Alpine Pointe sits up at the McMillan and Eagle corner of north Meridian, and the screens here take a beating from three directions: cottonwood off the ditch and lateral corridors in June, pollen from twenty-year-old landscape trees that have finally filled in, and fine grit blowing off open ground and road shoulders.
Three things fill screens out here, and they land at different times of year. Cottonwood comes first — the seed blows off the trees along the drain and lateral corridors in June, and the fluff mats into mesh like felt, worst on the openings that sit out of the prevailing wind. Then pollen. The subdivision's landscape trees have had roughly two decades to fill in, so the canopy over the older streets is real now, and it drops a fine yellow-green dust that glues itself to the mesh the first time a sprinkler mists it. Third is grit: road dust off McMillan and Eagle, plus silt off any open field or lot still being graded and landscaped nearby. Cottonwood you can see from the driveway. Pollen and grit you usually can't — until we hand you the rinse bucket and it's brown.
Most of what we pull in Alpine Pointe is 2000s-era roll-formed aluminum: thin-wall frame, plastic corner keys, mesh held in with a vinyl spline. That style washes fine, but it does not tolerate being grabbed in the middle and flexed. Flex one and a corner key pops or the frame goes out of square, and then it fights the track every time you open the window. We carry them flat and stacked, never bowed. Alpine Pointe itself doesn't have many of the heavy mid-century frames — the neighborhood is newer than that — but if you've got an older house, a shop, or an outbuilding on the edge with original screens, say so when you book. Those get hand-washed flat on a pad, no flexing, no pressure, because thirty-year-old mesh tears at the spline before it tears anywhere else.
Screens don't get cleaned in place. We pull them, tag each one to its opening so nothing comes back a half inch off and rattles, and wash them flat rather than propped against the siding. Flat matters: a screen leaned upright just moves the dirt to the bottom rail and dries it there in a line. We work the mesh from both sides with a soft brush and rinse it out with the same pure deionized water we use on the glass, so there's no soap film left for pollen to stick to next week. Then they sit and dry before they go back in — a wet screen re-hung against clean glass leaves grid marks and undoes the window job. We never run a pressure washer at a screen. That blows spline out and stretches mesh, and there is no fixing stretched mesh.
Some screens are done, and washing them is money you don't need to spend. Signs we point out on site: mesh that has gone chalky and powders on your fingers, which is sun rot from years on a south or west opening — it will hold a hole the first time it's handled. Spline that has shrunk and left the mesh loose in the channel. A frame bowed enough that it won't seat square in the track. Those need re-screening, not cleaning, and re-screening isn't something we do — we'll say so instead of washing a screen that fails in our hands. Same honesty the other direction: if your screens went in less than a year ago and only carry a light pollen dust, a rinse when we do the windows is plenty. You don't need this as a standalone visit.
Screen cleaning runs $50 added onto a window service, and it's free once a year on any membership — Monthly or Quarterly, no contract either way. Most homes here time the screen wash for after the June cottonwood run rather than before it, so the mesh goes into the rest of summer clean instead of catching seed the week after we leave. We do the screens as part of the same visit as the glass because it's the only order that makes sense: dirty screens re-dust clean windows. Reflekt is locally owned and fully insured, founded in 2025 by Hunter Stevens and Ethan Seusy, and holds 4.9 stars across 115+ Google reviews. Same-day and next-day slots open most weeks, and the 7-Day Rain Guarantee covers the window work. Call (208) 453-6760 for a firm number.
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Cottonwood. The trees along the ditch and lateral corridors near Alpine Pointe release seed for a few weeks in June, and the fluff mats into screen mesh instead of blowing through it. It's worst on openings sheltered from the wind, where nothing shakes it loose. That's why we usually schedule screen work here for after the seed run finishes — clean them mid-cottonwood and they'll be loaded again in ten days.
Not properly. Anything done in place just pushes debris deeper into the weave or drives it onto the glass you're about to clean. We pull each screen, tag it to its opening, wash it flat on a pad, rinse it with deionized water and let it dry before it goes back. That's an extra step, and it's the reason the mesh actually comes out clear instead of looking clean from ten feet.
Not if they're handled flat. The 2000s aluminum frames common in Alpine Pointe fail at the plastic corner keys when someone flexes them, so we carry them stacked flat and never bowed. The real risk is sun-rotted mesh — chalky, powders on your fingers, usually on south and west openings. If we find that, we tell you before we wash it, because that mesh can hole in our hands and it needs re-screening rather than cleaning.
Yes, and it's the most common complaint we hear after a window job someone else did. Loaded mesh holds pollen and grit right against the glass, and the first sprinkler mist or rain carries it down onto the pane in streaks. If you're paying to have the windows done, doing the screens in the same visit is what makes the glass stay clear. It's $50 added to the window service, and free annually on a membership.
Usually yes, and sooner than you'd think. Construction and landscaping grit is the finest dust screens ever see, and it packs into new mesh during the first season while the yard is still going in and nearby lots are still being graded. New screens with visible grit in the weave are worth a wash. New screens with only light pollen aren't — we'll rinse them with the windows and tell you to wait.
Once a year covers most homes here, done after the June cottonwood. Twice a year makes sense if you're on the edge of the subdivision facing open ground or a road shoulder, or if you have solar screens — the darker, tighter weave traps more dust and shows it less. On a Monthly or Quarterly membership the annual screen cleaning is included, so it's already handled without a separate charge.
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