How to change handles on a mosquito net without the help of specialists?

A mosquito net, installed together with a plastic window, reliably protects the home from the penetration of mosquitoes and flies. The robust overall construction has one significant drawback - flimsy plastic holders that quickly become unusable. If the handles on the mosquito net are broken, they can be replaced with new ones bought in the store or made by your own hands.

Why do pens break?

Handles, or “ears”, on a mosquito net serve to remove the structure from the window opening and put it back if necessary. Usually this element is made of thin plastic, which within two to three years is destroyed by exposure to sunlight, rain, and frost in winter.

In order not to repair mosquito nets every year, they must be removed and stored in the utility room in the fall.

In addition, the holders may break due to mechanical stress. If you pull hard or bend fragile plastic to the limit, the handle will certainly crack and break.

How to remove the grid if the handles are broken?

Every housewife who has to wash plastic windows is faced with the need to remove a mosquito net. For residents of the first floors this is not particularly relevant, as they can wash the window from the street. But for those living on high floors, washing the window outside is a whole problem, and you can not do without dismantling the mesh screen.

If both holders are broken, removing the net becomes not only very difficult, but also dangerous. With the slightest awkward movement, the structure will fly down and at best break, and at worst, cripple one of the passers-by.

You can cope with the problem in the following way: take a piece of thin metal wire, bend in the form of a hook and pass through the canvas so that both ends are indoors. Improvised holders should be placed approximately in those places where the ears were. If you connect the ends of the wire, you get a loop, pulling which, you can remove the mesh from the window opening.

It should be remembered that this "one-time" version of the holders is suitable only for emergency cases. If you use the wire passed through the net all the time as handles, the design will quickly become worthless - and then the canvas itself will have to be changed.

How to install new "ears"?

To repair a window mosquito net, from which the holders have come off, is not difficult. You just need to stock up on the necessary tools and materials and change the holders.

The following will be required:

• new pens - they can be purchased at a hardware store or ordered online;
• a roller for refueling the sealing gum (it can be replaced with scissors with rounded arches);
• blunt knife or screwdriver.

Having prepared everything you need, the grid is laid out on the floor or table and get to work:

1. Carefully using a screwdriver or knife, you need to pull out the seal in exactly those places where the broken handles stood, and remove the remaining plastic. You should not remove the entire rubber seal from the net - without special tools it will be very difficult to put it in place.
2. Replace holders.
3. Using a screwdriver or scissors with rounded arms, push the seal back into the grooves.

If you follow this instruction, replacing the "ears" with your own hands will not be difficult.Those who often face the problem of broken holders are stocked up in advance with a mosquito net repair kit, which necessarily includes several spare handles. Also, spare parts can be requested from the master installing a plastic window.

How to make holders with your own hands?

Craftsmen offer many ways to make holders yourself and attach them to a mosquito net. Various improvised materials are used for work: plastic caps, bottles for carbonated drinks, staples made of thin metal for fastening drywall and others. The Internet is full of all kinds of “recipes” for fixing protective nets, and all of them are so simple that any housewife can cope with the work.

Hinges from a plastic bottle

The handles on the mosquito net should be durable and flexible. The plastic used to make bottles for the sale of mineral water and other drinks fully complies with these requirements, which is why quality holders are made of it. The main thing is to choose a container with not too thin walls.

Holders made in the way described below have an unusual shape, but they do not spoil the appearance of the window and perfectly fulfill their function.

A method of manufacturing holders:

1. The middle is cut out of a plastic bottle. The neck and bottom are not useful - for the manufacture of pens you will need only a flat, flat part of the dishes.
2. Now you need to mark and cut two identical strips 1 cm wide and 12 cm long. Dimensions are approximate, and there are no restrictions. However, when choosing the length of the loop, you need to focus on the thickness of the index finger.
3. To install new holders, you need to choose a place 2-3 cm higher or lower than the old one, where the cord has already thinned. Otherwise, the handles will constantly fall out.
4. The seal is pulled back and a plastic strip folded in half is inserted.
5. Roll the cord into the groove using a special roller or a thin curly screwdriver.

Perhaps this design will not last too long, but as a temporary option it will work. Now, pulling two loops, you can easily remove the mosquito net and install it back.

"Ears" from a plastic cover

In this method, a regular plastic cover is used to fix the mosquito screen. The details cut out of it almost do not differ from the purchased ones in appearance, and even surpass them in the strength of the material and fastenings.

1. Destroyed holders are pulled out of the mosquito net and, applying them to the surface of the lid, make a stencil. To make it easier to fix new handles, they are slightly lengthened.
2. Holders are cut out with a scissors or a clerical knife.
3. With the help of a self-tapping screw passing through both walls of the plank, on which the mosquito net is stretched, new handles are fixed.

This mount is more reliable than traditional (using a rubber seal). Now you don’t have to worry that the gum will collapse and weaken, due to which homemade pens will fall out of the profile.

Mosquito net handles are the weakest point in the structure. They often break down, sometimes for no apparent reason. Therefore, you must have a repair kit in the household with spare parts in order to quickly fix the malfunction, or be able to make holders from improvised means.