Casement Window Screen Repair

Casement window screen repair is a pretty common thing. Right up there with broken casement window crank replacement.

Casement windows are the type where the screen is located on the inside and remains in place as you use the hand crank on the bottom to open or close the window. Just like in the picture below

It's actually a lot better to have screens mounted on the inside because they just dont get destroyed by the weather like outside mounted screens do.

But casement screens are always a tight fit and awkward to remove so they often get damaged if you are not very careful taking them out. 

Broken plastic corners a common problem

Window screen corners are made of PVC plastic and they break all the time, either due to fighting with the screen getting it out or in or just by exposure to the sun making them brittle over many years.

The corners can be a bit of a pain to find because many window companies will use a corner thats specific just to them. If the window company goes out of business or changes their window  designs you can be left ripping your hair out trying to find a suitable replacement.

Casement window screens vary in depth and the size of the lip that overlaps the frame. Because of that there are dozens of different style of corners and frames.

Sometimes its just the corners that are broken while the frame itself and the screen cloth i still fine. A pain because you still have to rip out the old cloth and replace it even if you have new corners.

Other times because a corner is not available, you have to replace the entire frame to match the corners that are available. 

Knife latches and spring pins

You also have different kinds of securing hardware. Spring pins are pretty common as in the picture above. They typically fit into holes drilled into the casement window frame. Knife latches are another very common piece of hardware thats still being used for the past 60 years.

The job of the pins and knife latches is to secure tall casement window screens in place so that no light or bugs can get in in along the edges of the frame. Tall screens will often bow out aften removing them a few times so the knife latches are needed to keep them straight.

The pins are often made of PVC plastic and break just like the corners do. The Knife latches are a bit better because they are made of aluminum. 

There are right and left hand aluminum knife latches which are only held in by friction and they fall out and get lost after opening and closing them many times. The latches are made to slide into a groove that goes all around the window frame or into slots. 

Removing and installing and casement window screen repair

After repairing a casement window screen you put them back in usually bottom first. Casement screens have to be accurately cut exactly to size so they fit into the opening easily.

If you find yourself forcing them in you might have to trim the screen frame just a sixteenth inch to get them to slip into position easily.

Your second block of text...