Screens
Window Screen Repair
Torn mesh, frames bent by wind, mesh the sun has made brittle enough to split at a fingertip. The cheapest work we do, and the least worth a dedicated trip.
- Usually
- Finished on the visit
- Custom sizes
- Built to your opening
- Best done
- Alongside other work
- Small jobs
- Welcome as part of a visit
The drive is the job
Honestly, do not call us out for one screen
We will come, and we are glad to. But a screen is a twenty-minute job and in Montana the drive is frequently two hours each way, which makes a single screen a poor use of your money and our day.
The sensible version is to count them. All of them, including the ones in the spare room and the ones leaning in the garage. A whole house of screens is often a single visit, and the cost per screen drops enormously.
Better still, add them to something else. If we are coming for a patio door or a set of windows, the screens ride along for very little. That is the single best piece of scheduling advice on this site.
On the truck
What rides on the truck for screens
Screens are almost entirely done on site, so everything travels.
| What we carry | Why it is on board |
|---|---|
| Standard fibreglass mesh | The default, in black and charcoal, on the roll. Covers the great majority of rescreening. |
| Fine and pet-resistant mesh | Fine mesh for the smaller biting insects near water, and heavy mesh anywhere a dog or cat leans on it. |
| Solar mesh | Denser screening that blocks a significant share of solar heat and glare. Worth considering on a south or west elevation at Montana's sun exposure. |
| Spline in multiple gauges | Replaced every time. Reusing hardened spline is the commonest reason a rescreen fails early. |
| Corner keys and frame stock | So a racked frame can be rebuilt, or a new frame built to the opening, rather than becoming a second trip. |
| Screen door rollers and latches | Sliding screen doors run in their own track and fail in their own way. |
Make the trip count
Make it worth the drive
Five things, and the first one matters more than the rest put together.
Count every screen on the property
House, garage, cabin, shop. Lay them out if you can. The price per screen falls sharply once there are more than two or three.
Flex the corners
Press each frame diagonally. Any give means a corner key has let go, and that frame needs rebuilding before new mesh will hold tension.
Note which elevations face south and west
Those are the candidates for solar mesh, and it costs very little extra when the mesh is coming out anyway.
Check for pet damage patterns
If an animal has been through a screen once, standard fibreglass going back in is a guarantee of a repeat.
Pair it with another job
Windows, a door, a slider. Screens added to an existing visit are the cheapest work we do by a wide margin.
What Montana does to it
What Montana does to screens
Wind and ultraviolet, mostly, and hail when it comes.
Wind, constantly
Open country and serious sustained wind. Mesh fitted slack bows and works out of the spline, and lighter frames bend at the corners. It is the main reason screens here fail earlier than people expect.
Ultraviolet at elevation
Thinner air and high sun exposure make fibreglass mesh brittle until it splits rather than stretches. A south or west screen reaches the end of its usable life well inside its rated span.
Hail
Puts holes straight through mesh, usually across a whole elevation at once. Screens are the first thing on a building to show storm damage and by far the cheapest thing to put right.
Winter on screens left in place
Snow load and months of freeze-thaw corrode corner keys and split spline channels. Taking screens down in autumn roughly doubles how long the next rescreen lasts.
Dust and smoke season
Agricultural dust and summer wildfire smoke both load screen mesh, cutting airflow and leaving a film that will not rinse off easily once it has baked on.
By building
The buildings we work in
Screens in each of these come in different sizes and fit different ways.
Log and timber homes
Log walls settle vertically for years after they go up, and the windows and doors in them need slip space above the frame to allow for it. Where that space was never left, or has been filled with trim and foam over the years, the opening slowly crushes the unit. A door that will not latch in a log home is often the building moving, not the hardware failing.
Ranch and outbuildings
Shops, barns, bunkhouses and equipment buildings with hardware that has to work in weather and gets no attention until it stops. Usually simple assemblies, usually repairable, and usually a long way from anybody who would come out for them.
In-town housing
Billings, Missoula, Butte, Helena and Great Falls hold a great deal of early-century stock — weight-and-pulley sash, putty glazing and original storm windows — plus post-war and modern suburbs where balances and sealed units fail together.
Manufactured homes
Common across rural Montana. Lightweight aluminium or vinyl frames, out-swing doors and sizes that match nothing in a store. We have a separate page for these because the parts and the advice are genuinely different.
Questions
Screen questions
Can you rescreen the frames I already have?
Yes, if the frame is square and the corners are sound. Flex a corner and you will know in two seconds.
Will you come out for one screen?
Yes, but we would rather you counted them all first, or added them to another job. On a two-hour drive a single screen is a poor use of your money.
Nothing at the store fits my windows.
Normal in older Montana housing and universal on manufactured homes. We build to the opening you actually have.
What is solar mesh?
A denser screening that blocks a significant share of solar heat and glare. At Montana's elevation and sun exposure it makes a real difference on a west-facing room.
Hail went through all of them.
Common here. Do them together — most of the cost is the visit, so a whole property in one trip is far cheaper per screen.
Should I take them down for winter?
It roughly doubles their life if you have somewhere to store them. If not, we will tell you which frames are getting tired.
Coverage
Window screen repair across Montana
A mobile service covering the whole state. Pick your town below, or call and we will plan a route to you.
Window Screen Repair Across Montana
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list — and it can go on the same visit.
Next step
Count them, then call once
Free estimates across Montana, and screens are cheapest added to another visit.