Stains In Carl’s Premium Screen!!

[InToOut]

I decided to move my golf area to a different part of my basement. Since I was going through the trouble of moving it anyway I decided to take it to the next level, with a wider 11.5 x 8.5 Carl’s Premium screen, a plywood ceiling in matte black, heavier duty curtains, acoustic foam tiles, etc.

Ceiling went up last night. I pre-cut the EMT to approx size and laid out the Carl’s screen for the first time on a plastic sheet to finalize the sizing of the frame.

To my shock there are large brown stains on one side of the screen. Some are one one end, with others on the extreme far end. I thought it was dust at first from packing, but it can’t be patted out at all. The size and shape doesn’t change. If I had to describe it, based on the inability to minimize it I’d say it was almost like makeup in terms of its qualities.

I attached pics below. I need help with two items:

1) Has anybody experienced this with a Carl’s screen? Did you identify what it was? Did you find a way to remove it? Did carl’s Help?

2) How do you identify the ‘good’ side of a Carl’s premium screen? To me the weave seems identical, but with a slight sheen/sparkle on one side?

I was really excited to get this screen up, and now I’m at an impasse. I have no idea what to do next. Any help is sincerely appreciated.

Andy

[AndoCalrissian]

I just installed a Carl's Premium screen a few weeks ago. I was careful when I unpacked it and marked with masking tape of which side was front. I believe the shiny side is your front. The stitching around the border on the front is also a bit tighter with less excess material when compared to the backside stitching. However it would have been nice if they indicated somewhere on the border which was the front/back.

Upon reading your post I examined my screen and noticed a couple very small spots on the back of the screen that looked identical to the spots in your picture. I did not notice it until now, and being on the back of the screen, it doesn't effect the picture on the front. I laid my screen down on the floor to measure it prior to cutting my EMT to confirm measurements, so its possible it picked up something on my floor at that time. But it seems odd the spots look exactly like yours, so perhaps it happened during the manufacturing process.

Overall I am very happy with the screen. It looks great and is incredibly quiet.

[Tonysmjc]

Looks like mold to me

[Tonysmjc]

You could try a mold remover used on boat canvas

[InToOut]

Tonysmjc Thanks much. I don’t think it’s actually mold (I’m crazy susceptible to mold) but I agree with your observations on how it looks.

AndoCalrissian thanks for checking your screen and your thoughts on front vs. back! I’ll check when I get home, but I’m really hoping the stains are on the back. I’m starting to believe that Carl’s uses the same material for the front and back of the premium with a sandwich layer in between.

I know I didn’t get it dirty as I vacuumed and then laid down a brand new plastic drop cloth purely to lay the screen on. The marks were noticeable as I was unfolding the screen, and the marks were on the inside of the folded sections, so I believe you’re correct in your assumption that this is happening in the factory and not during shipping. Hopefully somebody associated with Carl’s can chime in.

[Tonysmjc]

ok
good luck

[InToOut]

A quick update on this...

I contacted Carl’s and the person who answered the phone was both friendly and knowledgeable.

Apparently this was a manufacturing issue that occurred to a number of premium screens that they’ve since addressed with their manufacturing partner. All stains they know of occurred on the ‘back’ side of the Carl’s premium screen. They told me the best way to identify the hitting side from the back side was to check the grommets, and mine was thankfully on the back side too.

The downside for me is that there is a small basement window behind my screen and one of the stains is so prominent that it’s ‘backlit’ in the image by this window. I purchased black corrugated plastic today and cut it to fit the window as a blackout. It fixes the issue, but of course now one of my basement windows is blacked out.

The Carl’s rep believed that simply using a Tide pen could address the stain, but I’ll get back in touch with them before trying that fix...