Retractable screen door

[Lee Schierer]

Has anyone purchased and installed a retractable screen door. The kind that rolls up in the door frame like a window shade only on the side of the frame. I'm thinking of installing one on the door leading to our back deck.

If anyone has one how does it hold up to a dog or small children running into it?

What brands are good?

[Paul Ryan]

Lee,

I installed a double one last spring. It has a screens that unroll from both sides of a 72" french door opening and attach with magnetic strips. One of the sides has locks to keep it "out" all of the time so only the other side has to be pulled out. It is a larson brand, one year in, I would buy it again in a heart beat. My yellow lab which has run through a picture window, 2 pains of glass, (window was sitting out side and in the process of going to the dumpster) has obeyed the screen just fine. The larson brand, the screen just sits in a track top and bottom and can be pushed out and will fall right back into the track with out any damage. My 2 1/2 year old has pushed on it before it with out any issues, it has a lot of give. It would be real tough to damage it. It only took me a couple of hours to install. I only wish I would have known about it a couple of years ago.

Hopefully the pictures do more justice explaining what I am talking about.

[Jim Podsedly]

We have a retractable screen on our front door. It needed to be reset/rewound when our dog ran or tried to run through it once. Other than that it has been nice to have a screen at times and not at other times.

[David G Baker]

I use the detachable screen that is held on by Velcro on one of my shop doors. It has worked fine for several years and has no moving parts that can be abused. I take it down and store it over the Winter. It does a good job of keeping the bugs out, is easy to pass through with your hands full and if you have pets they can pass through the opening with out any problems.

[Doug Swanson]

We have the larson brand of retractable screen...no problems so far...had it maybe two years...my only problem with installing it was the framers who built our house never heard of a level on a door jamb....