How to Use a Hardware Cloth for Screening

Replace your original screening with hardware cloth.

For the homeowner with a retro house design, replacing your regular door screening with hardware cloth can be an effective design statement. This galvanized steel mesh has larger openings than modern screen mesh and, while it might not keep out mosquitoes, most flies and stinging insects will be deterred. Choose the black vinyl-coated hardware cloth for a subtle home addition that will hark back to the earliest part of the 20th century.

Things You'll Need

• Screwdriver
• Measuring tape
• Screen door
• 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth
• Tin snips
• Work gloves
• Black replacement spline
• Spline tool or screwdriver

Instructions

1. Remove your door from the door jamb using a screwdriver. Lay the door on the ground with the spline side up. Spline is a plastic or vinyl strip that looks like a black licorice whip. Pry up the old splines from the door, then remove them and the old screening.

2. Measure the height of the space where the screen will be installed. Add 2 inches. This will be the height of your hardware cloth piece. Measure the width of the space where the screen will be installed. Add 2 inches. This will be the width of your hardware cloth piece.

3. Cut out a piece of hardware cloth the size that you calculated with your door measurements. Use tin snips to cut the hardware cloth and wear work gloves to protect your hands.

4. Cut two pieces of spline that are the width of your opening, and two pieces of spline that are the height of your door opening.

5. Lay the hardware cloth on top of the door, covering the space to be screened. Set the cloth carefully on the opening to make sure that all of the edges are even. Lay one piece of spline on top of the hardware cloth, directly above the slot at the edge of the opening. Push on the spline all along the opening, shoving the spline and the hardware cloth edge into the slot, using a spline tool or screwdriver.

6. Lay a piece of spline over the slot at the bottom of the opening and push the spline and hardware cloth edge into the slot. Install the splines at the two sides of the opening.

7. Snip off any small edge of hardware cloth that sticks out from the outside edge past the splines.

8. Replace your door into the door jamb.

References

• Louis E. Page: Vinyl Coated Hardware Cloth is Best
• Home Tips.com: How to Replace Window Screening