How to Remove a Fly Screen (Without Bending It)
- Jonathan Bull
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Most fly screens come off easily, but the ones that don't usually end up bent, scratched, or with mesh that's pushed out of the frame. After 25 years cleaning windows professionally, I've seen damaged screens more times than I can count.
Here's how to take fly screens out properly.
Understand the Screen Before You Touch It
There are probably over a dozen different fly screen designs out there. But they all fall into three broad types, and knowing which one you're dealing with changes everything.
Type 1: Sits inside a groove in the aluminium window frame
These screens live in a channel that runs around the inside or outside of the frame. When the channel is on the inside, to get them out, you often need to remove the sliding window first, then the screen slides or lifts free from the groove. They're usually pretty straight forward once you know the trick, but people get caught because they don't realise the window has to come out first.
Type 2: Attaches to the outside of the frame
These screens fit over or against the outside face of the frame, held by wing clips (or swivel clips) on the sides, fixed grooves or simply jammed in tightly by friction. Some also use velcro strips to hold them in place. Swivel-clipped screens are straightforward once you find the clips. Friction-fit and velcro screens are where people start reaching for screwdrivers, which is where the damage happens.
Type 3: Wraps around the frame with a fastening system at the top
These use some kind of tab or clip mechanism, usually at the top of the frame,
combined with a spring plunger, slide tabs, D-clips, or fan tabs to hold the screen against the frame. Some versions also add velcro for extra grip to prevent the screen falling out. They look different depending on the manufacturer but they all work on the same principle: release the top, and the bottom follows.
Types 2 and 3 are the ones where you genuinely need the right tool, especially when they're tight, are sticking to paint, or using velcro. More on that below.
Type 1: Groove-Fit Screens
The key here is sequence. Don't try to wrestle the screen out with the window still in place.
First, the sliding window has to come out. Slide it to a partly open position, grip both sides firmly, and lift it straight up. The goal is to get the bottom of the window high enough to clear the bottom track, then pull the base toward you and out. Once it's free, carefully lower it to the ground and set it aside. With the window out of the way, you have clear access to lift the fly screen out of its groove.
If the window is heavy, this is a two-person job.
One thing to check before you start: not all sliding windows will lift high enough to clear the bottom track. Some frames just don't have that clearance. If that's the case, the screen can't be removed this way and you'll need to work around it or accept that it's not coming out.
Type 2: Outside-Fit Screens (Wing Clips and Friction-Fit)
Swivel clips: Find the clips on each side of the frame, usually at least four per screen. Rotate to release, then lift the screen away from the frame. Straightforward once you locate them.
Friction-fit and velcro: These are the ones that can cause damage. The screen is either pressed tightly into a rebate or held by velcro strips, and people reach for a screwdriver to lever it free. That's how you get scratched frames and gouged paintwork.
What you need is something you can get into the gap between the screen edge and the frame, with enough width to apply even pressure without concentrating force on one point. A flat, flexible tool rather than a pointed one. And a plastic that wont scratch.
Type 3: Tab and Spring Systems
These have more variation than the other two types, but the removal logic is the same across all of them.
Find and release the fastening at the top first. Depending on the design, this means sliding a tab, pressing a D-clip, rotating a fan tab, or pulling in a spring plunger.
Once the top is released, the screen typically hinges away from the frame at the bottom.
Lift clear and set down mesh-side in.
The other thing with these fly screens is that all those small fittings take a beating over time. Tabs snap off, spring plungers stop springing, D-clips go missing, and the little lift tabs that were supposed to make removal easy just pull clean out of the frame. Once that happens, there's nothing left to grip or pry with, and you're left staring at a screen that's flush against the frame with no obvious way to get behind it.
That's exactly the situation the XPRT Fly Screen Remover was designed for. You can get the flat face into the gap at the edge and work the screen out without needing any of the original hardware to still be intact.
Why I Built the Fly Screen Remover
Type 2 and Type 3 screens, particularly the tight friction-fit ones and any screen using velcro, need the right tool. There's no way around it.
I got tired of having a simple window cleaning job turn into a drawn out nightmare. Window cleaners were using screwdrivers, paint stirrers, dental picks, but none of them were actually designed for the job.
The XPRT Fly Screen Remover has a wide, flat face with the right amount of flex to get under a screen edge and apply even pressure without concentrating force on one spot. It works on friction-fit Type 2 screens, velcro-held screens, and the tight tab-and-spring Type 3 designs where you need to get leverage without marking the frame or the glass.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Some screens are harder to put back in than take out. Before you remove anything, watch carefully how it comes out and remember the sequence. Some screens need to go back in a specific corner order. Eg. bottom left first, bottom right second, top left third. Get it wrong and it can become a real brain teaser.
Some screens are placed from the outside but clipped from the inside. Reinstalling these usually means one person outside holding the screen in position while someone inside fastens the clip. But the clip often only needs half a millimetre of movement toward the inside to engage. The XPRT Fly Screen Remover means one person can handle the whole job, pulling the screen from inside just enough to click the clip in place.
While the screen is out, it's the easiest time to clean it. A damp towel is all you need. Wipe both sides of the mesh and the frame and your done.
The summary
Figure out which of the three types you're dealing with before you touch anything. Type 1: window out first, then screen. Type 2 and 3: find the clips or tabs, release them in the right order, and don't reach for a screwdriver on tight or velcro-held screens. Get a tool designed for it.
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