Phifer Spline .160 x 25-feet

Pros: one bag finished two screen door windows, durable and flexible spline, how-to instructions on bag
Cons: a spline roller needs to be purchased separately to install the spline
Lesson One – Not every screen window uses the same size spline to hold the screen in the frame.  Pet Peeve – Why are there so many different sizes of spline!  Two of the three screens I needed to replace used one size of spline, while the other needed a different size.  That is how I came to buy Phifer Spline (.160 x 25-feet).

Description
The plastic bag holds 25-feet of this flexible spline.  The spline resembles a rubbery piping that fits into the channel (groove) of a window frame to hold the screen in place.  The .160 size is not the smallest diameter spline, nor is it the largest.  If you aren’t sure of the spline size, remove a piece of the old spline from the window frame and take it with you to a hardware store.  A nice thing about the Phifer spline is that the bag has an “actual size” graphic of the spline, so if you place the end of the spline you brought against the image, you can see if the spline will be the right size.  The back of the bag includes step-by-step instructions for re-screening.
My Experiences
Having re-screened a sliding door, I was pleased that replacing the screen in a window was easier.  Both the front and back door screens had holes in them.  At first I thought I could use the same size Phifer spline that I used in the door … but, no, the windows required a larger spline size.  The spline needs to fit snuggly into the groove in order to hold the screen in place.
The door screens are larger than my house window screens.  One bag of the .160 spline finished both windows with hardly any left over.  I had watched a YouTube video so that I could visualize the steps in the screening process.  Simple!
First I removed the old spline from the window frame.  I was then able to pull the old screen free. The aluminum door frame was dirty, so I cleaned it with some spray cleanser.  The old screen was metal, and I was replacing it with a fiberglass screen.  Using masking tape, I affixed the screen door (with the groove up) on the work table.  I rolled out the screen, and taped it to the frame before cutting the screen from the roll (make sure to leave a few inches of screen overlapping the window groove).
Next comes the Phifer spline.  I started at the bottom right of the screen, laying the spline along the groove.  You will need a spline roller to push the spline into the grooved channel.  The spline roller is plastic and looks like a rotary cutter.  It has a handle so that the wheel runs inside the groove to push the flexible spline in place.  I gently rounded the spline around each corner of the window frame, using the tool to push the spline in place as I worked around the frame.  When I neared my starting point, I laid the spline along the groove and cut it to size, and then used the roller to push the spline into position.  I used the edge of a flat-head screwdriver to gently press the spline into the four corners, since the roller couldn’t roll all the way to the frame edge.  The last step was to use a utility knife to slice the extra screen from the frame, being careful not to slice the screen now covering the window opening.
Summary
I liked using Phifer spline.  It is constructed from a durable material that was flexible and easy to work with.  One bag of spline finished both windows.  Note that the spline does not come with a roller, so you will have to separately purchase the spline roller.  Another project done!

Enjoy the day,
Dawn
http://dlstewart.com
Copyright 2015 Dawn L. Stewart
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