Retractable Screen Installation in Vermont

Screens that disappear when the bugs have gone

A screen you look through in June and cannot see at all in October. It rolls into a housing at the edge of the opening, so nothing hangs in your view of the lake for the eight months you do not need it. Most of ours go on porches and French doors around Charlotte, Shelburne and Lake Dunmore, and we install them across Addison County and beyond from our base in Middlebury.

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From 33 Google reviews

Which Retractable Insect Screens Suit The Room

Most of this comes down to the room, the light and what the window has to do. Here is how we talk it through at the estimate.

Get A Price On Retractable Insect Screens

We measure at your window and bring the samples to you. The estimate is free and there is no showroom to visit.

How A Retractable Screen Works

The mesh lives rolled on a spring or a motor inside a slim housing at one side of the opening, with a track top and bottom. You pull it across when you want it and let it retract when you do not. Rolled away, there is nothing in the opening at all: no panel, no frame across the view, and nothing to store in the garage for eight months.

On a house with a view, that is why people choose them over a fixed screen. We carry Phantom retractable screens, which is the line most people have seen on a neighbor's porch.

Retractable Screen Or A Fixed Screen

A fixed screen costs less, has no mechanism and never needs to be rolled. On a bedroom window you open for air and do not look through, it is the right buy and we will tell you so. A screened porch built as a room is a different thing again, and if you want somewhere to sit in a downpour, that is what you want.

A retractable screen is the better choice wherever the view matters, wherever the opening is too wide for a fixed panel, and wherever a fixed screen would be in the way for most of the year. French doors and sliders onto a deck are the obvious case. On a porch opening twenty feet wide, it is the only option.

How The Job Runs

A free in-home estimate. We look at the opening, the frame and what the housing can fix to, measure it, and order the screen to that size. Motorized screens need power near the housing, and we check for it at the same visit.

The person who measured installs it. Nothing is left for you to put up and nothing needs taking down at the end of the season. From Middlebury we cover Addison County, the lake towns from Charlotte and Shelburne down to Lake Dunmore and Bomoseen, and out to Rutland County and the ski areas.

What Retractable Screens Cost, And What Moves The Number

We quote after measuring the opening. Width sets the base, and whether it is motorized is the biggest swing after that. What moves the number:

• How wide and how tall the opening is
• Motorized or manual
• How many openings you are doing in one visit
• Mesh choice, since fine, solar and pet meshes are different products
• Whether the housing mounts to the frame, the trim or the wall
• Power at the opening for a motorized screen, and whether it has to be run

Screens On A Vermont Lake House

Blackfly season on the lake lasts about six weeks, and a fixed screen grays the view for the rest of the year to solve it. That is why the houses around Charlotte, Shelburne and Lake Dunmore end up with retractable screens more often than anywhere else we work.

The same logic applies to a porch you use in July and look at in October, and to French doors onto any deck with something worth seeing beyond it.

The Questions We Get Most

• How much do retractable screens cost?

  Width sets the base cost, a motor is the biggest swing after that, and mesh choice and mounting move it from there, so we quote after measuring the opening. A single manual door screen is the least. A motorized run across a twenty foot porch opening is the most. The estimate is free.

• Do they stay on through winter?

  Yes. Roll the screen away and it sits in its housing. There is nothing to take down and nothing to store, and the mesh is out of the weather all winter.

• How wide an opening can you screen?

  Wide. Porch openings well past the size of a door are routine, and motorized versions handle spans of twenty feet and more where a manual pull would be a struggle. We measure and tell you which it needs.

• Will it work on French doors?

  Yes, and that is one of the most common jobs. Screens for a pair of doors retract to each side, so the opening is completely clear when you are not using them.

• Can I still see through it clearly?

  Yes. The mesh is there to stop insects, not light, and a standard mesh all but disappears against a view. Rolled away it is not in the view at all. A solar mesh cuts glare too, at the cost of a little clarity.

• Retractable or a fixed screen?

  Fixed on a window you open for air and do not look through, because it costs less and has nothing to go wrong. Retractable wherever the view matters, wherever the opening is too wide for a panel, and on any door or porch where a fixed screen would be in the way most of the year.

• Does a motorized screen need an electrician?

  It needs power near the housing. Where there is an outlet on the porch or by the door, no. Where there is not, one may need to be added, and we tell you at the estimate rather than on the day.

• Will it stop blackflies and no-see-ums?

  A fine mesh will. Standard insect mesh stops mosquitoes and most flies. For the six weeks of blackfly and no-see-um season we suggest a tighter weave, and we bring both to the estimate.

• What about a dog pushing on it?

  A heavier pet mesh stands up to it far better than standard screen. Tell us at the estimate and we specify it.

• Is the screen covered by the lifetime warranty?

  The lifetime warranty we quote covers the window coverings we sell: shades, blinds and shutters. Retractable screens carry their own manufacturer coverage, and we go through exactly what applies at the estimate.

What Customers Say

4.8 stars from 33 Google reviews