When your sliding screen door is giving you hassles, you do not always have to run out and spend tons of money for an entirely new door. Sliding screen door repairs can be a simple fix without much money or effort.  Therefore, if your sliding screen door is sticking, dragging or constantly falling off track, you should check into these sliding screen door repairs before you yank it off or buy a new one!

There are three common sliding screen door problems:

• Bad rollers
• The door is too short
• Screen is damaged or stretched

These sliding screen door repairs can be tackled by even the least confident of “do it yourselfers”.

Sliding Screen Door Repair #1 – Bad Rollers

There are many reasons why a roller can become bad.  They are generally made from lightweight plastic and can break easily.  The plastic can become brittle in some climates or a stone could get stuck in the track, causing it to jam.  

Steps to fix bad rollers:

1. Remove sliding screen.
2. Remove the rollers from each location with a screwdriver.
3. Different doors have different brackets.  Take the old rollers to the store to be sure you purchase the right kind of rollers.
4. Install new rollers.

Sliding Screen Door Repair #2 – The Door is too Short

If the door is too short, you may be thinking of throwing it out.  There are other options.  Generally, a door that is too short will fit too loosely on the tracks.  When this is the case, the door will fall off track.

Steps to fix a door that is too short:

1. Loosen the two screws that are attached to the top and bottom rails of the door that are located in the slots. Do not take the screws all the way out.  
2. To extend the length, slide the slots along the screw. 
3. Once you are satisfied with the height, re-tighten the screws.  
4. You can increase the height as much as 1 ½”.

Sliding Screen Door Repair #3 – Screen is Damaged or Stretched

A damaged screen is very common in patio screen doors.  Whether you have pets scratching at the screen, or you have kids pushing in on it, patio screen door repair is something you will become familiar with over the years.  It is possible to reuse the screen, if it is not damaged.  

Steps for reusing a stretched screen:

1. Remove the spline (black rubber material holding the screen cloth into the frame) with a flat headed screwdriver.
2. Lay screen material back over the frame.
3. Put the spline back in over the top of the screen.
4. To reinstall spline, use a spline roller.  These are very inexpensive and can be found at any hardware store.  Never use a screwdriver or any other object to reinstall, as you can tear your screen very easily.

Steps for repairing a damaged screen:

1. Buy enough material to cover the entire opening.  Screening is sold in rolls.  
2. Remove old spline and screen.  
3. Lay new screen material over the frame.
4. Put the spline back in over the top of the screen.
5. With a razor blade or utility knife, cut the excess screen away from the outside of the frame.

Tip:  If your spline becomes stretched, brittle or crumbled, you can replace it.  Take a piece of old spline with you, as there are different diameters available.

Patio screen door repair is not rocket science.  It is a simple fix.  Diagnose the problem and use the above steps to get your sliding screen door back on track.

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Comments (3)

• |2009-03-26 17:38:02 Enrique Lopez  - sliding screen door
  I live rent an apartment and the sliding screen door is broken it need new screen and rollers i can get everything i need to fix the door but the rollers the screen door is about 15 to 20 years old i went to home depot but the don't have the rollers what can i do is there any other rollers i can used please help i know how to fix it but hard to find the rollers please help thank you for your time and help
  
  Please e-mail me
  
  Wildboy196@aol.com
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• |2009-08-20 10:34:15 gloria kuzmich  - sliding screen door
  I rent an appartment and have a sliding screen door. One of the rollers came off because the spring snapped. How can I fix this problem.
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• |2010-05-18 03:59:20 brigitte Liss  - bent screen frame at handle
  I rent and the screen door is bent right by the handle, i dont know how this happened but i was wondering if i could fix it by myself, i believ there are 2 bends in it. could this be caused by wear and tear, they are cheap ones and have been there for 6 years. could opening and closing the screen constantly cause this? really not sure how it got bent.
  
  any ideas how it became like this and a cheap solution?
  thanks, brigitte
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