I have been fixing screens for a long time. You have to not stretch the big screens so much. It always pulls the middle in if you do. I learned the diy kits are not good for making big ones. They are weak. Always clean the channels out of dirt and dust before installing new screens. It makes it so much easier to roll it in.

For anyone who's going to use those aluminum tracks that Bob started to use in the beginning of the video. When you lay out the screening material. Put a weight in the very middle of the screening material. It will give you just enough tension to allow the frame to bounce back straight. Keep it in the middle until you get done building the screen.

One additional thing for anyone trying this themselves. There are a couple different types of channels and matching splines and their installation can be very picky. DIY Renovision recently did a couple videos on it where he initially failed to do the install correctly and lamented the lack of knowledge available on his area. The more recent video he finally found the tip he needed and it's worth looking at before you start this project yourself.

I love that you use pragmatic and accessible materials. Other KZfaqrs might’ve done this with solid walnut or something bonkers. Could see myself doing something like this, but it really feels like you never stopped being an average guy who likes making stuff.

As a long time viewer, I’ve always loved how Bob makes projects that are reasonable for a diy hobbyist with basic woodworking skill and a weekend a two

Definitely recommend installing another catwalk connecting your far edge across the top of your screened wall. Those cats are going to jump straight to the screen from the diving board you built them!

How are the bees? Honey? I have always appreciated watching your thought process and not editing to make it look like you have all the answers right off the bat. So relatable. Thanks Bob!

"Professional Figure-Outer" needs to be a t-shirt. I'll take an XL please. : )

Really love your attitude for approaching repairs! It helped me find the fun in even the most routine maintenance. Finished product is fantastic!

I am about to become a homeowner soon and this really gave me an idea to revamp the back patio of the house once I am living in it. Thanks Bob!

Very cool redo. I'd suggest adding a larger lounging platform for your cats at the end of that shelf where they can just hang out and see out in both directions.

I live in Hungary, greetings from the other end of the world ;) . I make and install shutters,screens and mosquito nets etc for a living, it's our family business since 1985, my points is I met a lot of ppl in this industry, but the way you handeled the problems that emerge when you do your first screen I loved it. You tackeled the twisting pretty fast, didn't tear the net, wonderful work there. That DIY kit looks actually legit for a DIY kit, I wonder how long the screen and the plastic edge holds out - anyone with an answer I would appriciate it, thank you! God bless you all !

I'm so glad you did this video now because I need to do exactly this with my patio and I was worried the screens would be too hard.

What happened to the solutions for the litterbox and all the shoes?

One of my first DIY projects as an adult was replacing the screens on the porch of my college home. It was a beautiful front porch that everyone loved hanging out on, but the screens were so bad that wasps tended to find their way into the porch. I took new screens, stretched them across the openings, and used some simple 1*6 boards to sandwich them to the frame. Super quick and easy, and bug proof!

Thank you thank you thank you for showing your mistakes. I feel like such a dolt when I start a project that should be straightforward and every video I've seen makes it look one-step easy, but then I run into problems like the tension on the screen distorting the frame, or a rusty nut that won't turn and now I've stripped the corners with the socket and I need to grind it off. Thank you for documenting the problem to solve, the problems with your initial solution, and a clever work around. There are always other options. Thank you Bob.

That porch came out looking awesome, but i wonder where all the shoes, basketballs and other random stuff is going to get organized😅

I just acquired my first house... there are some things to update like dryer vent connections, and all the interior doors need a revamp... but I am planning to build a screened in porch, a wood working shop, and close in my carport to be a full garage. I have only been here 2 weeks, but excited to see it grow and change.

For the cats, if they like to climb the screens, you’re probably not going to discourage them without an alternative that they like better. They probably like the screens because they can see into the garden, and get a vantage point looking at birds, so something right up in front of the screens that lets them do that will likely give them that. They’ll need a few different access points, otherwise with multiple cats you’ll end up with one cat blocking access to the others, and that can lead to conflict, and ideally a couple of options for scratching, like a sisal post or something covered in carpet - floor to ceiling would be awesome for them and will give them something they can climb in the same way they climb up too.

Nice refresh of a family space. Good luck keeping it that clean. 😁 The screen track is an interesting product. I'll have to keep that it mind for future projects. Thanks for sharing!

I used the screen system that you used. It’s been installed for 3 years. Pricey but we’ll worth it. Screens are as tight today as when I installed them. Sons 80 lb dog tried to get a squirrel and pawed at it(the heavier pet screen you used) and dislodged it. I went outside and pulled the trim away and reinstalled what he dislodged. Looks as good today as when new.

This was exactly the build video I needed. I've been putting off re-screening my porch for years. Thanks for the inspiration!

Nice re-do, Bob~! We had a screened in space at our last house, but not at the current one. Not many options of adding it to our existing deck, so it would have to be a separate structure somewhere near the house or out in the yard. Nothing is easy~! Nice space you have there~!

I spent a good portion of this early summer screening in our porch after work for an hour or so at a time every day. We opted for a more traditional screen on wood because of how the railing was installed. Ton of time and effort but oh so worth it to have a bug free area you can spend hours in outside.

Great little project to get the Mrs back on side and happy ISH. It's always good to see you guys making mistakes and owning up to them. As we all know, no job never gets done perfectly first time. Awesome job, thanks for sharing

Love what you did! We have been considering screening in our porch. This was very helpful.

Awesome! Thanks for learning that lesson for us about the first kit. You'll have to tell us how well the tracks and covers hold up to weather and time. Not a fan of the black paint, but that's just me. Oh, and good luck with the cats. Ours didn't try to climb the screen for the sake of climbing: they were chasing moths or flies...

i love your channel, everytime i watch i learn something new, ive been watching since the minimalist bunk beds and simple modular shelves videos keep it up

I fitted my frame in place first then I took it down and put the screen on it. Then put back in place. The framing around my openings on the porch have been weather many years. The wood that have expanded a little on the bottom, wasn’t exposed to the same amount of sun and rain so the openings work perfectly square. Another tip is to make sure that the screen is tight… not too loose and not too tight

Looks amazing and lots of work but really worth it. I say this as I’m enjoying a coffee watching you build on my screened in porch . Enjoy your day.Bob.

So much cleaner, nice work!

I made a screen door for the front of my house a few months ago. I cut my own channels into the wood for the screen, but man that track looks so much easier to use.

Been using the screen track on our back porch for many years!!!! Repainted the house last year, took everything down, cleaned and painted it new color and looks (and works) just like new. BTW, our porch has 4x4 posts and yes there is a 4" version of the track.. I have 4" vertical and 2" horizontal.. great product and lasts a LONG time!! Our porch is about the same size as yours.. it is still a pretty big job to re-screen. Great work...

I love the transformation. I too have a patio that needs help. No cats, but lots of plants

Came out great and im sure the cats like the catwalk!) Have you thought about extending the cawalk around the whole porch and giving them another spot to get down in the other corner? Just a thought but you did a great job and looks SOOOOO much better!

Thanks for showing that screen track! I've been trying to figure out how to screen in my 10'x8' back porch for a while now. This will work; I just need to add a few more uprights on the 8' sides. the porch is white, so I wouldn't even need to paint the covers (but I will because UV rays are bad for PVC). I'd love to let my kitties out on the back porch, so that corner shelf/cat tree would also be a great thing for me to build. Now to find my pocket screw jig...

Hey bob and the team another great video. Thanks for all the videos over the years! You have really inspired me to make things and now start KZfaq. Just jumped on your patreon, look forward to saying hi!

Thanks, Bob. We have a converted carport that was turned into an enclosed room and now it's just a catch all. A little inspirational video is all we needed to turn it into a functional, usable space. 👍

Thank you for this "project". I have mine waiting and is a little bit bigger. We do have a terrace that requires a complete replacement and then I am willing to enclose it in a similar porch as you have. No idea when I am going to do that, though. It will also be a little bit more expensive, heh.

Never seen an outdoor space screened off like that - looks a bit dark and imposing!

Good to know. I don't have a screened in porch, but I do have a storm door I've been procrastinating replacing the screen on. I remember the last time I did it I had trouble with putting the spline in and I didn't know how to use the tool.

The screens could still be a lot less floppy. The trick when first pinning the screen up is to put tension on opposing corners making one of the diagonals across the whole thing taught before tensioning out the other corners to draw it flat. Otherwise it will always end up with some amount of sag. So there's a little bit of a tip for anyone else doing it. Screen should also be a couple inches larger to help hold onto it and place it in the grooves, and then trimmed after setting it in place.

I'm literally doing this today. I started this morning. It freaked me out that your porch is exactly like mine, though larger than yours, and that you uploaded this today of all days. I have a concrete floor, and my base boards are all rotten, and I need to replace all that , and need a new ceiling.

I manufacture window and doors for my job and deal with fly screens quite a bit. On the larger ones we usually cut a piece of the screen frame the same width as the screen and sit it in the middle as a brace. Then roll the mesh in and remove the brace once finished. Stops it wanting to bow in

That corner table/cat shelf/plant hanger thing is gorgeous, but looks relatively simple to build. What a gorgeous looking revamp 👍🏼

Had the same issue with much smaller screens, if you apply anything but the lightest amount of tension the whole thing bends out of shape

I just did the exact same thing with the exact same products last week lol That screen track is so satisfying to use!

Tip for cutting soft wood that splinters is use some painters tape over the cut and it will reduce the splinters

@12:19 I'm getting some serious Skate Or Die 2 vibes from this audio track.....and I love it 😁

I just got a new place and the whole thing needs a revamp, lol. Especially the walk-in basement, as the previous owner had it carpeted and ripped the entire thing out. It's not a disaster as the cement looks great that was underneath, but it needs a lot of work. Add to this that I got diagnosed with cancer while moving in and there's the disaster part... never too far behind, right?

To keep large screens from doing that you need to build them in a jig that holds the sides in place when you're installing the splines into the screen. It holds them from being pulled in toward the middle. That way it only pulls just enough to cover the distance but not enough to bow them. Some people tape them, I'm a big fan of putting it into a jig that holds the channels secure. Make it on a work bench, or on a sheet of plywood, the jig is nothing more than thin flat stock nailed inside the rectangle of the inner dimension of the assembled frame and then lay screen over it and go to it!

'Professional Figure Outer': Definitely putting that on my resume someday :p

Very nice project. Looks great

Those window sills are sloped for a reason. Its to shed rainwater and prevent them from rotting. I can appreciate wanting to make them larger/more useful, but even pressure treated will rot with rainwater sitting on them.

Bro thank you so much for this video i'm about to have to tackle my backporch and you've given me so many ideas.

Saw those screens at the hardware store, thanks for the video on how to install them and the tips and tricks. Now time to replace some screens.

I plan on re-screening the patio on my apartment and was looking at using that same system.

Adelaide, South Australia here. Not sure how cold it gets where you live. Had a back porch similar setup to yours back in the 1960's when I was growing up. Screens are a big thing here. Flies and Mosquitoes have a mutual pact during spring summer and autumn to annoy (flies) and attack and carry off (mosquitoes) any animal who is stupid enough to be outside without repellent. In the mid to late 80's I helped my father install clear (but tinted) plastic cafe blinds so the porch could be used in rain/cold/windy conditions. These blinds made from heavy duty 3 mm plastic and had heavy duty zippers on the edges so 99% of the rain/cold/wind was kept out. A simple patio heater was enough to keep the area to 20 C in winter if needed. (It does drop to single digit Celsius temperatures here in winter).

I do indeed have a few places I will probably be doing something similar to. Our front porch (which is functionally more of a side porch because the driveway is off the side of the house) could use the screen treatment and that would make it a far more comfortable place to spend time (we live in NE Texas, and the sun and bugs are NOT friendly).

Im getting ready to redo my back porch. I was already planning on using the screen track I’m glad I chose wisely

I know you already did the whole screen thing but I wanted to let you know they make special screen for cats that like to destroy it. My nieces cats basically made holes in all my screens so I got some, they leave it alone now (I guess they know they are defeated) but it was well worth it to get the stuff that should be good for the next 25+ years.

Really beautiful work, Bob! It's looking fantastic there! 😃 I want to make a huge out door table here... And benches! But I still didn't decided how... 😂 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

I'd imagine a cabinet with a flip down door under the porch swing going along the wall upto the back outside door would be great for storing your family's skates, boots, shoes & whatnot... not to mention towel racks off its back wall (or hanging off the cat shelf) so you don't have to dry them on the swing ;) Looking forward to seeing what you have in store next week! cheers!

If you haven't tried a cat litter box where the door are on the top, they are amazing and took away 95% of our cats litter being spread around the apartment. *ThumbsUp**

I have a couple of screened porches I need to redo and after having it priced out I'm definitely going to go the diy route.

If it were me I'd replace the screen stuff with metal mesh, more durable and likelihood of animals destroying it or storms foes way down

Awesome transformation

Thank you for good video and new ideas!

I love the solution for hanging your screens on the outside of the porch. I have a similar screened porch from the 80s and will eventually need to redo the screens. This looks like a great approach. Question, though. I also have a series of plexiglass panels I screw to the outside of the porch during the cold seasons to extend the usefulness of my porch. Is there a good solution similar to what you showed that would also make it easy to hang up or fasten plexiglass to better enclose the porch during the winter? My current method is really awkward and tedious with just one person, not to mention hard.

Main advantage with aluminium screen, it makes the windows look lighter. I have changed quite a few, here n Thailand you must have scree on every window.

I think I'd continue the shelf all the way around, and maybe drop it down a few inches to give the cats a more interesting view from different angles. Would also give more locations for hanging plants. Just a thought.

Looks great! Would love to see you wrap that cat walk all the way around the porch

you can buy hidden cat boxes, they make some that look like planters, but they have a cat sized cut out that goes into a hollow plastic shell and you can put plants on top.

Outstanding work!!

I would like some advice. We have a near identical space that we haven't used because of rain and pollen coming through the screen. Is there something that you (or anyone knowledgeable reading this) would recommend to protect against that without totally breaking the bank? The previous homeowner basically used heavy duty plastic wrap and that looked awful and ended up getting torn anyway. Ideally I would like to be able to open up the space or expose the screen mesh when the weather is nice and the pollen is low or cover it back up when not in use.

I have a screened in porch that needs this exact same makeover. My screens are floor to ceiling, but I may put in a bottom like yours to deal with water/rain issues. I also like the darker screen material for looks - does it make the porch cooler? Regardless, It's on my project list for this fall - to hot to be outside working on this right now. Thanks for the tips/fails/successes!

Very nice! I think I would have made the top ledge for the cats extend out a bit further and wrapped it around the corner for a bit more kitty lounging space..... but I probably like to over spoil my cats 😆

Guess the pressure washing was forgotten lol. Still looks really cool, and is pretty simple for others to do.

I loved discovering those kits. We needed to replace a bunch of screens before selling our house, and a company gave us a bid of over a grand. We did it ourselves for under $150.

We've fix screens before the wire & plastic. A hole got tore in the wire 1, so I took a small piece of wire screen, then a piece of the wire to weave in to patch it. Thank for the cool video! And duh on the tool....I wish we had known that lol

YO, Anthony! The colors on this video were fire! Not sure if you did anything different. But keep up the beautiful, hilarious, and captivating work. ❤ 🔥 🤙🏻

One thing you might consider is putting some cheap outdoor carpet on the shelves. You'll lose that clean wood look but the cats will have something to catch themselves on when they're jumping. Also they can scratch that up too. This looks great though. Let us know how long it takes your cats to start on the screens!

Built a cat ladder, covered it with plants to get knocked off lol. Looks great, need to figure out how to frame and screen in my back patio one of these days.

Real talk: that looked like a nice porch to me even in the before condition

Hola! 🖐What an awesome job, thanks for sharing this. It gives inspiration and a reminder that a little bit can really make a BIG difference. Take care and have a good one, Adios!👊

Actually plan on building a roof over my side entrance porch and screening it in, almost like an outdoor foyer. Me and the deck board have grown tired of shoveling snow off of it over the years. 😅

I also have a back screened in porch that has a single piece of screening wrapping all the way around that I want to convert to removable screens. I wonder if your first attempt (using the screen frames) would have worked if you somehow mounted the floppy aluminum frames to a more rigid frame (wooden or 80/20 style extrusions). Another thing that I noticed when you went with your final method. The deeper sills that you added look like they are roughly flat. Wouldn't you want a little slope towards the outside on those so any rain that blows in the screen would naturally flow out instead of puddle or drip towards the inside of the porch? I'm no porch builder so I don't know what the ideal slope would be, but I think that there should be some slope. Oh, another thing for the cat. Since you are using cedar which is soft enough for the cat to grip with their claws, this shouldn't matter that much. But for a shelf that I added to one of my windows it was the standard el-cheapo press-board with laminate. This made the shelf slippery to the cats so they would slide into the window when jumping onto the shelf. I pulled the shelf off, and wrapped it with a cut-down piece of dollar-store door mat. I scuffed the laminate, and glued the door mat to the top with some construction adhesive that I had lying around. I then wrapped the edges down and stapled them on the bottom. Once the adhesive had cured and finished (mostly) off-gassing I reinstalled the shelf to the brackets. My cats love it, don't slide into the window, and use it as a scratching surface. The things we do for our feline overloards.

My house has a place on the roof for BBQ but it looks abandoned. If i had the skills and effort like you, i would definitely make it a place to hang around with friends especially in the summer. Nice work!

So these screens- as well as having looked back on some older videos- got me to thinking on a few things. One of my biggest problems in my daily activities is actually lumbar support. I've got a crumby $100 office chair, that can hardly support my frame. For someone relatively tall, that means I need to have leg room, and I need the back to be adjustable higher than most people will have it. I won't go into precise measurements, but being 6'4" or 76 inches tall isn't really the normal audience for chair buyers. The problem I face with making a custom chair though, is that it needs to be adjustable enough to also accomodate those of a smaller stature. I figured going for mesh cushions would be better- hence the screen segway- than fabric or leather cushions, but I keep searching for specifics on how to make my own and keep coming up empty-handed. Is there a way that anyone here might be able to help with that, rather than buying some high-end $1-$2k chair that wont serve as well?

Built shelf for cats to climb, fills it with plants and decor items to make little to no room for cats. Also, why not add a long shelf on the top of the screen wall.. When the cat climbed to the end of that long piece it had nowhere to go except to hang from the screens. Adding a long shelf, maybe a little bit down from the top to let the catto's have a viewing platform, could be a nice idea.

Great fan of your work.

Loved the editing on this one

the issue I saw with the first method, was you made the frame to fit on the inside of the window frame, thus removing any structural support you could gain from mounting the whole screen on the front of the the window frame. Then adding a cap to secure the sreen against being pulled out in the wind

love the footage with your thoughts on why this car is meaninnful to you. thanks for sharing Bob!

Put in a sprung wire up the inside of the frame that is the width of the frame. When the cat jumps at the screen they get thumped by the wire and run away, then the wire retracts to wait for them to do it again. Has a windshield wiper like motion. It doesn't hurt the cat it just chases them away when they trigger it.The cats learn to sit on the sill and not trigger the wire. The wire is fairly hidden so they don't clutter. I can draw it up for you if I get an email. I've done this at every house I've run into a screened deck. Every owner has loved them because it's taught the cats not to touch the screens. Also stops them from climbing the screens. I also built on with an air blast. The pump is under the welcome mat. Every time it's stepped on it pumps it up with a 50lb release valve. when the cat triggers the thread placed across the bottom of the screen it pulls on an air valve and blasts them with a jet of air. It works but not as well as the sprung wire.

Looks great!

I just ran across this video and very nice job and yes I do my mud room needs that kind of attention 😢

Great job, done in a great video!

Appreciate you showing us what didn't work. I've definitely built smaller screens using that method and it worked great. Bigger ones, not so much. Lol

My whole back yard needs a revamp. Deck, new shed/shop, some concrete, and a new fence.... lots of work. lol