Baby Proofing Screen Door

[ependydad]

Now that little man is walking, my screen door was a big worry. We like to leave it open almost all of the time but didn't want to worry about him falling out. I read a solution on rv.net's forums and tried it out- open the slider in the screen and flip the grab handle over the door.

About a half hour after we first set it up, grandpa watched little man reach up for the circle, open the door and was stopped by the arm.

Success.

[jtstromsburg]

Thanks for sharing. Simple, yet effective! We are close to being in the same boat. DW wants plexiglass on it too. Too many mods, not enough $$$

[Terier]

Looks like a good and useful tip!

[Scott1]

Great idea! We also put a grill on the lower part of the door to prevent our dogs from going through the screen. This might help little kids from falling into the door and going through it too. Not sure if it could happen but just throwing it out there.

[OldCoot]

Old fashioned but these work also.

[Capt. Mike]

Originally Posted by jtstromsburg

Thanks for sharing. Simple, yet effective! We are close to being in the same boat. DW wants plexiglass on it too. Too many mods, not enough $$$

We cut plexiglass to fit the outside frame of the lower section of the screen, and attached it with stick-back Velcro. That way, we can remove it when we want, but it holds tight and rides there while we travel. Granted, we're not trying to keep a toddler in - just trying to keep the little white dog from tearing up the screen (again) - but it works well for that, and the cost was about $30 to do both doors.

[ependydad]

I have some worries about dude falling thru the door. It seems if there is a way of getting hurt, he's going to find it. Pretty much just need to keep a mop and bucket around to clean up the blood spills...

[pwb01]

Camping World has a full guard that mounts on the bottom half of the door which prevents damage to the screen without blocking air flow. I think mine cost $40 and it took 20 minutes to install. it looks much like a residential screen door with it installed. Add a latch and it's complete.

[cbvp]

Now that you've stopped the door from opening.
You'll want to stop the screen from being pushed out.

The grid is a florescent light defuser cut to fit into screen opening on outside of door.

The top piece of aluminum is angle attached with small screws upward into door. Defuser slides in behind angle.


Bottom is aluminum flat bar put on with stainless screws an cap nuts.







C.B.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

Old fashioned but these work also.

Might need to do that. He figured out how to open the door and bang it open/closed jail house style...

[ependydad]

cbvp- that looks good! Nothing DIY looking about it!

[cpaulsen]

I have plexiglass that covers the whole screen door in pieces. All stuck with velcro. That way I can remove any I want for air circulation or close it all up and still have the door open for light. The bottom section I can simply move up a few inches at a time if needed.

[mrsarbogast]

Originally Posted by cpaulsen

I have plexiglass that covers the whole screen door in pieces. All stuck with velcro. That way I can remove any I want for air circulation or close it all up and still have the door open for light. The bottom section I can simply move up a few inches at a time if needed.

Can you show a picture? Hubby and I want to do this mod...
Also; did you cut the plexi yourself or have it done at a hardware store. Thanks.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by mrsarbogast

Can you show a picture? Hubby and I want to do this mod...
Also; did you cut the plexi yourself or have it done at a hardware store. Thanks.

So, I ended up looking at something to protect dang son and the screen in the lower part of the door. I really wanted something that let air flow but didn't like the looks of the Camco door pet guard. The ones at Home Depot were much too big (too tall and too wide).

In the end, I bought a fluorescent light cover grate and a piece of acrylic (aka plastic glass). I had looked at the door and saw that on either side was a groove that something could slide into (see pics)- I just wasn't sure which would fit. Turns out, the light cover thing was too thick. I would have had to make something to mount it to and the have that slide in. So, I have up the air flow and used the acrylic. I would have preferred Lexan, but it was quite a bit more expensive and a much larger size than I needed

The acrylic was very easy to cut. My first edge, I tried to use a square and holding it into place. I had varying levels of success and a few stray cut lines (fortunately almost all on the "outside" of my cut. After 15-20 scores, I held the acrylic down with the square and broke it along the edge of my table. Nice and clean.

The second edge was longer than the first, so I clamped my metal yard stick down on top of the sheet and to the table. There was no movement this time and I was able to get a real clean line. I clamped it down on the edge of the table with some wood blocks to spread the holding force and again it broke nice and clean.

I sanded both edges with 220 grit sand paper and then something much higher (whatever I had laying around) to clean up the edge. For my door, I was able to hide one cut edge in the groove and the other is facing the bottom, so only dang son can critique my work.

For mounting it, I don't see a need for quite a while to take it down, so I used 3M mounting squares cut into rectangles. When I go to take it down, it should be as easy as just pulling. That's the theory, at least.

If I ever make a panel for the top (so I can have the door open but keep weather out), I'd likely cut the curves with my jig saw, a fine metal cutting blade and a nice slow speed.