I moved into a place with one very hazy window screen that is difficult to see through.
I have tried scrubbing it with a brush with soapy water and blasting it with the hose. But I cannot get rid of the hard material buildup. I even tried dipping a brush in CLR and scrubbing the screen.
When I Google how to clean a window screen, I just run across people telling me to do what I already tried. But I think the people touting these methods simply have screens with dirt in them.
This doesn't seem like simple dirt buildup. I enclosed a close up photo of what it looks like.
I bet if I poked all of the holes individually with a toothpick I could clean it, but that would take eons. Any advice? Thanks.
So I was playing around with some tweezers and it actually seems like I can peel it off with some difficulty, although it comes up in pieces. Considering none of my other screens look like this, I'm wondering if it is actually some sort of purposeful hazy coating that got destroyed over the years??? Is that a thing??? It only seems to be present on the inner surface of the screen, not the outer side. Scrubbing does nothing to it put it can be peeled off it seems. Just gonna take me forever to do.
My first guess is a smoker who didn't want to go outside.
Maybe, but there are many screens to my porch. This is the lower most screen. You'd think because smoke rises that the upper screens would be affected. This is the only one that looks like this...and it is diffusely and evenly coated on the inner side of the window.
In peeling some of it off, it has the consistency and appearance of dried glue actually. Not sure if that's actually what it is or not though.