How to fix a storm door screen in-place right in the door.
You may wish to fix your storm door yourself because these kind of screens are often ones that cannot easily be taken to the local glass shop or hardware store. Often the storm door screen frame is covered with paint or just too difficult to remove from the door.
Storm screens are not that difficult to repair in-place. With the main door open and the storm closed and latched, remove the sliding glass panel that is directly behind the screen.
If you cannot do this, then you are probably ready for a new door. Usually the sliding glass can be removed by raising the glass all the way to the top of the frame until the bottom edge comes free. Then you pull the bottom edge out and pull the sliding glass down so it comes right out of the frame
After the glass is out and you are able to access the whole frame, pull out the spline all the way around and remove the old material.
Cut a new piece of cloth at least three inches wider and taller than the opening to be covered. Cut four or five short pieces of spline. The spline should be the right diameter.
You can reuse the old spline if it is in good condition and you have no other. If you have to buy new spline, get a size which is identical to that which you pulled out.
Get a helper to hold the cut piece of cloth over the opening. Take your short pieces of spline and with a flat screwdriver blade push one piece of spline into each of the four corners of the frame.
Try to align the cloth as perfectly and as evenly as you can. Put an extra piece of spline in the middle of the left hand side of the frame, assuming of course you are going to roll in the screen starting on the right side.
Now that the screen cloth is held in place, start carefully rolling in the spline all the way around, removing the short pieces of spline that you used to pin the material in place as you go.
Following this procedure should result in a perfectly good rescreening job. Just go slowly and carefully. You may want to have someone put their hand behind the frame when you are rolling in the spline near where the frame joins to the glass above. This helps prevent putting too much pressure on the roller and prevents breaking the glass.
A special note if your storm is very old and has the cloth stapled in place. You will make your life much easier if you have an aluminum frame made by your local glass shop to fit into the old wooden storm frame. That way , if the material ever gets ripped again, you can remove the frame easily and have it repaired without going through prying off the old wood and stapling in new cloth.