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Home Decorating

Does anyone have retractable screens for your French patio doors?

13 years ago

Looking for recommendations on brands of doors and/or screens. I'm replacing my French doors and don't want to look through screens except when doors are open. I'm probably using Kolbe wood doors, because I just replaced all the windows in my house with their wood windows, but they don't have retractable screens available for any but the vinyl French patio doors they sell. I'd consider a different brand of wood doors if they are available in Douglas fir and have retractable screens. Or I can have after market screens installed if anyone has recommendations for either, I'd appreciate it.

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Comments (11)

Oakley
13 years ago
I don't have patio doors but we have an upper retractable screen at the front storm door, and let me tell you, we just love it!

I sure hope you find what you're looking for because they're so nice on a beautiful day!
segbrown
13 years ago
I am looking at the same thing for our back French doors ... Phantom Screens looks interesting; has anyone around here ever used them? (They're aftermarket) I'll let you know what I find out when I actually check them out in real life as opposed to website.
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The dogs pile into the screens on occasion, With a Phantom, there is not frame to it on the bottom or top. It runs in a little screen channel. When the dogs go thru it, the leader disconnects from the magnetic catch, and the screen is free to go at least a foot outside of the door plane. All you need to do to reset it, is retract it fully, and close it, and everything is reset, ready to go again. As far as narrowing the opening, it does not on my sliding patio door, since the screen leader is about the same width as the stile on the slider. On my front door, (hinged), it does restrict the opening about 2 1/2" from 35 3/4 to 33 1/4" Probably about the same as a regular screen door would, with the cylinder bracket extending into the opening.
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Comments (16)
Oaktown, the salesman who was working with my mom indicated that these new doors have a better air seal /better efficiency than French doors. Of course, when don't sales people say what works for them? You're right about the track. RunnerGirl, I've also lived with no-good apartment sliding glass doors, but these were not the same -- perhaps that's why they've "upped" the name -- they want to separate them in our minds. BeautyButDebtFree -- love your name! Yes, I HATE the swing of my French doors. It's a pain and prevents breezes from entering the house. My mom agrees, and we're both excited to see how these doors work in her house. As for sizes, you'll have to do the math yourself -- after you're sure of your wall sizes. No one choice is going to be right for every house. Bottom line for me: When I went shopping with my mom, I wasn't prepared to be so wowed by these doors. I thought the choices were old-fashioned sliding glass doors or inefficient French doors. These new doors seem to have the best of both options, while removing some of their problems. I'd recommend that any home buyer give them a look before making a decision.
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Comments (9)
You may want to just keep the sliders and add screens if you want the cats to stay inside. I have Pella sliders with a screen that's on the interior side of the sliding door and I consider it perfect for use with pets. It can be latched/locked so there's no chance my cat can get outside. Since your cats are indoor/outdoor now, consider doing what holly mentioned. My cat has a cat door in the BR that opens to a wire tunnel. The tunnel then leads to a 10', six ft. high kennel that sits in the corner of the deck. Makes for a happy cat..........
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Comments (34)
Thanks for posting your photo (again), lacombe. That's a good close-up view of the Phantom Screen Door. That must be the cartridge on the left. It looks neat and it seems that it doesn't interfere with the threshold. And by the way, that's a lovely color blue on your door trim. So if I understand correctly, Phantom Screens are installed professionally and RetractAway Screens, on the other hand, come in a kit. And chay, it sounds like they're not so easy to install. Bug Off screens sound good for a temporary solution during those perfect days - would probably save on air conditioning also. Also, I'm curious. When I looked at full-view storm and screen combination doors I wondered how long it takes and how much strength is required to swap the window for the screen. Do they come with some kind of sleeve for storage?
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amysrq
13 years ago
I had a Phantom when we lived on a sailboat. It was great except for the fact that if you didn't hold on to it when you opened it, it "escaped" and slammed very loudly back into the cassette. It was also not attached at the bottom, an effort to prevent it from tearing if you hit it the wrong way. That design would make it impossible for me to use now with my escapist dog.
graywings123
13 years ago
Oak, What is an upper retractable screen? It goes up and down like a window shade?
segbrown
13 years ago
Don't they all slam back like that? (I don't have that much experience with them, but it seems that the ones I've used do tend to do that.)
Olychick
Original Author
13 years ago
I did find Phantom online and they looked interesting especially because they will make them in any color, finish you want, but alas, they are not available close to my home. I wonder about the pull down screens on a french door set-up. It would be great for ventilation but is it cumbersome to raise, lower every time you want to go in, out?
amysrq
13 years ago
Maybe they do all slam. This one was so loud as to be heart-attack inducing. Very unpleasant when we had guests on board who were not familiar with the thing.
pfmastin
13 years ago
olychick,
We found one at Home Depot several years ago for our other house. I really liked it. They install or you can install yourself. It worked well. We moved a year or so after it was put in, so I can't give you much on durability, but we had no problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: HD
gsciencechick
13 years ago
We bought ours at Home Depot, but had to pay to install them as it wasn't as easy as the brochure made it look. Of course, once installed, it took about 10 min for our cats to figure out they could escape through the bottom, so we pretty much never get to use them unless we lock up the cats. :(

As far as "snapping", we could fix the one side to be stationary and then just open the other side.

We really like them when we can use them. I called the manufacturer, and they said they were never intended to be used as pet screen.
carriem25
13 years ago
We have an Aira retractable screen on our front door, and I love it. We bought ours through a local dealer with a display in Costco.

Carrie

Here is a link that might be useful: Aira Screen Doors
Olychick
Original Author
13 years ago
thank you all. These are good suggestions and I'm glad to know they work for French doors. I like the Aira because of the color choices - not a lot of distributors near me, but I'll check out Costco and HD.

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