Save Money By Repairing Screens
We built our home 12 years ago, which means there are things starting to show wear and tear. One such item are the screens for our windows and patio doors. A few of them have developed some small holes, which not only looks shoddy, it also allows bugs to enter our home. As the weather gets warmer, we’d like to be able to open all our windows and doors. But with the threat of an insect invasion, there are some that would need to remain closed.
Something needed to be done about the holes in our window and patio door screens.
A skilled person would by some steel mesh, take apart the screens and do the repair themselves. There is a certain level of difficulty with this Do It Yourself repair as you need to get the screen tight. I’m a huge advocate of DIY projects, but I wasn’t comfortable that I would be able to do this repair done with quality.
Did not fixing the screens myself mean we would have to buy brand new ones for our windows and patio doors?
While walking through a nearby ACE hardware store, something on the back wall caught my eye. Investigating further, there was a ripped up screen displayed on the wall, and next to it was a perfect looking screen. Above them both was a sign that stated, “Turn this, into this.†My local hardware store fixed screens!
I brought my two patio doors and two window screens to the hardware store for repair.
A few days later, they called to tell me the repair was complete, and I could pick them up at my convenience. Here’s the cost breakdown:
Repair Cost:
- Patio Door Screens : $72 ($36 x 2)
- Window Screens: ($40) ($20 x2)
- Total Cost: $112
Purchase New:
- Patio Screen Doors: $238 ($119×2)
- Window Screens: $90 ($45×2)
- Total Cost: $328
By having my screens repaired, I saved $216 over buying new ones!
Normally I’m a big fan of DIY repairs, but in this case I’m not confident that I would be able to get the screen tight enough to look good. I was happy to find having the screens repaired as a middle ground to be able to open all my doors and windows and still save some money.
Have you ever had a tear in your window or patio door screens? Did you have them repaired, or did you just buy new ones?
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Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
Timely post as I was just looking at the screen for our patio door and realizing it needed to be fixed as it has several large (and growing) holes. I just need to figure out how to get it out of the track 🙂
LOL…too funny! I looked it up on youtube. There are screws on the bottom and top of the door to loosen the door. Then you use a flathead screwdriver to pop the wheels up and out of the track. Although, one of my doors had those screws, the other didn’t. I still used a flathead to push up the wheels and pop it out though. Good luck!
Our house was built 10 years ago and our screen was already damaged. Buying a new screen is pretty expensive, so we tried to fix some holes.
Interesting that you would use the phrase “fix some holes, Clarisse.” After we had the screens redone, I found a patch kit at Home Depot for about $6. I don’t know how well it would have worked, or if the patch would have matched the screen, but it might have been worth trying out. Thanks for reading!
I have fixed many screens, not hard to do, sometimes a rubber gasket holds and stretches screens, thank goodness they now have the mesh screens so easy to repair. Small learning curve. We just sold our house and as we were cleaning out the garage we noticed a screen had been ripped probably by an animal that got up on my garden hose stand. No time to fix it, we took it to Ace Hardware our local shop, they fixed it in time for the closing, in 1 day $15. Bargain. We just did not have time but it had to be done. Win win. Normally I would have done it myself.
Yeah, I’m sure it’s not difficult to do yourself…….a person just has to take the time to figure it out, or have someone teach you. Thanks for sharing!