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.

Custom Made 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.

Angled Glazing in American Homes

The great room with a cathedral ceiling is where most of these openings live. The gable wall above the main windows gets glazed to the peak, either as one triangle or as a run of trapezoids following the roof line, and the operable panel in it is the best ventilation in the house because it sits at the top of the volume all the warm air is collecting in.

The other common cases are a sunroom or three season porch, where the angled panels where the roof meets the side walls are almost never screened, and a stairway window that follows the run of the stairs. In all three the glazing was specified for light rather than for airflow, so a screen was never part of the package.

Reaching it, and taking it down

These openings are high, which is the practical argument for a panel that goes up with adhesive and comes down by hand rather than one that has to be unscrewed at the top of a ladder every time it needs cleaning. Order splits accordingly: sections you can handle alone beat one large sheet you cannot.

Renting, HOA and no-see-ums

Nothing is drilled and nothing shows from outside, so there is nothing for an HOA to approve and nothing to make good at the end of a lease. And the same caveat as everywhere on this site: 18x16 mesh handles mosquitoes, houseflies and wasps but not no-see-ums, which need 20x20 screening we do not make.