of him, totally splayed out across the entire screen ... but still. It's no go. Phantom, stay home.

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For the entire series on making wooden window screens, click on the category "How to Make Wood Window Screens Series", in the category list along the right-hand side of the home page. There is also now an index tab at the top of my home page, listing all the posts in sequential order, with a link to each post.

Screens Up! How to Make Wood Window Screens 8: Put in your screens!

Finally, at long last, spring is here and, last weekend, we went through our new ritual of taking down  storms and putting up screens. I love seasonal rituals and this is a very happy one for us, partly because it signals spring and partly because we made these screens ourselves.

We've been really lazy--working on the garden instead of house projects--and haven't finished any new screens yet this spring, but that is coming.

In any case, without more ado, here is a close-up of one of our original models, in the window our beloved cat Minky has claimed as her favorite perch:

And here is the full window. One of these days, I am going to investigate weather stripping, to see if anyone makes white weather stripping to replace that ugly black ... but thank you to Martin for installing it. Keeps the heating bills down and the house free of drafts.

And, drum roll, here is a new screen, in close-up:

And, full window:

When the violets bloom, it's time to put the screens in!

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For the entire series on making wooden window screens, you can click on the category "How to Make Wood Window Screens Series", in the category list along the right-hand side of the home page. There is also now an index tab at the top of my home page, listing all the posts in sequential order, with links.