Mosquito Proofing the Outdoors with Large Steel Pivot Doors

For months, we’ve been occupying our outdoor living room sans our large steel pivot mosquito screen doors.

In the beginning, we thought it was marvelous knowing that our outdoor living room connected seamlessly with our central courtyard garden. We felt we were truly outside without being exposed to the elements. Given the cooler weather and reduction in mosquitoes, we weren’t in a hurry to install the screens.

Of late, however, we have started to feel a bit overwhelmed by the abundance of openness. Like our 3-D images showed ages ago (ignore the now incorrect position of our stairwell), the screen doors have always been essential to the demarcating of the “living room”.

The challenge has always been to create an attractive “transparent” separation that keeps mosquitoes out, yet allows views and airflow through. Or in architecture speak - how do you achieve thin profile, frame-less, 9 foot floor-to-ceiling doors that effortlessly pivot open to exactly 90 degrees and stay shut when closed with the minimum number of visible hardware?

Here’s the breakdown:

1) Use 2” x 1” tubular steel.

By exposing the thinner 1” face on the vertical face of the door, we achieved a thin-profile door without compromising the door’s structural integrity (as the 2” horizontal surface keeps the doors from wobbling).

2) Create simple pivot hardware that embeds in the floor and ceiling above and below each panel, hidden from view. Off the shelve pivots are extremely expensive, and so we created our own to allow the heavy doors to effortlessly open a full 90 degrees.

3) Level the ceiling to maintain a 3mm gap between the tops of the doors and the ceiling.

This narrow gap is important to keep mosquitoes out, yet very difficult to achieve consistently along the 48 foot span of the opening. Suffice it to say, although our ever-patient albañil got close on the first attempt, there have been a few corrections in places - nothing too large that it can’t be patched when we are done.

4) Purchase heavy-duty concealed screw bolts that fit within the narrow 1” profile of the doors. Luckily, these bolts, with a finish of oil rubbed bronze are an exact match for the final door color. As such, no painting required.

5) Install industry-strength magnets in the ceiling.

These magnets are, as the manufacturer warns, not your average fridge magnets (as is evidenced by a blood blister that appeared on Stan’s finger after being caught between two of them). Embedded in the ceiling, these magnets will hold our doors open, and closed, at a perfect 90 degree angle with invisible magnet magic.

With the initial fitting and adjustments almost complete, the doors will soon be taken down, and sent for painting. Mosquito screens will then be attached, along with door hardware, and finally, 16 three-meter-high steel pivot mosquito screen doors will be fully installed - just in time for the rainy season and the onslaught of mosquitoes!

From Renders to Reality

A key part of our house is the new central courtyard, which connects the indoor living room up front with the kitchen in the rear. As this is where most of our days will be spent, achieving a well-proportioned space is critical.

During the design phase, we relied heavily on 3-D renderings of these spaces to give us a sense of proportion. Since construction began, we’ve had our fingers crossed that these renders would translate into the desired reality. With the bulk of the new walls and roofs now up, we can finally see if we were right.

Here are some images - both how things look now and how we envisaged them with the renders. First up, looking north toward the indoor media room.

Now from the other direction, looking south toward the kitchen. The builder has yet to punch an opening in the end wall to form the doorway into the kitchen.

Obviously we still have a ways to go. Now that we are able to stand in the new outdoor living space, however, we are thrilled that it’s working out so well.