Pool cage and screen enclosure questions

Aluminum enclosures average $10,000 to $25,000. With additional options or greater size, projects can reach $40,000 and up. Every NorthStar project gets a fixed quote after the design consultation, and the number quoted is the number paid.

What moves the price: square footage, height, roof style, span length, mesh selection, number and size of screen doors, and whether the deck underneath needs work first. Structures over standard height may require lifts or additional equipment, which is priced into the quote rather than added later.

Rescreens average $2 per square foot for basic screen. That's screen area, not deck area or house square footage — which matters, because a quote priced off the wrong measurement isn't comparable to one priced off the right one.

We do full rescreens only. Every panel, not just the torn one. An enclosure that's been in the Florida sun for a decade rarely needs a single panel, and replacing one section of aged mesh next to twelve others just means doing it again next year.

10% of the project value to begin construction projects. Motorized units and other services require 50% down. We'd rather earn the balance than hold it.

Yes, through Hearth, with promotional rates running at various points through the year. Ask about current promotions at your design consultation.

Usually one of a handful of things: no permit in the number, lighter self-mating beam framing where the span really wants heavier tube, non-stainless or uncoated fasteners that rust in coastal air, lower-grade mesh that gets brittle years early, or work priced without engineering that surfaces at inspection.

The big one is where the cage gets built. Companies running high production volume prefabricate enclosures in an offsite warehouse and then make them fit once they arrive. It's faster and cheaper for them, and it means the structure was built to a drawing rather than to your house — so the fit gets adjusted on site and strength gets compromised at exactly the connections that matter. We custom fabricate on your property instead. You will never see one of our cages going down the highway.

Get every quote itemized to the same scope and the gap usually explains itself. If a competitor's number is genuinely better for identical spec, that's worth knowing too.

6 to 8 weeks on average, from permit to completion. Permitting typically takes 4 to 6 weeks, followed by 2 to 4 weeks of construction. Local municipalities review at different speeds, and all of them slow down after a major storm.

The work itself takes 1 to 2 days. Plan on roughly two weeks from signature to completion.

Yes. Structural aluminum work — pool cages, screen enclosures, patio covers, and carports — requires a Florida contractor license, and that license has to permit the contractor to pull permits in your municipality. NorthStar Aluminum holds Florida Certified General Contractor license CGC1538555, which covers the structure, the deck beneath it, and the shading systems on it as a single job.

Being a registered business and being a licensed contractor are two different things. A company can be a registered LLC with a logo and a truck and still not hold a license that allows it to build or permit a pool cage. An unpermitted enclosure becomes the homeowner's problem — at sale, at claim time, or whenever an inspector notices it.

Six things, and the answers should all be in writing:

1. 1. Proof of general liability and workers' compensation — certificates, not a verbal assurance. An uninsured worker injured on your property can become your exposure.
2. 2. Who pulls the permit. If the answer is "you can pull it as the homeowner," that's a signal the company can't. A homeowner-pulled permit makes you responsible for code compliance on a structure you didn't build.
3. 3. Sealed engineered drawings for your parcel — not a generic plan set. Wind load varies by address in Southwest Florida.
4. 4. How much is due upfront, and what it covers.
5. 5. Where the aluminum comes from. Material bought on price alone is a real difference in what you end up with, and it is not visible once the cage is up.
6. 6. Whether the quote can change after permitting, and under what circumstances.

We put all six in writing before you're asked to decide.

Yes, and we pull it. Every enclosure we build is engineered to the Florida Building Code wind load for your specific parcel, permitted before work begins, and inspected when it's finished. We produce the sealed drawings, pull the permit, meet the inspector, and handle the paperwork. None of that becomes your phone call.

Absolutely, and we do it regularly. New pool construction, deck work, landscaping, electrical — we coordinate schedules and sequencing with whoever else is on the job so the enclosure lands at the right point rather than holding everyone up or arriving before the deck is ready.

Sequencing matters more than people expect on a new pool. Footers, deck pour, and enclosure anchoring all have to account for each other, and decisions made early determine whether the cage goes up cleanly or has to work around something already set in concrete. If you're building a pool now and thinking about a cage later, the cheapest time to plan for it is before the deck is poured.

Because you get the people who own the outcome. The person who walks your property is the person accountable for what gets built on it, and that doesn't change halfway through the job. Large production outfits run volume — different crews at every stage, a call center between you and anyone who can make a decision, and a standard product the sales rep is trained to sell you regardless of what your space actually needs.

It shows up in the work. We fabricate every cage on your property rather than shipping in a prefabricated structure and adjusting it to fit, which is only possible when you're not chasing production volume. It shows up in the local knowledge, too — wind-load zones, municipal review quirks, and what holds up on a waterfront lot versus an inland one are things you learn by building here for years, not by opening a branch here.

And it shows up two summers from now, when something needs attention and you know exactly who to call. We're not going anywhere, and our name is on every structure in this county.

Usually not. Most pool cages use self-mating beam framing, which needs intermediate posts and corner bracing to stay rigid across distance. Our Solid Rec tube upgrade is substantially stronger and resists deflection and bowing without that bracing, which is how our ClearView sections clear-span up to 55 feet. Fewer posts, larger panels, and beams placed where they carry load rather than where they land in your sightline.

No — chair rails are optional on every enclosure we build. Our ClearView system runs 55+ feet with no posts and no chair rail, which is the most open sightline available and the reason to choose it on a water, preserve, or golf course view.

A chair rail adds a horizontal line across the middle of every panel. Some homeowners want it — it's a useful place to stop a screen run, and it takes some abuse near furniture. Most people looking at a view would rather not have it. It's your call, not a structural requirement.

Mansard, half mansard, A-frame, hipped gable, and others — we build to the roofline the house already has rather than fitting the house to a standard profile.

Roof style has little to no effect on price. Choose it on how it ties into the existing roof and how much headroom you want over the pool, not on budget.

Bronze and white. Both are universally accepted by HOAs and architectural review committees in this market, which means color is one approval fight you won't have.

We build and screen panels up to 16 feet in height, within structures reaching up to 36 feet in total height. Taller structures may require lifts or additional equipment, which is quoted upfront rather than added later.

That range covers two-story homes, high-hat birdcage profiles, and enclosures that tie into a second-floor balcony or roofline — jobs a lot of contractors won't take.

Standard doors are 36 inches or 42 inches wide by 80 inches tall. Upgrades go up to 8 feet in height and 48 inches in width, and we build custom door designs for openings that need something else.

One code point worth knowing: when the enclosure serves as your pool's safety barrier, the door closer cannot include a pump-stop — the mechanism that holds a door open. The door has to close on its own, every time, without anyone remembering to shut it.

SuperScreen mesh is the strength and lifespan standard, available matched to what matters most to you:

• — Standard insect — the default for most enclosures.
• — No-see-um — near water or mangroves, where standard mesh isn't tight enough.
• — Sun-filtering — west or south exposure, cutting heat and glare at some loss of visibility.
• — Privacy — reads as solid from outside, see-through from inside.
• — Pet-resistant — for dogs that lean, push, and test the lower panels.

Most homes mix them: pet mesh on the lower panels by the door, no-see-um on the sides. We bring samples so you can hold them up in your own light rather than choosing off a chart.

Marine-grade aluminum framing, CECO coated stainless steel screws carrying a rust-free guarantee, and stainless anchors into the structure throughout. Every cage we build is fabricated on your property rather than shipped in as a kit and adjusted to fit — which is how the structure ends up matching the house instead of the catalog, and why the spans get as long as they do.

Every product we use is chosen deliberately rather than bought on price. In coastal air, the fasteners are usually what fails first, and they're the cheapest place for a contractor to save money at your expense.

Often, yes — but we inspect the deck and the foundation first rather than assuming. An enclosure transfers real wind load into whatever it's anchored to, so the slab and footings underneath have to be capable of carrying it. That inspection happens before we quote, not after you've signed.

Where new footings are needed, ours are permitted with integrated rebar, sized to the strength the state's standards and the project engineer require for your parcel. Footings are the part of the job nobody sees and the part that determines whether the structure stays put, which is exactly why it's a bad place to save money.

Absolutely, and we're a good option for it precisely because we build the structures that go over them. A deck poured or laid by someone who has never had to anchor an enclosure into one is a deck that may not accept the cage you want three years from now.

We master-plan for what might come later, whether or not you ever build it: footings placed where columns would land, the slab sized and pitched to take a structure, and wiring for motorized systems run before the concrete cures. If you never add anything, you have a better deck and it cost you nothing extra. If you do, it lands on a slab already built for it instead of one that has to be cut and retrofitted.

Natural stone, concrete pavers, concrete deck extensions, footers, driveways, and walkways — standalone or as part of a larger project.

Substantially. The enclosure keeps leaves, pollen, moss, insects, and animals out of the water, which is most of what a pool skimmer and a filter spend their life dealing with. Less debris means less vacuuming, less strain on the pump and filter, and fewer hours a week on upkeep.

It also cuts direct sun on the water. Southwest Florida pools lose meaningful water to evaporation in the summer months, and evaporation takes chemicals with it — shading the surface slows both, along with the algae growth that full sun encourages. Most homeowners find they're buying fewer chemicals and running the cleaner less after a cage goes up.

Every structure we build is engineered per parcel to Florida Building Code wind loads for the coast — 125 mph and up — with sealed drawings behind the design and permit and inspection records behind the build. None has failed to date.

What fails in a storm is generally an older cage: built to a previous code, under-anchored, or assembled with hardware that's been corroding since installation. Screen panels are designed to release under extreme load to save the frame, so a blown-out panel after a storm is often the system working rather than failing. If your cage predates the current code, the time to have it looked at is before the season.

Yes, meaningfully. Florida Building Code wind loads are set by location, and a coastal or barrier-island parcel on Longboat Key or Anna Maria carries a higher design requirement than an inland lot in Parrish or Lakewood Ranch. We confirm the wind-load zone for your specific parcel before quoting rather than pricing off square footage. A quote produced without looking up your address is a quote built on an assumption.

Three things, in order of importance:

1. 1. Deal with the furniture. Move it into the garage or another protected space. If that isn't practical, our hurricane and wind abatement system secures furniture in place inside the existing lanai — the better answer for heavy pieces and for anyone who doesn't want to move a full patio set twice a season.
2. 2. Remove the doors. Taking the screen doors off lets air move through the structure instead of pressurizing it. An enclosure that can breathe is under far less load than one sealed up like a balloon.
3. 3. For the most severe storms, cut the wall screens. It sounds drastic and it is — you'll be rescreening afterward. But screen is the cheapest thing on the structure, and releasing the walls relieves pressure that would otherwise go into the frame. Losing mesh you were going to replace anyway beats losing beams.

The principle underneath all three: let the wind through. Screen panels are designed to release under extreme load specifically to save the frame, and anything you do to help that along protects the expensive part.

Walk the structure and look for anything warped, bent, or torn — in both the metal and the screen. Torn mesh is obvious and is the least of it. What matters is the aluminum.

The single biggest indicator of a critically damaged cage is a warped roof beam. If the beams overhead are no longer straight, the structure has taken load it wasn't meant to take, and what looks like cosmetic damage is a compromised frame. Don't wait on that one.

Also worth checking: bends or cracks at the corners and connections, fasteners that have pulled or backed out, any shifting where the structure meets the deck, and water pooling in the gutters where it didn't before.

Photograph everything before anyone touches it. Whatever your carrier decides, the documentation is easier to gather now than later.

Call us. We do insurance replacement work, and our response times after a storm are something we've built the company around — the systems, the crews, and the scheduling are set up for exactly that surge.

If the structure is a hazard, we can demo and remove it. A partially collapsed cage with bent aluminum and loose fasteners is a liability sitting in your backyard, and it shouldn't wait weeks for a claim to process. We'll get it out and make the area safe, then handle the replacement.

We document the damage and provide an itemized scope for your claim. What your policy actually covers is between you and your carrier, but you shouldn't be assembling that paperwork yourself.

Coverage depends on your policy and carrier. Screen enclosures are frequently treated differently from the dwelling itself in Florida policies, and hurricane deductibles apply separately. Check your declarations page or call your agent rather than assuming either way. What we can do is document the damage and give you an itemized scope to submit.

Typical screen life in Florida is 3 to 5 years. The products we use are rated for 5 to 10 years and often longer — we select every product deliberately rather than buying on price, and mesh is where that decision shows up soonest.

The frame outlasts the screen by a wide margin. Marine-grade aluminum with CECO coated stainless fasteners is the part that stays. Our structural warranty runs 5 years excluding hurricane damage; our screen warranty runs up to 10 years.

Yes. We rescreen any cage regardless of who built it, and we inspect the structure while we're there to identify any additional repairs it needs before new screen goes on.

We do full rescreens only — every panel, not a single torn section. Rescreens average $2 per square foot for basic screen, take 1 to 2 days of work, and run roughly two weeks from signature to completion.

It depends on the frame, which is why we inspect before quoting. If the aluminum is sound and the fasteners haven't damaged the connections, a full rescreen is dramatically cheaper than rebuilding and buys another decade. If the frame is corroded at the anchors, was built under an older code, or is failing at the connections, new screen goes onto the part that isn't the problem — and you'll be paying for it twice.

We'll tell you which one you're looking at, including when the answer is that you don't need us yet.

Soft wash only. Do not use a pressure washer on the frame — high pressure damages aluminum and drives water into the powder coat and the fastener connections, and the damage doesn't show up until it's expensive. A low-pressure wash with the right cleaning solution takes off mildew and algae without any of that.

The same applies to the screen. Mesh under pressure stretches, loosens at the spline, and tears at the corners. Rinse it, don't blast it.

Worth doing annually in this climate, and worth checking your gutters and fasteners while you're at it.

Often, yes — most communities in Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, and the Venice area have architectural review requirements. We review your association's documents and provide all the information required from us: drawings, specifications, materials, colors, and structural details. You submit the package to your board.

Getting the ARC package right the first time is usually the difference between a two-week approval and a two-month one, and it's the part most contractors leave entirely to the homeowner.

NorthStar Aluminum builds in Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte counties, including Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, Venice, Longboat Key, Anna Maria, Osprey, Englewood, Punta Gorda, Apollo Beach, Riverview, and the communities between them. Our showroom is at 1715 Independence Blvd, Unit B4, Sarasota, FL 34234, and we can be reached at (941) 398-0575.