On the old summer “RV repair to-do list” a shabby looking screen door and weather stripping around it. There are holes here and there on the screens, and the foam weatherstripping is turning to dust. Between beagle claws on the screen and the desert sun breaking down the foam stripping, things are looking run down.
August is wasp season on Vancouver Island, so the door needed some TLC before those little buggers showed up. Off to the hardware store I headed to pick up some supplies. A 36″x84″ sheet of aluminum window screen mesh, a special tool to install it with and some new weatherstripping.
Cleaning the RV Screen Door
I published this tip in the past. For many of us, the best way to clean the RV screen door is to remove it from the RV. On ours and I assume many other rigs its only held in place by six screws. Once off it can easily be scrubbed and hosed down.
Replacing the RV Screen Door Screens
The job is dead simple with my door. A rubber strip holds the screen in place in a metal frame channel that runs all around the outside of the screen. Pull it out, and the old screen comes out. Installing the new one is easy too, and made even easier by using a specialized Screen Rolling tool built specifically for the job.
The tool is double ended. One end is a convex wheel which squishes the screen material into the channel. The other end is concave and helps push the rubber strip into the same channel.
Once the new screening is secured in place, a sharp utility knife finishes the job, trimming the excess screen material around the outside.
New Screen Door Weatherstripping
The old screen door weather stripping never sealed very well. I found it a bit thin. So, I purchased a little larger closed foam cell indoor/outdoor weather stripping to take its place. To get the old stripping off, I was excited to give my new power tool a try! The Milwaukee Oscillating Multitool with a scraper blade made short work the old stripping and adhesive. Cool!
Then, with a quick wiping down of Goo Gone followed by lighter fluid the bulk of the old glue was gone and ready for the new stripping. I laid new stripping all around the door frame. I had some left over from the 15′ roll so added a few strips to the sliding passthrough door for extra bug protection.
Video Detailing My RV Screen Door Repairs
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