I moved into a place with one very hazy window screen that is difficult to see through.
I have tried scrubbing it with a brush with soapy water and blasting it with the hose. But I cannot get rid of the hard material buildup. I even tried dipping a brush in CLR and scrubbing the screen.
When I Google how to clean a window screen, I just run across people telling me to do what I already tried. But I think the people touting these methods simply have screens with dirt in them.
This doesn’t seem like simple dirt buildup. I enclosed a close up photo of what it looks like.
I bet if I poked all of the holes individually with a toothpick I could clean it, but that would take eons. Any advice? Thanks.
So I was playing around with some tweezers and it actually seems like I can peel it off with some difficulty, although it comes up in pieces. Considering none of my other screens look like this, I’m wondering if it is actually some sort of purposeful hazy coating that got destroyed over the years??? Is that a thing??? It only seems to be present on the inner surface of the screen, not the outer side. Scrubbing does nothing to it put it can be peeled off it seems. Just gonna take me forever to do.
This is a weird question, but I don’t suppose this is near Baltimore, or a previous owner was from near Baltimore? They have (or had, not sure how popular it is anymore) a thing there, where they paint their screens with various scenes. It reduces visibility, so people can’t see in as well, but still lets air in. So I’m wondering if this is a very dirty old painted screen, with maybe the pores clogged up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_painting
Painted screen society of Baltimore, with images:
http://paintedscreens.org/
This is very interesting. No, I do not live near Baltimore and the coating is just diffusely white and semitranslucent, without different colors.
But I do think a coating must have been put over the screen at some point, be it paint or not for whatever reason.
These look pretty interesting and if it was a picture I would just keep it lol
Damn, I only lived in Baltimore for a year but I loved it there. I’d forgotten about these!
That’s an interesting thought, is it a screen that faces a sun side? Might have been a coating that helped reduce sun intensity. Could be the outside peeled off and the inside hasn’t yet.
Like others have said, replacement is probably your easiest solution. As long as you can see the screen cord it shouldn’t be too difficult to do in place, but would definitely be easier if you can remove. Start at the top corner, work your way across then work your way down. Let gravity help.