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Patio Screen - Installation and removal - Top Hung style

A top hung patio screen door has two rollers or glides at the top that ride in a track at the top of the patio door. They are similar to the closet doors you see in a lot of high rise apartments and condominiums. Pocket doors often work this way too.

The picture below shows a cross section through a typical top hung patio screen door. This particular one is made by Marvin windows. Manufacturers use a few different methods to connect the top rollers to the top of the screen door. Marvins design uses a screen door top rail with a flange that sticks up. A 1 inch diamter nylon roller is then riveted to that flange.

Other manufacturers have removeable top flanges with rollers mounted on them. In my screen door kits, I prefer to mount seperate top hung hung rollers that use their own brackets. I can adapt these to many different manufacturers of sliding patio doors.

You will have to loosen screws holding rollers on to the top track. After you loosen them, the door will move up and down enough to easily swing out the bottom of the door over the bottom track. Swinging the patio screen door out from the bottom helps unhook the top rollers from the top track. You may have to completely remove the screws holding the top rollers to get this kind of door out.

The top rollers on these types of screen doors are made of vinyl and will likely be brittle and break easily. Be careful not to jamb the rollers against the patio door frame causing them to break. The good thing about top hung rollers is that they can be replaced without having to take the screen door frame apart.

Once you have the door out its a good idea to replace the bottom rollers as well. The bottom rollers on a most top hung doors are just spring loaded rollers held in with a single screw. When you go to the hardware store take the old ones with you and get a complete new set of top and bottom rollers.

Reinstalling a top hung screen door

To reinstall the screen door install the top rollers back onto the top of the screen door but don’t tighten the screws. Hold the screen door so that you can slide the top of the screen door into the top track and try to get the top rollers to hook on to the track inside the top of the patio door frame. It might take a couple of tries. If you have a helper they can make sure the rollers hook on while you hold the screen in position.

After you have successfully hung the door in place. Use a flat blade screwdriver beneath the bottom rollers and gently let them snap onto the bottom track. Old nylon rollers break easily. The bottom rollers in these doors are often just spring loaded so you most likely wont need to adjust them. All the rolling and alignment is controlled by the top rollers.

Slide the door over to the fully closed position and adjust the rollers so that the door closes without any gap against the side door jamb. Test that the door slides slides easily back and forth.

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