How to install bug screens for windows in Japan

Our house in Japan did not come with any screen windows. In the land of mosquitoes this just bewildered me. Looking at the price of installing screens we decided our limited income was better spent on an ac unit and just shut ourselves in the house. This year, I talked my husband into at least trying to have one window with a bug screen fitted so we could sleep cool and bug-free during the spring. 

This is how to install a screen window using the sets sold at the home improvement stores in Japan. 

Ours cost roughly 6,000 yen in total with the attachments and rolling tool (side note, the roller tool can be purchased at Daiso for cheaper than the home improvement store, as well as a small hacksaw needed to trim the aluminum frame siding.)

Looks just like the instructions, right?

First, we measured the aluminum siding.

This is the most important part because if the frame doesn't fit just right, it won't go together correctly. 

You must remember to factor in the corner pieces that the aluminum siding slips onto.

The middle bracing bar sits inside the aluminum frame, so if you don't measure and cut it perfectly, it will just slip out of the frame.

Err on the side of too long and you can file it down little by little.

That piece in my husband's hand is what the middle bracing bar sits on.

We remeasured to make sure it would in fact sit in our window frame before assembling everything. However, just as a test, it was pretty easy to detach everything in the case of a mistake.

After a test fit, we took it back off to attach the screen.

The following is the same for if you were to replace the screen on your already made frames.

Unroll the screen on top of the metal frame. 

My husband used tape and clips to secure the net to the frame, but honestly if it was just me, I'd have left the screen free floating and just moved around the frame instead of trying to move the frame itself.

The next part is easy enough a three-year-old could do it. 

Using the roller tool, you need to shove the rubber tubing into the ridge of the frame, pinching the screen netting onto the frame.

This is where I think the free-floating (not taped or clipped down) net would have made an easier job because there wouldn't be any unnecessary tension trying to shove the tubing in.

Eventually, the pulling from the back caused a pinch in the fabric that we couldn't get out without pulling the whole thing out and redoing. If you take your time and smooth the net out as you go, this shouldn't happen.

After the tubing was completely shoved in around the frame, we cut the excess tubing off, then used a box cutter to cleanly cut away the excess netting.

The final step was attaching the rubber bug guard on the sides. we had to cut a notch into it so that it would sit on the lip of our window frame.

Just as the bugs started to come out our screen was complete.

We have one more screen not yet made to go in the girls' room, but now that we know we can do it ourselves we are quite satisfied.  6,000 yen and some elbow grease are a lot better than the 20,000 yen we would have been charged to get it installed. One drawback is opening and closing the window, the bug guard is slightly too wide and catches on our window. So we have to open the window, reach behind and shove the bug guard past the frame, then close it and then opening do the opposite.