A spline is the flexible vinyl or rubber cord that gets pressed into a channel called the spline groove, which runs around the inside edge of each aluminum frame member. When a screen is installed, the mesh is laid over the opening, and the spline is rolled down into the groove on top of it, pinching the mesh against the channel walls.

A rescreen deals with the screen, and only the screen. The aluminum frame, the beams, the uprights, and the anchors all stay exactly where they are. A rebuild, whether it is the full cage or just one damaged section, is a structural repair. Here, the problem is not the mesh.

Solar screen, sometimes called solar shade fabric, is designed to block the sun. It uses a tight, uniform mesh engineered to intercept a large share of the sun's heat and ultraviolet light before either reaches the space behind it.

Screen mesh does not wear out from use; it wears out from ultraviolet light. Constant, intense sun breaks down the mesh fibers and the spline that holds it in the frame, making the screen brittle over time until it cracks, tears, and sags.