Wooden screen doors work great and will last 10 years or so, if they are properly primed and painted. Be sure to install a diagonal brace wire, adjustable-usually make of galvanized steel. A screen door will tend to sag over time, and the brace wire can be easily adjusted to keep the door square. I'm not sure what type of wood our screen doors are made of, but it could be hemlock or poplar.

Thanks ericwi. I should have mentioned that I live in Northern Il in case that makes a difference but I see you are from WI so the climate is similar. When had wooden screen doors when I was a kid in OH. The only problem we had was in the installation but my Dad was not always the best handyman. ;) I remember that ours had a diagonal wire so maybe this is the clue to good performance.

Thanks again for your help.

I've made screen doors - your hubby wouldn't like the ones I've made. They were functional and kept the bugs out. I was in an apartment at the time, got permission from the landlord. I did NOT buy good wood as I had to leave them behind. Good aged wood properly primed & painted won't warp. Everyone had wooden screens when I was growing up and they weren't warped. I think the lumber today is a different quality. 2x4s bought today twist unbelievably. DH uses & reuses old 2x4s as long as he can - they're true with very few knots.

There are two ways to put a diagonal brace on a door.
The wire brace has the advantage in that it can be adjusted. It's attached between the middle of the hinge side and the outside lower corner. It pulls the weight upward.
The wooden brace goes from the lower corner on the hinge side up towards the middle on the outer side - not adjustable. The weight on the outer edge pushs against the brace and can't droop too much, in theory.

If you can find and afford a good wooden door, you shouldn't have warping.

I have wooden screen doors on all my exterior doors, and on some interior ones as well (attic, cellar, larder, wood room). Some are the old-fashioned ones with removable screen (full door) panels that can be exchange for glass storms; some are just plain screens that are entirely switched out in the winter, and a very large double one my husband made for us a couple of years ago. Only the alrge double one has diagonal bracing, and they all hold up just fine. The trick is to keep them well-painted and to keep your pets from blasting through them. To that end we have added 3/4 inch mesh over the lower portions. That seems to do the trick for most of them, except for one cat we had, who considered screening just an annoyance, but then he would run right through glass panes: a very hard headed creature!

You can have screen doors made at a number of mail order places (waits are sometimes long, so hop right on it if you want one for early this summer). Try googling for wooden screen doors and you should turn up half a dozen suppliers. Many will make them in any wood you like, inlcuding tropical hardwoods. We finally made one of our own because we wanted a single one to cover a pair of double doors and the shipping cost on one that large was astounding. The styles tend to be quite Victorian, at least to my eye, so that was a problem for our older house, too.

The cost for the door may shock you (it did me). And I also recommend the bronze screening, which looks very nice and weathers well. Unless, of course, you have pets then go for cheaper as you'll be replacing it regularly.

HTH,

Molly

Molly; Thanks so much for your info. Do you know what kind of wood your doors are?

I would love to have bronze screening but with 3 large breed dogs and 1 fiesty cat...I don't think it would hold up a week. We use the fiberglass pet screening and get it at HD. It works great and we've not replaced screening since original install and that was over 3 years ago.

We have had two screen doors in place for about 15 years. One is exposed to hot sun, wind, rain, snow, etc. The other is on the shady side of the house.

We have had no problem with warping on either door. They are not cross-braced, or wired. I think the wood is probably poplar, which is very straight-grained.

To solve the cat-through-the door problem we put in cat-proof mesh which has worked so far.

Softwoods like yellow pine and sypress are better for thin sections exposed to weather than domestic hardwoods.
The softwoods actually move less than typical hardwoods.

There are some tropicals that are as stable as softwoods, but they are often expensive and many are difficult to paint. The oils in the wood give them decent life, but prevent paint from adhering very well.

Poplar is very easy to paint but one of the least rot resistant woods in the hardwood family.

Yellow pine is OK, but white pine is poor also.
Cypress, cedar, fir work pretty well.
The wood engineering handbook (US Forest Products Lab) has extensive tables covering wood movement and ease of painting. Chapter 3 covers wood movement thoroughly.

Hey brickeyee! I was hoping you would see my post!

The screen doors I am interested in can be made in 3/4" Pine, Doug Fur or Oak and in 1 1/8" in Pine, Doug Fur, Oak, Mahogany, Cedar, Redwood or Mahogany.

There are also some that I like, 1 1/8", made of Poplar or Cypress.

Check the wood engineering site (my copy is loaned out at the moment) and decide based on the look and ease of painting/finishing.

Thanks for the info. The Wood Handbook is a wonderful resource.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wood Handbook

we have 2,we had the guys that did the restoration work here make us 2.Ours never warped.Mine is removable screens you can interchange put glass panels in.

bulldinkie; Do you know what kind of wood your doors are made of?

I have to ask hubby not sure,theyre heavy.They have removable top and bottom.In fall its a paneled,like your 6 panel doors on its 2 on bottom,glass on top.Then in spring both top and bottom are screen panels.Im thinking fir.

He said hes thinking fir too.We had them done 14 yearts ago and still great shape.

bulldinkie; Thanks so much for getting back to me on the material for the door.

I think I am going to go with fir but I have to run this by my GC first and see what he thinks.

Thanks everyone for being so helpful.

I have a house built in 1895. We have had it for about 1.5 years now. The front door opens onto a covered porch. At some point in time the front screen door was removed and replaced with a metal screen door. There would have been a total of 4 wooden screen doors in this house. Looking around in the attic I found all of these screen doors. They are all in great shape. A couple of them need the screen replaced and a little paint taken off. The screen door for the front of the house is oak(almost 2 inches thick) has the cross brace the original screen and wrought iron on the bottom of the wood. Is there any reason that I should not put these back on the house? The front door would look so much better with this door.