Retractable Screen Door

I'm going to tell you how you can construct an inexpensive screen door with looks equal to a $500 screen door. This article is based on experience and it will guide you through each step.

The Background:
My wife recently asked me to go buy a screen door to fit on the door leading into our back yard. We have four dogs that love to be outdoors but we found that they were constantly going in and out of the back yard, treading dirt through our living room! Also we were getting lots of flies, moths etc coming in if we left the door open.

The Requirement:
I knew I needed a timber framed screen door to match the feel of our house exterior, I also needed it to look good and have a strong mesh to withstand the battering our dogs would impose upon it.

The Materials:
1/ I found a 32 wide natural wood screen door with black mesh and a reinforced lower half (perfect for dogs) I got mine from Home Depot and it was less than $30.
2/ I then bought two stylish black metal door handles and a set of three 1/2 wide hinges.
3/ To finish the door I bought a satin finish red exterior paint and grey primer.
4/ I bought an inexpensive screen door spring closer with two hook screws to ensure the door automatically closes after opening. Approx $5

The materials total came to approx $60, all that was left to do now was assemble and hang the screen door.

I noticed that the vinyl finished aluminum screen doors cost anything up to $300 and did not look aesthetically good at all.

The Assembly:
1/ First step was to unscrew the border holding the mesh screens in place and paint the bare wooden frame. I gave the door a single coat of the grey primer and two coats of the red exterior paint. It was already looking great!

2/ Before refitting the mesh screens I measured out three equidistant points along the spine of the door and chiseled out the sections where the hinges would be placed. This was easily achieved with a 1/2 wide sharp chisel. I cut the hinge holes about 1/8 deep which was just enough to allow the door to sit flush with the timber frame currently surrounding the back door to our house.

3/ I fitted the hinges (making sure they hinged the correct way!) and replaced the two sections of mesh before screwing down the mesh frames.

4/ The two black handles were fitted front and back ensuring that they were slight staggered vertically to avoid screwing into the opposite side handles fix points.

The Cat's Meow: Replacing a Screen Door the Easy Way

It seems as though replacing the screen door that leads out to my patio is becoming an annual event. I love my cat dearly, but her primary method of communicating that she wants to go out is to stretch with her claws gripping the screen door, then to glance back at me. I suppose I've reinforced this behavior, since I'm quick to jump up and let her out before she does too much damage to the screen door. Unfortunately, the cumulative effect of her clawing, combined with that of the cat from next door who thinks my screen door is his scratching post, is that by the time spring rolls around, my screen has gaping holes in it.

I know I could buy a screen door with a pet guard on it, but I suspect that my precious feline would still find a way to get her claws into the screening. Last year, I made my annual pilgrimage to the home improvement store and bought another lightweight (okay, flimsy) screen door. I also picked up some screening for my son's bedroom window screen, since that seems to be the neighbor cat's second favorite scratching post.

When I got home, I discovered - much to my chagrin - that when I'd closed the hatch of my PT Cruiser, it had squeezed the frame of the screen door. That squeeze broke the corner of the frame, making it impossible to install (I told you it was flimsy). In an unplanned, not very pretty home improvement project, I replaced the screening in the patio screen door. From that point on, I cringed every time my cat reached upward and into her claw-grabbing stretch.

Needless to say, I was faced with the same problem this spring - tears in my screen door from too may cat claws. I told myself that I wasn't going to go through the same trials and tribulations this time, so started to do some research. Much to my surprise and delight, I found an ingenious solution to my problem - a frameless screen door, the opening of which is secured by magnets.

Because it's frameless, it required no tools for installation. Think of a tension-spring drapery rod. All I had to do was slide the rod through the tunnel in the screening, and then attach the sides of the screen to the doorjamb with Velcro. There are magnets at the center and bottom of the screen, and the bottom of the screen door is weighted. Not only can my cat go in and out as often as she pleases, but I found that I can go through the screen with my hands full and it silently closes behind me. It's not only the perfect solution for pets and backyard barbecues, but my son appreciates the fact that I don't have to constantly remind him to close the screen door when he goes outside - it automatically closes!