4 Things to Know Before You Call About Screen Repair

Preparing for a screen repair call takes about five minutes and materially improves the quote you get. Know whether the damage is age or impact, roughly how many panels are involved, what shape your roof is, and whether anything about the frame has changed. Those four things let a contractor give you a real answer instead of a range.

1. Work out whether it is age or damage

Press your thumb firmly into the mesh in several places around the cage. If it tears in three or more separate spots, the screen has gone generally brittle and you are looking at a rescreen. If it holds everywhere except where something obviously hit it, you have localised damage and panel replacement is likely the answer.

This single test changes the entire conversation, and you can do it yourself in two minutes. Our guide on rescreen versus repair goes into the economics.

2. Count the panels, or photograph them

Screen work is priced per panel, not by pool size or deck area. Knowing roughly how many panels are affected — and how many the cage has in total — is the single most useful number you can bring to the call.

If counting is awkward, photographs from a few angles do the job. Wide shots that show the whole structure are more useful than close-ups of the tear.

3. Note the roof shape and the height

Flat, mansard, gable or dome, and whether any of it is two-storey. Height and complexity affect the work far more than footprint does, and a contractor who knows both can give you a much firmer number before visiting.

If you are not sure what shape you have, our guide to enclosure types explains how to tell from the ground.

4. Check whether anything about the frame has changed

Has a door stopped latching? Is there a bow in an upright, or a dip in the roof line? Is there rust staining running down from any joint? Does screen keep coming loose in the same place?

Any of those means the frame is involved, not just the screen, and it changes what needs doing. Mentioning it up front avoids a quote that has to be revised on the day.

What to ask whoever you call

How many panels the quote covers. What mesh is specified. Whether the price assumes the frame is sound, and what happens if it is not. Whether they use subcontractors. Whether the estimate is written and fixed.

A contractor who answers those clearly is telling you something useful about how the job will go.

What to have ready

Your address, so they can tell you which building department covers you if structural work turns out to be involved. Any paperwork from previous repairs. Photographs. And a rough idea of when the enclosure was built, which is often the single best predictor of what we will find.