Holey-Mousey: The Importance of Regular Window Screen Inspection

When you clean windows, you hear all kinds of stories. A crazy recent one involved a mouse and a holey screen.

While looking down into their basement window well, the homeowner and his family saw a mouse. A very athletic mouse. This mouse went through a hole in the bottom of the screen, climbed up the mesh, scrambled through another hole at the top, and waltzed down the other side. Witnessing such an act sure does make you think about window screens and getting them repaired.

When and How to Inspect Your Screens

This story brings up several considerations around window screens, including the importance of checking them regularly. Twice a year is a good cadence and you can incorporate it into the rest of your spring and fall maintenance checklists.

The process for how to do this inspection can be as simple as walking around your home and taking a close look at each screen. Another way is to remove the screens out of the window frame individually. Pro tip – if you remove the screens, make sure to mark each one and the window it came out of. This makes putting them back in easier. With either choice, see if there are holes, tears, or other damage. Check along the frame too where the screen is held in place with spline, as this is a common spot for fraying to occur. Inspecting your window screens for damage is an easy activity as Fall approaches and having screens in good order provides many benefits.

Benefits Of Screens In Good Condition

One benefit of window screens is that they allow for more ventilation when you open your windows. Besides ventilation, there are also specialty screens that help cool your house and reduce the effects of UV light. Consider too how clean window screens help make your home look better. Yet you’ll miss out on these benefits if there are say, holes in the screen or the mesh are so ripped from weather and age that the screens aren’t in place. While all of these are good reasons to keep those screens up, the primary purpose of window screens is to keep bugs out. Think of all the bees, flies, and other insects that would come in through an open window but are stopped by that screen.

Regular screen inspections can also help you get ahead of pest problems. While cleaning windows for a customer in the Black Forest, we found wasps along the frame of one window and screen. While washing windows for a different customer who lived in Colorado Springs, we found ants around the windows. In both cases, we informed the clients about these bugs and hopefully prevented their pest problems from getting worse. Back to our original homeowner.

The homeowner who witnessed that mouse now understands the importance of regular screen inspections. We fixed several of their screens after a recent window cleaning appointment. If you’d like to avoid a crazy story, consider giving COS Exterior Services a call at 1+719.410.5576. We repair window screens for those in the Colorado Springs, Black Forest, Monument, Falcon, and Peyton areas.