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Monday, May 26, 2014

DIY: Window re-screening

Hope you are having a good Memorial day! 

This is one I have never done before but it was surprisingly very easy to do. Since becoming a homeowner, I have had to learn a lot of this stuff on the fly. YouTube has been very helpful. 

For this particular project though, I used Pinterest

My tenant called to let me know that there were holes in several of the window screens. J and I went there to get the screens out of the windows. We found a place that does the re-screening and took them there. 
Well, to my shock, they were going to charge $240 (before taxes) for 6-screens! it was going to be $15 for materials and $25 for labor. For EACH screen! No way!!! I decided to see if this was something I could do. A quick search through Pinterest said yes. So I purchased the materials. And went to work. 

Screen with holes.
Take out the rubber seal. Its as simple as pulling it out carefully. No tools required.




Supplies for re-screening. 

Measure and cut. 


Add plastic tubing and then using a pen knife, cut out excess.


All done. Doing all 6-screens took an hour.
Expertise needed: Beginner. ANY adult can do it.
Total approximate time: 1-hour for 6-screens.
Total spent on sewing materials: $56 (includes taxes). Yup. A whopping savings of about $200 (factoring in 6% taxes)! Can't beat that!
Feedback: I am glad I did these myself. I would have been upset if I found out I paid $255 (after taxes) for something that took an hour and cost less than $60 to do.

QUESTION:
Have you ever done a home DIY project? If so, how did it turn out?

10 comments:

  1. Seriously, youtube is such a lifesaver - I am always looking up videos that show step by step instructions of how to do things. I have done tons of furniture related DIY, but fixing house stuff I leave to Jay. Growing up his dad owned a construction company and he worked their during the summers so he knows the proper way to do things. He does teach me but I sill let him do most of it.

    good for you guys and fixing the screens yourself. the price seems crazy considering you guys did it fairly easily!

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    1. It sure is. I have learnt a lot from watching the videos on YouTube.

      The labor cost alone was just annoying. $25 per screen for something that took me less than 30-minutes per screen to do. SMH. I am glad I was able to do them myself.

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  2. We are SERIOUS DIY-ers over here too! We haven't done our screens yet, but we need too! We just turned our screened in porch into a fully enclosed actual playroom! Pics on my blog. Since becoming homeowners, we've installed gutters, painted our exterior of the house (this weekend!) remodeled our master bathroom and done small demos of built-ins to make room for other furniture. I LOVE seeing other DIY-ers projects! Great job!

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    Replies
    1. We sure are! I am looking forward to seeing the nursery reveal for your little one. So far, I have been following the construction. It looks really nice!

      Thank you!

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  3. It's so worth it to DYI....glad it worked out. it looks great!!

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    Replies
    1. It sure is. Plus I like to save money wherever and whenever I can :-D.

      Thank you!

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  4. Wow! Good for you. I would have never thought to do something like that myself. I'm so amazed at what you can learn on youtube. You did a wonderful job.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I never thought of doing them but homeownership and the need to save money has me learning to do things on my own. :-). Plus I love the sense of accomplishment when it is done.

      Thank you.

      Delete
  5. I'm filing this away on my to-do list. Great idea and saves tons of money!

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