Our home has a “French Patio Door” (two large glass panels, one fixed and one swinging inward), with a sliding screen door. To go outside, you turn the knob, swing the French door open, push the sliding screen door to the left, exit, pull the French door shut, and then slide the screen door shut.
During any gathering with kids or alcohol someone will try to push the screen door open (rather than sliding it). The screen door has little wheels top and bottom, and the wheels get messed up after being knocked off their tracks a few times.
The same thing happens when an excited dog wants to go outside right now dammit!
Is this a problem for All sliding screen doors? Does it happen far more often when a swinging door is paired with a sliding screen?(Would sliding patio doors reduce the number of people trying to push the screen open?) Are some sliding screens designed much better than ours, and can’t be easily pushed off the tracks?
I’ll also add that about 15 years ago, I put a protective aluminum grille on the bottom half of the screen door, and replaced the aluminum screening with “pet resistant” screen, and since then the dogs haven’t ripped the screen. But they can still push the door off its tracks.
It’s a problem, those don’t seem to last. I just deal with it, shoving the door open and closed as I wish. but I do suspect that with an opening door it is more common. I’ve seen french doors with screens that open outwards, and I would think that you may want to consider that in the future.
We have sliding “French” doors with a sliding screen, and the screen has been destroyed at least 3 times by dogs - twice by my daughter’s dog scratching till he tore holes in it, and once by a friend’s dog who ran right thru it - she’d never encountered a screen door before. Alas, the shop near us that used to repair it has gone out of business. I need to find a new place. Dammit.
We just replaced our sliding screen door with a cheapo magnetic screen curtain and it’s working well so far. The dog can go outside whenever she wants and it generally closes up after her. Something like these:
The dog I can understand. Especially if a cat or squirrel has strayed into his yard. A screen isn’t going to delay the eviction.
As for the kids & drunks. Maybe you need to reassess who you invite into your home
My dog ran through the screen once. I solved the problem by no longer using it because I know that at some point he’d do it again. He does his bit by eating as many insects as he can catch. Not many.
My neighbours have had one of ‘hogarth’s’ magnetic screens for 2 or 3 years. They’re still using it so I assume it works well for them. They don’t have a dog though, so can’t attest to that.
I just leave the screen section open all the time. Its only real purpose is to keep bugs out if you’re going to have the main door propped open for air circulation. So you’re kind of using one or the other. No need to have to go through two layers of doors.
I’d want to see reviews of specific magnetic screen doors; that part about keeping “most” of the flies out wouldn’t work for me.
This thread recalls the time when our chocolate Lab, Bessie went through a plate glass living room window after some geese on the front lawn, and then started eating glass fragments (we were able to stop her in time).
I said “most” bugs simply because - due to a quirk in this elderly rental home’s construction - there’s a small gap between the bottom of the screen & the door frame. Presumably, any errant flies making their way indoors are finding that gap to exploit.
If you have a well-fitted magnetic screen flap door thingie, that can “click” the magnets properly along all edges like it should, then … yeah, you won’t get any bugs at all.
Another vote for the magnetic screen door - I have one and it’s excellent.
No one has mentioned cats destroying screens. Maybe that is only a problem if you live somewhere with lizards - my cats will climb a screen all the way to the ceiling to hunt geckos.
The only time our screen doors are closed is when the glass door is going to be left open. If the glass door is closed, the screen is open. No real reason to have both closed at the same time.
The cheapo screen we bought is a bit too long and we have been too lazy to try to hem it up, so sometimes the magnets at the bottom don’t click together and there a small gap. If we lived somewhere with a huge amount of bugs we would probably do something about it.
I’m another in the magnetic screen camp. I’ve got a doggie door in the real door, so when the real door is closed, I have a little tie-up to pull one flap of the screen to the side, elsewise, the dog would drag that flap in through the doggie door.
I have noticed that this year, with the gypsy moth caterpillar explosion, I’m finding some caterpillars on the inside of the screen. Blech!
Our dog invented a variation of this by running full speed through the screen. He perfectly separated the screen along the bottom half of the side and most of the bottom. It lays flat, but he can gently push it open when he goes in and out.
Would love to try one, but we have indoor cats - here in the desert today’s outdoor cat is tomorrow’s coyote poop.
Sliding screen doors come in various grades - out current house has ones which are 4’ x 8’ so have pretty heavy duty frames. Much harder to accidentally pop out, and less likely to be damaged if knocked off their tracks.
Our neighbors have a magnetic screen door and it works very well for their purpose.
It might work for folks with older cats, but two of ours would be outside in less than 10 minutes. One because she is a Very Bad Cat, the other because he is a kitten and easily bad influenced.
We do have a sliding screen on our french doors, but its almost always shoved out of the way because we can’t use it as often as folks in nicer climates can.
It seems that if the sliding screen door had 3/4” deep channel to roll in, that would stop it from jumping it’s track. It does not seem like a complicated engineering problem, but that’s me speaking from a non-engineer perspective.
