Anyone who knows our house knows that we have a lot of windows. In particular, in the combination living room/dining room/kitchen area, there are four sliders consisting of two large glass doors each, making for eight glass doors looking out onto our back deck and backyard. It makes for a beautiful room with a beautiful view, but until lately, has been perhaps the most aggravating part of the house: we have sliding screen doors in each one of these doors.
In theory, multiple sliders make for a great cross breeze while keeping out the bugs, but in reality they do neither, because they don’t fit properly, don’t slide properly, and occasionally fall out of the room on to the deck. I’m pretty even tempered, but about a month ago I was trying to get out a door, and got so mad that the screen wouldn’t move, that I was really pulling on it; and then I poked myself with part of the slider. Then, thanks to me pulling on it so hard to get open, it fell off the track completely, landing on the deck.
We’ve lived here eight years, and have had nothing but trouble with the screens on the sliders. The ones that came with the house were in pretty rough shape already, with rips in the screens and broken wheels that got stuck. They also consistently fell right off the tracks. Having 4 dogs didn’t help matters in the time we’ve been here.
So, we went to a big box store, in this case Home Depot, and that made it worse, because we spent money to buy adjustable sliders, and they didn’t work any better. In fact, they were worse. First of all, the adjustment mechanisms universally don’t work, and the sliders are poorly made, resulting in sliders that get stuck, don’t fit tight enough to keep out bugs, and as usual, fall off the tracks on occasion, landing on the deck. Luckily we bought only a couple to try them out, and in the end put them free on the side of the road.
We’d pretty much given up when we learned that people were saying nice things about a company called Ramco Window Services, which is a small operation in Leicester that makes slider screens, as well as fixes screens and windows in general. Since these sliders are made to order, to the exact size, and they aren’t cheap, we only ordered one, just to make sure it would work, and it actually did. It was sturdy, had better looking wheels than the junk we’d bought before, and it actually deserved the name “slider”, since it actually slid, as opposed to the others we’d tried, which should have been called “get stuck and fall off”.
We then bought four more, and so far so good. They fit perfectly, feel much more sturdy, and you can even open and close them with just one finger. Amazingly too, our dogs don’t walk into them either, although we didn’t buy the ‘dog proof’ screens. I’m not sure why they don’t walk into them, but I’m glad they don’t.
Ramco is located in Leicester, and your smartphone directions will get you there. However, “there” is a small mall type location, and Ramco is down along the side, in what looks like a converted garage. It’s a small, family operation, and the father is a guy named Mike, who really seems to care about producing high quality products. It was sort of amazing really, to see how many people were stopping by to get their screens fixed. Before you put your screens away for the winter, I’d suggest taking inventory to see what’s broken or missing altogether, and then give them a call. They even fix windows with seal failure–you know the unattractive cloudy look that some windows get! I will be trying that out, since we have a window problem (luckily only 1), too! I look forward to getting feedback on your visit to Ramco.
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Ramco Window Services
1152 Main Street, Leicester, MA 01524
(508) 892-4200
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