Need a solution or recommendation
 

We purchased our 8 yr old home and moved in Sept 2023. Our home has an extended Lanai that was originally just screened. The previous owners had the Lanai enclosed with glass sliding doors and It is heated and has air conditioning. How do I wash the exterior side of the patio doors with the large permanent screens installed? Do I use a special product I spray thru to the glass thru the screens? Do I have to have the patio doors popped out of the tracks? Are there professional Villages companies that would handle this for me? Thanking you in advance for your recommendations!

It is a pain but there are devices that will enable you to reach but I am not sure how effective they are. Also you can order from Fuller Brush Co a spray that you hook up to your hose and wash through the screen. If your windows are not too dirty this does work.

It would be very unusual for the screens to be permanently attached to the door or to the lanai. Sometimes there are hidden clips along the edge of the screen where it fits into the frame. My window screens have hidden expansion clips and you need to use a screwdriver to pry out the edge of the screen to remove it. If you cannot figure it out, take a photo and ask a window expert how to remove the screens.

The screens are huge, like the size of 4 patio doors.

If you have screens, they should be removeable as noted above, look for small metal "pulls" along the base of the screens, these typically pull UP against a spring at the top of the opening and allowing the screen to be removed. As for the sliders, I would use a suitable glass cleaner, and then a mild hose spray to rinse, I would NOT use a pressure washer or any other high pressure source as this will force water past the normal channels in the floor area into the interior room, been there done that...

I have the same arrangement with a permanent screen outside of sliding glass panels. I wash them myself. I slide the panels around so that the one to be washed is near the middle of the opening with the others slid fully away from both sides of it. The key is to have access to both sides of the panel to be washed. I then just use my favorite glass cleaner with microfiber cloths and reach in from each side -- you only have to reach in halfway with your hand to wash the window since the other half is reached from the other side. The screen flexes out enough for my hand to get in there and reach all areas to be cleaned. I recommend wearing thin gloves to keep from scraping the back of your hand against the screen too much when doing the panel closest to the screen. The process goes better if you don't clean the window when the sun is shining on it.

I have screens that can't be removed or slide on my lanai. Windex makes a window cleaner that attaches to a hose that does a good job to clean both screens and windows. I used to take the windows out and clean them separately but this does a good enough job for me.

OP, if you have a permanent screen installed in front of glass doors, I would consider a modification. You could possibly remove the screen and have the doors fitted for individual screens that will fit the doors, or at least sliding screens on a track. One issue I can see with the current design is that if someone needed to exit the house in an emergency, they could open a door, but they may need to cut through the screen. I don't know if the current design even complies with the building code, since the lanai is a heated and cooled room.

Yes, our Lanai has an exit man door to the grille patio. Since the screens are so large (4 patio door widths) I am intimidated to remove those huge screens. I'm up for hiring a professional window washer that has encountered this setup.

Previous Owner may have Installed Single Pane Sliding Doors and Kept Original Screens
 

My guess is that the previous owner installed single pane sliding doors and kept the original "permanent" screens. I did this in a house built in 2013. This saved cost since single pane sliding doors fit in the available space with the original screens in place. It is a compromise but the extra cost for HVAC electricity was not too high. We were snow birding and did not care if the enclosed Lanai was hot during the summer.

Cleaning the windows was a pain then and is just as bad at the new house with double pane windows and sliding screens. The sliding screens easily get off the track and are a struggle to re-install correctly.

Good luck with finding a good solution and please share it with us. I would also like to find a better way. We have actually removed the sliding screens in several sections and store them in the garage. We have a door to a birdcage for normal in & out.

You can buy this at HD

Contact Paul. Excellent and thorough work

Wow. The Fuller Brush man is still around!

Another company that cleans windows is: D & J Window Cleaning

I work for a long established Villages enclosure company, Custom Windows in Leesburg, and a common option is mounted screens. These are typically put in a large opening behind a series of sliding panels or sliding glass doors where an exit isn’t desired. Examples include walking into landscaping, an enclosure that is a bit above the outside yard or simply wanting an unobstructed view. New enclosures require different framing than The Villages installs to support the weight and designs of the different options so the original screens are removed. They would not be changed to clip or release versions.