I have an enclosure that was built new with the house in 1987. It was rescreened in 04 after hurricane Ivan and was getting pretty rough.
The screws were rusting out, the white powder coating was so dead and porous that it would mildew almost as fast as it could be cleaned and the screen was well past it's time. A lot of the brackets (mostly receiver channel style) were becoming questionable because of rusted screws.
I debated on rescreening vs full restoration and finally decided to go all out. New screws, new brackets, paint and screen. I did every bit of of myself.
It's an uncommon design with a lot of challenges. First is the height, roughly 20' at the peak. The roof is also very steep. The high side wall combined with the steep roof made for a sketchy time on the ladder. The small amount of concrete deck made placement of large ladders particularly challenging. The steepness of the roof also made moving the tall ladders difficult because a ladder tall enough for one section is too tall to fit under the rest of the roof. You can't just slide a ladder over.
First step was to pull the screen. While a ladder was set up for that I gave each section a quick pressure wash (enough that I could work safely). I then removed and replaced every rusty screw and installed new "capri" clips I cut from aluminum angle stock. The trick is to do as much as possible in one spot before having to move a ladder.
With the screen removed and the metal work done I went back and gave the entire thing an inch by inch up close pressure washing to prepare it for fresh paint. I hit every inch from top to bottom with the highest pressure tip. I didn't include this step with the metalwork because I didn't want it to sit too long and get dirty before paint. Using a strong pressure washer on a high ladder can get interesting as it wants to push you around.
After a few days drying I hit it with a coat of white paint through a Graco handheld sprayer. Other than moving ladders again it was a pretty easy process. Very satisfying to see something start looking shiny and new.
Finally, after a few days of letting the paint dry, it was time to roll in the new screen. Roughly 3 100' rolls of screen over several days. A lot more moving ladders than the previous steps as you have to safely apply pressure over every inch of it to roll the spline in. You can't reach as far from the ladder as you can with painting and pressure washing.
Please forgive the condition of the water. The liner was in the process of failing and eventually drained itself. I'm waiting on a new one to be made now.
Pics below.
The screws were rusting out, the white powder coating was so dead and porous that it would mildew almost as fast as it could be cleaned and the screen was well past it's time. A lot of the brackets (mostly receiver channel style) were becoming questionable because of rusted screws.
I debated on rescreening vs full restoration and finally decided to go all out. New screws, new brackets, paint and screen. I did every bit of of myself.
It's an uncommon design with a lot of challenges. First is the height, roughly 20' at the peak. The roof is also very steep. The high side wall combined with the steep roof made for a sketchy time on the ladder. The small amount of concrete deck made placement of large ladders particularly challenging. The steepness of the roof also made moving the tall ladders difficult because a ladder tall enough for one section is too tall to fit under the rest of the roof. You can't just slide a ladder over.
First step was to pull the screen. While a ladder was set up for that I gave each section a quick pressure wash (enough that I could work safely). I then removed and replaced every rusty screw and installed new "capri" clips I cut from aluminum angle stock. The trick is to do as much as possible in one spot before having to move a ladder.
With the screen removed and the metal work done I went back and gave the entire thing an inch by inch up close pressure washing to prepare it for fresh paint. I hit every inch from top to bottom with the highest pressure tip. I didn't include this step with the metalwork because I didn't want it to sit too long and get dirty before paint. Using a strong pressure washer on a high ladder can get interesting as it wants to push you around.
After a few days drying I hit it with a coat of white paint through a Graco handheld sprayer. Other than moving ladders again it was a pretty easy process. Very satisfying to see something start looking shiny and new.
Finally, after a few days of letting the paint dry, it was time to roll in the new screen. Roughly 3 100' rolls of screen over several days. A lot more moving ladders than the previous steps as you have to safely apply pressure over every inch of it to roll the spline in. You can't reach as far from the ladder as you can with painting and pressure washing.
Please forgive the condition of the water. The liner was in the process of failing and eventually drained itself. I'm waiting on a new one to be made now.
Pics below.
