Every screen job starts with the same fork in the road: is this frame worth new mesh, or is it done? Get it right and a torn screen is a $45 rescreen. Get it wrong and you pay to stretch new mesh over a frame that will never sit straight in its channel again.
We make this call dozens of times a week. Here's the exact checklist — no tools required beyond your eyes and a flat patch of floor.
The five checks
- 1. Corners. Hold the frame and gently try to rack it — twist opposite corners. A healthy frame feels rigid; a frame whose corner keys have failed flexes like a parallelogram. Loose corners are often repairable during a rescreen; cracked corner castings usually are not.
- 2. Straightness. Sight down each rail like a pool cue. A gentle bow from years of spring tension can sometimes be persuaded back; a visible kink — usually from being pried out with a screwdriver — is permanent. Kinked rails mean replacement.
- 3. Square. Lay the frame on flat ground. If it rocks on opposite corners, it's twisted out of plane and will never seat flush in the window channel again.
- 4. The spline channel. Look at the groove where the rubber cord holds the mesh. Corroded, crushed or salt-pitted channel won't grip new spline — the fresh mesh will pop out within the season. Common on coastal frames.
- 5. Hardware seats. Springs and pull tabs are cheap and replaceable, but the holes and slots they sit in are part of the frame. Elongated or torn-out hardware seats are a frame problem, not a hardware problem.
Score it simply: pass all five and rescreening is the right call — the frame will outlive its new mesh and probably the one after that. Fail any of the first three and the honest answer is a new custom-built screen ($65). Fails on four or five are judgment calls we're happy to make in person.
Why mesh dies first (and frames don't)
This split — dead mesh, healthy frame — is the normal case, not the lucky one. UV destroys vinyl-coated mesh on a schedule while barely touching aluminum; the full chemistry is in our piece on why screens fail in California sun. It's why rescreening is our most-booked service, and why we'd rather rescreen your straight frames at $45 than sell you replacements you don't need. When a technician does flag a frame, it's because it flunked the checks above — and we'll show you which one, on the spot.
Either way, it's one visit
The pleasant surprise: you don't actually have to decide. Book whichever seems closest and we sort reality on-site — rescreens on the good frames, rebuilds where needed, all fabricated at your home in the same visit, in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County or Sacramento. Eyeball the count, send the form — that's genuinely all we need, and the price we quote is the price you pay.