A Magnetic Screen for Triangular, Angled and Irregular Openings

Some openings are not rectangles and never were. A gable glazed to the peak, a window that follows the pitch of a roof, a trapezoid over a stairway, the angled end panel of a sunroom: none of them exist in any stock size, and a rectangular screen either leaves a triangle of open gap or covers half the light. This panel is cut to the actual outline of the opening, whatever that outline is.

The Openings This Is Made For

Gables and peak glazing

The glazed gable end is the classic case: a wide base, two sloping sides and a point at the top, often several feet across. It is usually the highest opening in the room, which makes it the one doing the venting on a warm evening, and therefore the one worth covering rather than the one easiest to reach.

Cathedral ceilings and rooms in the roof

Where a ceiling slopes, the window frequently sits in that slope and the opening is a trapezoid rather than a rectangle. Heat collects at the top of those rooms and the angled window is the cheapest way to get rid of it, which is exactly why it stands open at the hour bugs are most active.

Stairway windows, sunrooms and porches

Tall stairway glazing that follows the run of the stairs, and the angled side panels where a sunroom or porch roof meets the walls. All of them are shapes a screen shop would quote for and no stock frame can touch.

Central Splits, and Why a Big Panel Needs Them

This screen takes one to four central splits, which is two to five panels, and on the largest openings the choice is not only about walking through.

Each split is a magnetic closure that parts as you pass and pulls itself shut behind you, so on a door height opening the number of splits is simply how many walk-through points you want. On a wide gable or a run of several feet, splits do something else as well: they break what would otherwise be one very large sheet into sections you can fit, handle and take down alone, and they keep the mesh taut across a long span. As a rule of thumb, add a split for every panel width you would not want to hold at arm's length on a step ladder.

Measuring an Asymmetric Opening

Start with a sketch, not with numbers

Draw the outline of the opening on paper first, roughly to shape, then write the measurements onto the drawing. Every irregular opening we see is measured wrong in the same way: the numbers are right, but afterwards nobody can tell which edge each one belongs to. A sketch removes that entirely.

What to measure on a triangle or a trapezoid

For a triangular gable: the full width at the base, the vertical height at each end, the height to the peak, and how far the peak sits from the left hand edge if it is not centered. For a trapezoid: the width at the bottom, the width at the top, and the vertical height at both ends. In both cases measure the opening you want covered rather than the glass, and take every dimension twice.

Where the slope meets the wall

The corner where a sloping edge meets a vertical one is the point that has to be right, because a small error there opens a gap along the whole slope. Measure into the corner rather than estimating it, and note whether the frame runs flush into the drywall or stops short of it.

Fitting on a Slope

A sloped or overhead edge behaves differently from a vertical one: the weight of the panel pulls along the adhesive line instead of hanging straight down from it. That makes surface preparation matter more here, not less. Clean the whole run with rubbing alcohol, let it dry, press the strip down along its full length rather than at intervals, and give it time before hanging the mesh. Fit in the morning rather than onto a frame that has been in full sun all afternoon.

Made to Measure Cannot Be Returned

A panel cut to your outline fits no other opening, so unlike a stock size it cannot come back. Spend the extra fifteen minutes on the sketch and the measurements, and tell us about anything unusual with the order: hardware inside the opening, a deep jamb, a beam crossing the glazing, or a shape that is not quite the triangle it looks like from the floor.

A-Frames, Chalets and Cathedral Ceilings

This is the Canadian shape. The A-frame and the chalet gable glazed from the deck to the peak are the defining form of cottage and ski country building, and the great room with a cathedral ceiling repeats it in the suburbs. In both, the operable panel sits high in a triangle or a run of trapezoids, which is where the warm air goes and which no stock screen has ever fit.

The cottage, and why it is worse there

A cottage is usually close to moving water, which is precisely where black flies breed, and its big gable faces the lake. It also sits unattended most of the year. Something you put up on arrival, take down in September and bring home with you suits that better than a fixed installation nobody is around to look after.

Seasonal removal, and why splits matter more here

The panel is going to come down every fall and go back up every spring, because that is how screens are treated in this country and because leaving anything on a high gable through freeze and thaw is asking for it. Order enough splits that each section is something one person can handle from a ladder, rather than one large sheet that needs two people and good weather.

The mesh, plainly

Standard 18x16 mesh stops mosquitoes, houseflies and wasps. It is not fine enough for black flies, which need 20x20 screening we do not offer. If black flies rather than mosquitoes are your real problem, that is worth knowing before you order.