The new flexible frame installs in seconds with no tools and no clips. It also fits only some tilt-and-turn windows. Here is which ones, and what to use on the rest.
The first summer with European windows is the same for everyone. The tilt-and-turn sashes are wonderful — they seal like a refrigerator, tilt for ventilation, swing in for cleaning — and on the first warm evening the owner opens one and discovers there is no screen. There is no track for one, either. American double-hungs and sliders carry a screen on the outside track as standard; a tilt-and-turn opens inward, so a screen cannot sit on the room side, and the window as delivered simply does not have one.
This has been the one real complaint about a window type we install a great deal of — Cortizo on East 64th Street, Cortizo in Long Island City, Aluplast uPVC on Woodycrest Avenue. The answer has always existed; it has just been fiddly. This year there is a new one that is not fiddly at all, and this article is about when it works and, just as usefully, when it does not.
A conventional retrofit screen is a rigid aluminum frame, sized to the opening, held in the rebate between sash and frame by spring plungers or swivel clips. It works, but it has to be measured exactly, the clips have to find purchase on the frame, and taking it out to clean the glass is a small project.
The new product replaces the rigid frame with a loop of spring steel, PVC-coated, with the mesh welded directly to it rather than held in a spline. It is made to order to the opening, and to install it you bow the frame inward with your hands, set it into the rebate, and let go. The spring pushes it out against the frame on all four sides and it stays. No tools, no screws, no clips, and nothing is drilled or altered on the window. To remove it you bow it again and lift it out. The manufacturer, FlexScreen, makes it in sizes from about 9 by 9 inches to 55 by 80, rectangular only, with a choice of mesh: standard, fine for no-see-ums, pet-resistant, and a solar mesh that shades up to about 70 percent on a west-facing window.
For the windows it fits, it is the best retrofit screen there has been. The window tilts and turns normally behind it, the frame is invisible from inside, and there is nothing to lose over the winter.
It seems backwards: the premium aluminum systems are the ones the easy screen will not fit. The reason is precision. An aluminum tilt-and-turn is built to a tight sash-to-frame tolerance with EPDM gaskets running in machined grooves, and the space a spring frame needs to sit in simply is not there. Push a screen into that rebate and either the sash will not close against the gaskets or the gasket edge will saw through the mesh at the corners. The manufacturer says so on its own conditions page, and we have seen why.
So for an aluminum window the screen goes on the outer face of the frame rather than in the rebate. There are three good ways to do that, and all three leave the window fully operable.
Fixed exterior frame. A slim aluminum frame, powder-coated to match the window, hooked onto the outer frame or screwed to it. It stays on year-round and lifts off in a few seconds for cleaning. The simplest and cheapest, and invisible from inside.
Hinged exterior screen. The same frame on hinges, so it swings outward for access to the outside of the glass without lifting anything off. Useful on upper floors where the alternative is removing the screen from a ladder.
Retractable roller. A cassette above the opening with the mesh running in side channels; pull it down for the season, roll it away for the view. The right answer for large openings and for anyone who wants nothing on the window in winter.
The tilt. When a tilt-and-turn sash tilts, its top leans into the room and its outer face at the top moves outward slightly. A rebate-mounted screen must sit outboard of that arc, and on a tall sash the arc is bigger than it looks. We check it before ordering.
The facade. On a landmarked block, an exterior screen is visible from the street. A rebate screen, which sits behind the sash line, or a roller in a matching colour that disappears in winter, is the usual way through a Landmarks review; a hinged frame in a contrasting finish is not.
A photo of the window from inside with the sash open, a photo of the frame edge showing the step between sash and frame, and the brand if you know it. From that we can tell you in a day whether it is the flexible frame, a rebate screen with plungers, or one of the exterior systems, and quote it. The selection sheet in the library lays out the same logic on one page.
Selection sheet: Screens for Tilt-and-Turn Windows Tilt-and-Turn Windows Window Screens Cortizo Alutech Blinds Between the Glass
Send two photos and we will tell you which system fits your frames and what it costs. No site visit needed for the first answer.
