I’m getting very frustrated with this! I can’t figure out how to pop the screen out of my window.
The windows: top window is fixed, bottom window slides up and down in a track. The window latches at the bottom and there are no spring thingies on the sides to snap it into intermediate heights, it just stays wherever you leave it by friction. The frame around the window is such that there is a lip between the window and me, so I’m 99.999% certain that it isn’t the kind of window where you can tilt it in toward you to clean (at least I haven’t been able to figure out a way).
The screen: is directly below the top window. There is a lip on the outside of the window frame that makes the window opening smaller than the frame of the screen, so it can’t be pushed outward by any means I can see. There are two pins at the top, which you pull straight down and then you can wiggle the top of the screen inwards about a half an inch. The problem is that to do this, you have to have the bottom window all the way at the top of the track, but that isn’t high enough to give the screen any clearance to lean inward to come out, as it is still blocked by over an inch of the window. I don’t see any way to make the bottom come forward, either.
Short of getting a pair of scissors and just destroying the screen, how can I get it out???
Pretty hard to diagnos w/o seeing it. Sometimes the lip that holds the screen in is only at the bottom and top, but not on the sides, so that you can lift the screen about a half inch and then tilt it out at the bottom.
Is there a mfg. name and/or model on the frame somewhere? If you had tat you could Google their web site or call a local dealer and ask them. You might also go to a home improvement center and see if you can find similar windows and then see how they work.
Total wild guess, but have you tried sliding it sideways? Sometimes there is a spring on one side that presses the screen into a slot on the other side.
**pmwgreen **makes a good suggestion. It might just be a matter of pushing harder – sometimes on old screens, there’s a lot of resistance.
The other thing to look for is if there’s anything projecting downward, at the very bottom of the screen. I have some windows where there’s a little loop of metal that sticks downward through a hole in the bottom of the track/frame. These loops slide toward each other in the familiar way.
There might also be little nail looking things bare sticking out along one side of the inside of the frame. Easy to overlook as they are usually either the same color as the screen or the tips are broken off. If broken off, warping the screen frame is about the only way to get that out.
That’s a pretty old design, tho. Most of today’s screens are held in by c-springs pushing against one side of the frame. Top, bottom, left, right doesn’t matter. It will usually only be one side. What happens with those is that wind blown dirt packs itself around the frame and the springs. A real good jiggling will help loosen the impacted dirt. Maybe.
At worst, you will have to deform the screen frame to get it out. This doesn’t always mean destroying it. Manny times it can be warped back into the proper shape.
I have no idea what the word BARE is doing there. Please ignore it. It keeps following me around, sticking itself into threads I’m posting in. Fucking little troll is what it is. Fuck off, Bare!
In addition to what everyone else said, window screens (at least all the ones I know of) are removed outward, never inward because of the problem you have already discovered concerning the lower window being in the way.
If possible, examine the screen from the outside to determine if it is held in a frame on all sides. This will give you some clue as to how it is held in place.
Sorry, not so. I install windows for a living, (among other things, and for over 10 yrs now) and I see screens installed from inside and out. Even some of our new windows have inside installed screens. As with everything in construction, it just depends, ya know?
I pulled down on the pins and again tried to push it to the left, as there appears to be a space on the left side where there isn’t one on the right. The top of the screen shifted left about an inch. The lower right corner came up enough to move freely forward into the room until it hit the window frame. The lower right corner won’t budge. After much shaking and pounding and scrubbing dirt with a toothbrush, I got the lower left corner of the screen to shift about 1/4 inch to the right (proving it isn’t stuck in place) but it will not move to the left at all. Seems like the window should slide that way, but it won’t. I even used a hammer on the end of a screwdriver wedged into the corner of the frame to try to move it. I don’t see anything protruding from the screen or from the door, from the inside or from the outside. I see no moving parts whatsoever on the screen frame aside from the pins at the top.
If you can pull the top of the screen forward enough, you might be able to slide the bottom up and out by playing with it. Then it’s a matter of a spatial game, getting the whole thing out. If not, sorry.
Sometimes, when I’m stuck on something, I just have someone else look at it. Anyone else. (Regardless of the nature of the problem.) Often, they find the one, tiny thing I overlooked and all is well. Of course, I’m speaking of real life, not Doping. I wish I could help more. I know how frustrating stuff like this can be.
How old is the screen door? Can you Google the manufacturer info and find perhaps an exploded view of the assembly? In this manner, perhaps you can find out how it goes together?
