Chances are you’ve seen them if you have traveled through central Florida: screen panels that slide in front of overhead garage doors. After watching this project take shape, I would find it hard to imagine any upgrade that would transform an ordinary garage into an enormous entertainment center or comfortable workshop faster than screens.
Imagine being able to enjoy woodworking projects, crafts or even engine work with ventilation and view but no mosquitoes or bees. No problem if storm clouds threaten your backyard gathering; haul the picnic table to the garage and don’t bother wiping your feet. Better yet, put a second overhead garage door on the back wall and install the sliding screens there for a full-size breezeway.
Here in Florida, sliding garage door screens offer a couple other attractive features as well. They help to keep the garage cooler and, by extension, your attached, air-conditioned house. When you drive a sizzling hot vehicle into the garage, you can leave the door open and the screens closed.
Depending on the type of screen you use, it’s hard to tell whether the overhead door is open or closed from outside when the screens are shut. So you can keep your garage cool and clean (good-bye windblown leaves) without putting the contents on display. What’s more, you can lock the screens closed from inside. That won’t stop a determined burglar, but it might train the guy down the street to ask before he borrows your leaf blower.
We used components from Vinyl Tech in Venice, Florida, but you don’t have to live down South to upgrade your garage with sliding screens. The company has about 3,000 distributors around the country (see SOURCES) who can supply materials locally.
As much as we like these sliding screens, they aren’t for every garage. For instance, you can’t install them if your garage has a one-piece pivot-style door. While you can put narrow screen panels on a one-car garage, they really aren’t practical if you plan to drive a vehicle in and out. Yet they would be terrific for a small garage that is a dedicated workshop.
If you live in a cold climate, you probably would want to remove the panels and store them in the winter. Otherwise, they could freeze in their tracks like a patio door screen.
Weep holes in the bottom track allow water that penetrates the screens to run out into the driveway. However, they may not be able to keep up with the volume if your door is subject to deluges from wind-driven rain.
We recruited an experienced installer, Dave LeBruno of Mike’s Aluminum Products in Orlando, Florida, to demonstrate the fine points of installing the screens. The materials for the screen project range from $350 to $550. Dave could have completed the project in an hour if he didn’t have to pose for our photos.
Plan to spend a couple of hours to do it yourself. If you’d rather spend money than time, add in something for a professional installation. It costs roughly $100 in our area. No instructions come with the screening systems so keep this article on file.
Material choices
When you order a garage screen system, you will need to specify the number of tracks, the finish, the panel material and whether you want kick plates. Ask for a four-track in bronze, white or silver. Dave recommends plates because the bottoms of the screens tend to get the wettest and the plates help to keep the water out.
The screens themselves come in various mesh sizes. The finer the mesh, the less light and breeze it will admit. However, only the finest mesh will stop biting no-see-ums. If you want to add natural light without ventilation, ask for clear vinyl inserts (or tinted ones to block bright sunlight). Many Floridians seem to like Florida glass. It’s tough, translucent plastic sheeting embossed to look like screening. Florida glass provides privacy, but it still lets light in. It’s ideal if you plan to keep your garage warm or cool but need more natural light.
Measure first
You must install the screen system far enough forward so it does not conflict with the overhead door hardware. The frame wraps around the front edge of the door opening, so take your measurements there. (If you want to recess the flange in the door opening, install wooden bucks on the jambs and screw the frame to them.)
Measure from the top of the doorjamb to the concrete slab or driveway below at each end. Then measure between the side jambs at the top and bottom of the opening. Use a framing square and a level to determine whether the side jambs are plumb and the bottom is level. If one side is longer than the other or the top and bottom measurements are not equal, the fabricator will size the track system to the smaller dimensions. That way, the frame will form a perfect rectangle even if your door opening does not. Fortunately, the wrap-around frame and the thresholds let you shim if needed.
The bottom track rests directly on the slab or the driveway if the surface is level between the jambs. Otherwise, you will have to shim the track or level it with a cement-based floor-leveling compound. After securing the frame and installing the screens, you install ramped thresholds on both sides of the bottom track to conceal the shimming and form a smooth transition from the driveway to the garage floor.
Installation advice
Assemble the predrilled frame with the pop rivets that come with it. You’ll need your own rivet gun. Dave assembled this frame on the concrete driveway so you could see what he was doing, but if you want to be sure you don’t scratch the finish, work on the lawn or lay out short pieces of scrap lumber to hold the metal frame sections off the pavement.
Join the top track and side jambs with the wrap-around flanges facing in the same direction. Be sure the weep holes in the bottom track face the same way so rain will drain to the outside.
The top flanges are predrilled for mounting screws, but you will need to drill your own holes in the side tracks. Use an anti-skate, bullet-point drill.
When you have joined and predrilled the four track sections, have someone help you lift the unit into place. The track isn’t heavy, but it could twist and weaken the joints if you try to maneuver it alone.
Since this garage was masonry, Dave installed the frame with masonry screws. If you fasten the frame to wood, use rust-resistant pan-head wood screws.
To install the track, start on the high side if your doorway paving has one. Loosely secure the middle of the jamb with a single screw and check it for plumb. Then temporarily level the bottom track by placing shims under the low end. Adjust the bottom track until it is perpendicular to the side jamb. To be sure, we temporarily placed a screen panel in the track and slid it against the side jamb.
With the frame positioned and predrilled for mounting, Dave marked the holes and drilled into the masonry with a Tapcon masonry bit. Then he secured the frame with the Tapcon screws he had already color-matched by spray-painting their heads. If you are mounting the track on wood, simply drive the screws.
You don’t screw the bottom track to the pavement. Instead, you pin it inside and out with ramped thresholds anchored with 2-in. masonry screws. If you temporarily shim the track when installing the jambs, replace the wooden shims with continuous, permanent, compression resistant shims before you install the thresholds. Don’t use wooden shims; they will swell with moisture, compress under the weight of vehicles and eventually crumble. Portland cement-based floor-leveling compound or stacked small strips of aluminum, regularly spaced, would be better. It’s best if you fill all the space under the track to keep it from rattling, but it is rigid enough that it is not necessary to do so.
The thresholds come slightly longer than the track. Trim the inner threshold with a hacksaw to span the door opening and center the outer threshold in front of the track so it overhangs the two ends equally.
SOURCES
Vinyl Tech, (800) 282-6019.
Erwin Cohen is a freelance writer from Orlando, Florida.
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
BEFORE YOU ORDER
Step 1: Measure the width of the opening at the top and bottom and the height at each end. Then provide the smaller
dimensions when ordering materials.
Step 2: Use a level to verify that the sides of the opening are plumb and a framing square to ensure that the top and bottom are parallel and level.
INSTALLATION
Step 1: Predrill the sides of the frames for mountingthem to the garage before you assemble the sections
Step 2: Join the side jambs and the top track with rivets using the predrilled holes at the ends.
Step 3: Join the side jambs and the top track with rivets using the predrilled holes at the ends.
Step 4: Position the frame in the opening and shim the low end, if needed, to level the bottom track.
Step 5: Secure the mounting flanges to the garage with screws. Predrill through the frame holes for masonry surfaces.
Step 6: After installing permanent shims under the bottom track, secure the ramped thresholds with masonry screws.
Step 7: Install the screen panels in the tracks top first and test them to make sure they slide freely.