Spring in most of the country means the worst of winter is finally over. Spring in Tampa Bay means we’ve got maybe eight good weeks before the heat and the daily thunderstorms show up for the summer. Either way, it’s the right time to get your screens cleaned, checked, and ready for the season when you’ll actually use them.
If you’ve got Phantom screens on your home, here’s what we recommend doing once a year, and spring is the easiest time to do it.
Clean the Mesh and the Tracks
Phantom screens are mostly self-cleaning when they’re retracted, since they live inside their housing and stay out of the weather. But the mesh still picks up pollen, dust, and salt over the course of a year. Down here, the salt air off the Gulf is a real factor even if you’re miles inland.
Use a soft brush or a microfiber cloth with mild soap and water. Wipe the mesh gently. Don’t blast it with a pressure washer and don’t use harsh cleaners. Both will shorten the life of the material.
While you’re at it, run a damp cloth through the tracks. Dirt, dead bugs, and pollen build up in there and can make the screen drag or stop short of where it should. Five minutes of cleaning saves a service call later.
Look for Anything That Doesn’t Seem Right
Run the screen all the way down and all the way back up. Look at the mesh for any rips or thinning spots. Check the housing for damage. Watch how the screen tracks — it should glide. Any catching, sticking, or grinding noises mean something needs attention.
Florida is hard on screens. Hurricane season knocks debris around, the UV is brutal, and the humidity gets into everything. Small problems caught in spring stay small. The same problems ignored until July get expensive.
If you spot anything that worries you, give us a call. We service everything we install and we can take a look without you having to figure it out yourself.
A Little Lubricant Goes a Long Way
Silicone-based lubricant on the tracks and moving parts keeps everything operating smoothly. Important word there is silicone. Don’t use WD-40 or anything petroleum-based, since those can degrade the screen material and attract more dirt.
A light spray on the tracks once a year is plenty.
Retract Screens You’re Not Using
If a screen is going to sit unused for a stretch — say you’re leaving town for a few weeks, or you have one on a side of the house you barely use in summer — pull it up. Phantom screens are built to live inside their housing, and that’s where they’re happiest. Less UV exposure, less weather, longer life.
This matters more in Florida than just about anywhere else. The sun here will fade and break down anything you leave out in it long enough. Mesh that lives in its housing 90 percent of the time will last meaningfully longer than mesh that’s left down by default.
Now Use Them
Here’s the part where Florida is genuinely different. In most of the country, spring is when you finally get to open the windows. Down here, spring is the last window you have before the AC stays on until October.
From roughly mid-February through mid-May, the weather across Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties is the reason people move to Florida. Mid-70s, low humidity, breeze off the Gulf. If you’ve got screens on your doors, your windows, or your lanai, this is when they earn their keep.
Open the front and back doors. Get a cross breeze going through the whole house. The AC can stay off for weeks. Your power bill will notice.
The lanai becomes the most-used room in the house. Pull down the motorized screens to knock back the pollen if it’s bad, leave them up if it’s not. Set up the outdoor kitchen. Eat dinner outside every night.
A Few Tampa Bay-Specific Things to Know
Spring brings pollen, and a lot of it. Oak pollen especially coats everything in yellow-green dust for about three weeks in March and early April. If you have asthma or allergies, motorized solar screens on your lanai let you keep the space usable without sitting in a cloud of pollen.
Love bugs show up in May. They’re harmless but they’re everywhere, and an open door without a screen means they’re inside too. Make sure your door screens are clean and running right before that hits.
Hurricane prep starts in late spring. Phantom screens should be fully retracted before any storm with real wind. They’re not designed to take hurricane-force gusts and aren’t meant to act as shutters. If you have motorized screens, run them up. If you have manual oversized door screens, roll them in. Then put them back to work once it passes.
Need Service or a New Screen?
If your screens need a service call, or you’ve been thinking about adding screens to a space that doesn’t have them yet, spring is the time to handle it. We get slammed once summer hits and the schedule fills up fast.
Call us at 1-727-372-5900 or reach out through the contact page. We cover Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and most of the surrounding Tampa Bay area. Free in-home estimates for new installs, and we service everything we install.