Several years ago I had retractable screen doors put on the exterior doors of the back bedrooms. Basically, the screens are on a spool and they pull out from there. They stay closed by use of magnetic catches. Nice, but prone to failure when the leaves start to fall and get into the bottom track.
No screen on the front door. I’ve wished for some cross-ventilation, but kept the door closed in Summer due to insects. A year or so ago, the SO really wanted that ventilation. Our late, lamented Harvey was a very well-behaved cat. Scoticher gave us a baby gate, and Harvey was quite content to respect the boundary. Our new cat, Tonka, likes to get outside. The baby gate won’t work. And there’s still the problem with flies. (Not to mention that we had a couple of birds fly into the house – which Harvey was quite happy to catch. They survived, with the SO’s intervention.)
Screen door time. Here’s the rub: I chose lever-type doorknobs for the exterior doors, because it’s easier to get into the house with one’s hands full than it is with knob-shaped knobs. A normally-opening screen door would complicate entry – not to mention the probable conflict between its knob and the front door’s one.
Saturday we put up a Larson Inspire retractable screen door. The screen is pleated, and it has cords attached to the spool. The screen accordions instead of being rolled up. The cassette can be removed for storage, but the front door is protected and there aren’t that many leaves that fall in front anyway. It’s a much better design than the old screens in the back bedrooms. I did have to mount it a little farther out than I wanted to, because of the door lever. But it’s fine. We’re loving the crossflow, and the view is better since the front door only has windows halfway up. No bugs, no birds, and the cat can sit and look and sniff.
I had a handyman install the back screens, as they required cutting. This new one only required that I cut a couple of inches off each end of the top guide to reduce it from 36" to 32". A 2x4 board fit right in, giving it rigidity while I took the hacksaw to it. Reading the instructions, following carefully step-by-step (‘3 Easy Steps!’), measuring thrice and cutting the top guide, only took about a half an hour to put it up. Eventually we’ll get rid of the crappy sliding screen doors on the French doors, and replace them with the double retractable screen doors. (I’ve tried to replace the crappy screens – which are supposed to be a standard size; ‘off the rack’, as it were – but none I tried fit. They were all just a bit too tall.)
Generally, I prefer things to be simple and functional. The new retractable screen is more mechanically complicated than a traditional screen; but it seems to work well, and it does not detract from the appearance of the front door.
