Ahhhh, the classics.

Sounds like a great upgrade.

Great to hear from you, LL, and glad you're doing well. I'll pass along your salutations and let folks know you're a lurker, but that you cannot get past those damn traffic lights. (Damn lights!) Well, you cannot do any better than Hitchcock, and Rear Window is his best. First time you've seen it? Happy Holiday to you and your's, and stop being a robot. Lowie

​@@rbraxley Dear Lowie, Thank you, thank you! It was weighing on my mind that mcmers might be fretting. Who knows, with that weight lifted, maybe I can flyyyyy through the danged clogged intersections. No indeed, had seen it often, but not in some years. Yt has suddenly decided to get generous, and dumped a whole buncha pay-only Hitchcocks on us fer freebies, including The Birds, Vertigo and Dial M. I'm in terror heaven! (But not, sadly, Rope or Psycho, grrr.) Anyhoo the first thing I thought of when I saw they included rw was you; I still remember your thoughts on it. I'll go get some wd 40, some pliers, and see if I can fix my robot fingers to flex faster. That'll fool em! My best back to you and yours ~ Love, LL

@@leapinglaura7343 Fly, LL. Fly!

We used this system for, I think, eight or nine years, but then rebuilt our screened porch and switched to plexiglass panels. I think we would still be using the vinyl panels today had we not reconfigured the area. Considering the low expense I feel that we got our money's worth.

The screws stay in place, and the grommets are slipped on and off at the appropriate times of year. The vinyl does shrink while in storage, so a hair dryer comes in handy to make the panels more pliable. If we were re-doing the project, we would probably use heavy duty velcro instead of the grommet system.

@@rbraxley Thank you very much. I appreciate the reply.

It's a pretty big screened porch, and is actually the biggest "room" in the house. I'm not sure of the actual dimensions, but I'd guess between 400-450 ft2.

Our winter weather is typically just not very severe down here, so I cannot speak with any confidence about how well this type of set-up might withstand the conditions there in the frozen north. Our porch is also in the lee of our house, so is somewhat sheltered. Obviously a large sheet of vinyl could become a sail if it caught the wind, so I'd take that into consideration if the porch is not sheltered. We only used the tape to provide a finished edge and to provide some support for the grommets. In our set-up, the tape was not acting as "connective tissue" for the material. To answer the other question, I think our grommets were more like a foot apart.

I'd guess you probably can find wider plastic/vinyl sheets, but I'd also guess you'll pay a premium. My thought is to install a removable cross piece to split the difference so that you'll have a span that standard-width vinyl can bridge. Good luck.

@@rbraxley thank you that seems appropriate . . . or . . . do you recommend taping 2 pieces together horizontally? or do you think it is too large of an opening and i will deal with some more wear and tear on the vinyl? Also, do you think I will need to add some flat wood to the log posts I have holding up the porch to secure the vinyl pieces. This porch faces west in northern Michigan and also want to keep the snow off as well.

@@lynnoliver9066 I'm no expert, so take this with a bolder of salt, but I personally would NOT favor taping two pieces together for a number of reasons (tricky to do, tape becomes gummy, etc.), so I'd favor installing temporary cross pieces. Alternately, you could consider creating semi-permanent vinyl covered frames which you'd place within the existing framework, and remove seasonally. There are commercial firms which produce exactly this kind of product. Your question about the log pieces is beyond my skill, or you'd need to consult somebody with construction skills. Also, we live in Georgia, so I don't know how well the approach in this video would withstand your northern winters.

@@rbraxley THANK YOU! That sounds like a great idea! I just want to make sure I have a safe place to store them all when I take them down because I will have to make seven 6.5 w x 8 tall. Or 14 3.25ft. x 8ft. panels and double them up.

boulder of salt. lol love your humor!

I fear it's a losing battle, but one I continue to fight (at least within the confines of a video production class).

@@rbraxley It IS a losing battle thanks to TikTok or any other mobile phone apps that require verticle filming. And people just get used to it because "it has always been that way." Can you imagine the first person to shoot a film in 9 : 16? Or the first theater or television built for 9 : 16? Ugh! One of these days, when I've nothing but time, I am going to take famous film stills (think Rose and Jack on the front of the ship) and crop them for 9 : 16 just for fun. Maybe that is a good exercise for your video production classes.

Hi. No, that would be another Gene Farmer. My uncle lived in SoCal from the 60s until the end of his life. He travelled a long way from that small farm in Georgia.

@@rbraxley Thank you. I did scrub through the video and he was talking about some interesting stuff. The projects he worked on, how he met his wife. Doing some quick math I thought this was not the fellow I was looking for but a Google search suggested him, so ...

We did not tend to see that problem. Can't say it never happened, but generally not.

Good luck with your project.

We used it for 8 or 9 years (I think) before we renovated the porch and moved to a different system. It held up for that time, and we would probably still be using it, if we hadn't made the switch. Yes, the panels were showing signs of age, especially the taped edges (gummy), but they were still functional.

Hi. The tape is cloth gaffers tape, which is used a lot in the film and video production world. It's available in a variety of colors and widths. We bought this from tapebrothers.com, but it's widely available. We used 20 gauge vinyl for our project. When you see these types of "curtains" at restaurants and cafes, you'll find that they use a heavier material. We bought our clear vinyl at fabric.com. They currently show up to 40 gauge. Good luck.

Thank you for your input. Anything constructive to add?

At that time, the porch was roofed with polycarbonate, but was installed improperly, and has now been replaced with deck roofing.

I don't know the actual measure of the grommets we used, but they were a standard size and just a bit larger than the head of a deck screw.

At that time, the ceiling/roof of the porch was clear polycarbonate. Last year we replaced the poly roof with a deck roof.

Hello LL. Please wish the MCM community a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from me. Hope all are well, happy, and safe.

To reply to myself: Hartt said that you said you were taking a break maybe til February? (But your account will be gone, poopy poo.) Well geez hope to see you around the courts again some wonderful day. Andy is playing well. Just made a spectacular overhead bh dropshot ;))

LL, time for me to turn this one around. Where you be? Us’uns over on MCM were just speculating yesterday on your status. I even adapted a short ditty. Anyway, we’re all wondering, so pop in for a visit-if it suits. Low4

@@rbraxley It's a miracle! Utube actually notified me that Lowie was lowing at me! It never sends me notifications, woo hoo! ♡♡xx A DITTY?!? K, I gotta convince disqus that I exist. It'll take awhile, but I'll break and enter today or tomorrow. I really have missed you guys.

@@leapinglaura7343 MCM eagerly awaits your return. Great to hear from you. (I'm also contractually obligated to say "Go Dawgs!" today.)

Yo Ben, you old married man you.

@@rbraxley happily old and married! Hoping to see y’all back in Georgia as soon as possible! Watched one of your other videos btw, I love the expression “visual grammar.” 😆

This is only a guess on my part, but I think you'd probably be OK. With our particular set-up, the porch sits on the inside of an "L" corner of the house, so it's blocked from the wind in two directions. You may have noticed in other comments that we would switch from the grommets to full velcro (industrial) for attaching the panels if we were starting the project today. I think velcro would provide an even stronger hold against the wind than would the grommets over screw heads, and would also be more air tight. We love the porch too--it's a great place to spend time.

Hi. We used that system for a decade, and have now retired those vinyl panels. As mentioned in other replies, starting over we would use strong velcro instead of the grommet system. I think that would have provided a better "seal" and made the annual installation and removal process easier. The vinyl sections held their clarity and did the job for the entire time. The taped edges did become a bit gummy after several years, but that didn't diminish the efficiency of the system. We live in a mild climate, so the vinyl sections never had to do too much heavy lifting. I can say that we would still be using that system, but decided instead to switch to plexiglass panels held in place with wooden trim. The vinyl we placed on the outside of the porch, but the plexi we put on the inside. The new system creates more of an indoor feel than did the vinyl. We got lucky and purchased the plexi just before the pandemic, which means we got it for a good price. It might be a more expensive proposition today. Hope that helps.

@@rbraxley Thank you so much for a detailed update, that's really helpful👌

We used 2 inch tape, but that was mostly to give the vinyl a clean edge. You could use wider tape. Pro Graf was the brand. The product itself was gaffer tape, which is available from many manufacturers. It's a cloth tape that's a standard in the film and video industry. If we were doing the project today, we would most likely use velcro along the edges, instead of the grommets. I think I saw Elvis at the Tastee Freeze just outside of town a couple of days ago.

@@rbraxley thanks for the info....Elvis is everywhere!