Slide into summer

By Nicole DeCosta

The West Linn Tidings, Jul 31, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Bob Lawrence, owner of NW Retractable Screens & Shades, demonstrates a screen door he installed last year at Cathy Peterson’s West Linn home. She said she had them installed because she, “loves to bring the outdoors in.” Later, Lawrence installed screen doors at her Oregon coast home.

Vern Uyetake / West Linn Tidings

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Breezy summer days just got a bit easier – and breezier.

Bob Lawrence, owner of NW Retractable Screens & Shades in Tualatin, said that unsightly screen doors and windows are a thing of the past.

Everyone has seen one at some time or another, an old bent screen door leading to someone’s patio that looks like it’s been through its share of climate changes.

Lawrence said his retractable screens are virtually unnoticeable.

“It blends right in,” he said. “You don’t even know it’s there.”

That is, until you want to use it.

Traditional screen doors can rust and warp easily if tampered with. Lawrence’s vinyl-coated fiberglass retractable screens roll into a housing compartment until needed, he said.

“A lot of people have really ornate front doors. A (traditional screen door) might take away from the look of the home,” Lawrence said. “Whenever you’re not using it, roll it up. You’re really going to increase the life of it.”

Sun damage and “walk-throughs,” as Lawrence puts it, can ruin a traditional screen door surrounded by metal. Walk-throughs are when someone doesn’t see that the screen door is closed and literally walks right into it. The contact can warp it’s shape.

“If we were to walk into this,” Lawrence said, “it would absorb the impact and retract. You just have to re-insert it back on the track – without a repair bill.”

Lawrence said his screen doors provide a seal all the way around on single and double doors.

The housing and tracks mount inside of the doorframe. To open, the screen glides from the aluminum housing across the door opening and through a double row of brushes on the top and bottom of the tracks.

When the screen reaches the other side, it attaches to a full-length magnet.

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