Window Screens: Washing Them, And What To Do About A Tear

Why the window still looks dirty

A screen holds a surprising amount of fine dust, pollen, and road grime, and it sits directly in front of the glass. Clean the glass and leave the screen, and within a day the first rain or breeze puts a share of it straight back.

It is also the reason a room can feel dim without anyone identifying why. A screen that has never been washed cuts noticeably more light than a clean one, which people usually notice only after doing it once.

Getting them out without damage

• Look for two small tabs or pull handles on the inside of the frame, which release it inward on most modern windows.
• Squeeze the frame slightly rather than pulling on one corner, since the frame is thin aluminium and bends permanently.
• Label them if you take out more than one. Screens are cut to the individual opening and a swapped pair will not sit right.
• If it does not release with gentle pressure, stop. Some screens are fitted from outside, and on an upper floor that makes them the building's job rather than yours.
• Never push a screen outward to remove it, which is how screens end up in the parking lot.

Washing them

Flat on the ground on a towel, or leaning against a wall, is the right position. Warm water with a little dish soap and a soft brush, worked in both directions, then rinsed and stood on edge to dry completely.

Do not use a pressure washer or a hard brush, both of which stretch the mesh out of the frame. And do not put them back damp, since water trapped between the screen and the glass leaves marks on both and sits in the track.

While the screen is out

• The window track, vacuumed then wiped, which is easier with the screen out than at any other time.
• The exterior face of the glass, if the window tilts or the opening allows it safely.
• The channel the screen sits in, which collects dead insects and grit.
• The weep holes at the bottom of the frame, cleared with a cotton bud.
• The screen frame itself, including the corners where the spline sits.

This is the whole reason to do screens at move-in rather than later: it is the one moment when the window, the track, and the screen are all accessible and nothing of yours is in the way.

Tears, holes, and a sagging mesh

Small holes can be patched with a self-adhesive screen patch, which is inexpensive and visually fine on a mesh screen. A larger tear means re-screening the frame, which is a straightforward job with a spline roller and a few dollars of mesh, and also the kind of thing a building would usually rather do themselves.

Ask before repairing anything. Some buildings replace screens as a routine maintenance item and would rather you reported it, and a repair you made yourself can become an argument at move-out if it does not match the others.

Whose problem a damaged screen is

A screen that was already torn when you arrived is theirs, which is why photographing screens on move-in day is worth the two minutes. A screen a pet pushed through, or one bent by being removed badly, is normally yours.

Report a missing or damaged screen early rather than at the end. It is a small, cheap item that becomes a line on a statement precisely because nobody mentioned it for a year.

Screens, tracks, and sills are part of the window work in deep apartment cleaning and in the empty-unit pass covered by move-in apartment cleaning, and the guide to blinds and tracks covers the rest of the window at the other end of the tenancy.