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Screen Houses and Screen Porch information

There are many forms and types of screen houses, screen enclosure and screen porch. There are stand alone screen enclosure structures which can be taken apart for the winter or taken on vacation with you. There are models of screen house which are intended to be set up on your existing deck. There is also the more permanent screen porch built from traditional materials like wood studs or materials like vinyl and aluminum, which are more commonly used by contractors.



Nowadays there are much better ways of Screening and Re-screening porches than the old method of stapling up screen cloth and nailing decorative trim over the staples.

You can make aluminum screen frames which you can easily remove when they get damaged. No need to take down huge sheets of screen cloth and spend hours pulling out old rusty staples !

There are vinyl strips with spline channels molded into them so you can roll the screen cloth right in after nailing up one of these spline channels. Changing the screen cloth is as easy as pulling the spline out.

The Screen Bar System

If you are going to make a screen porch one of the simplest ways is just to purchase screen bar rail and corners and assemble screen frames to fit the openings on your screen porch. You can even have the frames screened prior to installation so that all that is left to do is screw them in place on the screen porch.

Screen Houses 001

The great thing about this kind of installation is that if the screen gets ripped or damaged, its not too difficult to take the whole frame down and get it re-screened. This is much simpler than the conventional method of peeling of old broken trim, digging out hundreds of staples and balancing precariously on a screen porch while trying to staple new screen cloth in place.

The picture shows the screen bars installed right over top of the screen porch frame. You can install install cleats and inset the screen frame in the screen porch openings for a neater appearance.

The Screen Eze System

The Screen-Eze system makes building a screen porch much easier for the do-it-yourselfer and contractor alike. It uses aluminum base rails which you just cut to length, miter and screw into the screen porch frame.

Screen Houses 002 The screen cloth just needs to be hung up starting at the top over the frame and a long PVC cap gets pushed over the screen cloth locking it down. The cap can be tapped in place with a rubber mallet. After the cap is in place, you just trim the excess screen cloth away.

If the screen cloth gets ripped or damaged you can just remove the plastic cap rails and replace the screen cloth very quickly and easily. The nice thing about the Screen Eze system is that it is pretty much foolproof. If you cannot get the screen cloth on right the first time you can pull the cap off and try again.

While you still have to climb up to hang the screen cloth, you do not need screen spline or staples or fancy screen rollers. the Screen-Eze system is simple and straightforward.

The Screen Tight System

Another good modern alternative to holding up screens with wood and staples is the Screen Tight system. This consists of a PVC plastic base with 2 channels for screen to be rolled in. The screen channels are the same as used in aluminum screen frames. You need a screen roller to roll in plastic spline or screen cord. This spline holds the screen in.

After the screen is installed you trim away the excess material and snap on a plastic cap to hide the channels and the spline. The Plastic cap makes the installation look neat and tidy.

Screen Houses 003 You can nail or screw or even staple the Screen Tight base to your screen porch, either inside or outside. I would reccomend inside, to keep the plastic rails away from the sun.

The Screen Tight system requires you to have conventional screen installation skills, you need to manipulate the cloth, a screen roller and spline while installing it. Its definitely a job you need some extra help for.

One advantage to the Screen Tight system is the base channel can hold two screens in a narrow space. If your screen porch uses 2" x 4" 's as dividing rails, the Screen Tight system will fit very well. The Screen-Eze system described previously requires 4" x 4" rails and posts unless you want to trim the aluminum rails.

1-1/2" Width Screen Tight Components

SCREEN TIGHT #WCAP18 1-1/2x8 White Scr Cap

Item A-1-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Base, Black

Item C-1-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, White



Item C-1-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, Biege

Item C-1-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, Brown

3-1/2" Width Screen Tight Components

SCREEN TIGHT #BCAP38 3-1/2x8 BGE Scr Cap

Item A-3-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Base, Black

Item C-3-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, White

Item C-3-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, Biege

Item C-3-1/2" x 8'-0" Long Cap, Brown

Screen Material for your Screen Porch

There are a variety of screen materials you can use to screen out your screen porch, regardless of the method you use to hang the cloth up.

Fiberglass screen cloth is the most commonly used material, you can find information on it here... Fiberglass Screen

Aluminum screen cloth can also be used, although it does require a bit of practice because it is easy to rip during installation. I would not reccomend aluminum screen if you are using the "Screen Tight" system but if you are building a screen porch in the conventional way, with wooden cleats, stapling everything in place as you go, aluminum screening is no problem. Heres the information link to Aluminum Screening

You might also want to consider fiberglass solar screen to screen your porch. The great thing about solar screen is that it provides shade as well as keeps the bugs out. It also will protect your porch furniture from fading to a much better degree than regular screening. For more information check out the page on Solar Screen

This page talks about screen enclosures that you can take with you on vacation to the cottage, camping or to the beach... screen tents style screen houses

The advantage of the screen tent style is that you can collapse it and store it away during the winter. The colder months really take a toll on screen porches with heavy snow that pushes the screen cloth out its frame and Ultraviolet radiation the makes plastics brittle and prone to cracking.

You can make your screen porch last a lot longer if its possible to keep it in storage during extreme weather.

This link takes you to a page where I provide information for people building their own screen porch from scratch. Screen Porch Design For help with Screened Enclosures click on the link



The "screen gazebo page" talks about structures that are more like the aluminum screen gazebo pictured below.





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  • Patio Door Handles
    A look at the various types of Patio Door Handles
  • Shower Door Hinge
    Thinking of picking out a fancy Shower Door Hinge ?


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