Pets and Your Screen Enclosure: 4 Materials You Need To Know About

If you’re planning to spend time on your patio, chances are fido will be right there with you to keep you company!  Nothing wrong with that as pets can keep your heart healthier and stress lower.  As it turns out, your pet might love the patio more than you.  There’s fresh air, wild scents, wild animals (outside), and climbing toys.  Frogs, lizards, and occasionally a neighbor’s cat may make their way around the outside and dogs may become a little excited trying to chase or get their paws on them.  Cats on the other hand find climbing the screen fun and dig their toe nails between each fiber.  Cat or dog, climbing or chasing, both can result in tears to the screen.

You can buy one of the waterproof dog beds as pictured up top here (Photo Source Credit).

Here are the options you have:

SuperScreen.  Its more durable than standard screen with a ball burst strength test rating above 180lbs (compare to 63lbs for Phifer 18/14 screen) and retains its original strength for 10 years.  For small pets, that largely ignore the outside world, this material will do the trick just fine.

Florida Glass. This vinyl like material is only slightly stronger than regular screen but it limits outward visibility substantially.  For dogs that like to chase squirrels and lizards this keeps them out of sight and out of mind.

Pet Screen.  An EXTREMLY thick material about 4 times thicker than ordinary screen.  The Mullen Bursting Strength of Pet Screen is 538 psi compared to 154psi for standard phifer 18/14 screen.  When cats climb on the screen, or large dogs play rough, this is the material of choice.