Hurricane Screens in Cape Coral, FL
Motorized hurricane screens installed and permitted in Cape Coral — by a company headquartered here, not one driving down from Tampa after the storm.
We are a Cape Coral company. Our shop is on NE 27th Lane. Our owner started as an installer on these streets, and after Ian he started this business because of what he had watched go up on other people’s houses. So this page is less of a sales pitch than the rest and more of what we actually think about the city we live in.
Ian was as bad here as anywhere
People outside Southwest Florida remember Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel, and rightly — the barrier islands were catastrophic. But Cape Coral took a beating that has been consistently underreported. The eyewall came across a city of nearly 200,000 people, almost entirely single-family homes, almost all of them with a lanai or a pool cage facing water.
That combination is why this city generated so much damage: it is not that the buildings were unusually weak. It is that Cape Coral has more exposed openings per house than almost anywhere in Florida.
Over 400 miles of canals — more than any other city on earth. That is the fact everyone quotes. The part that matters for hurricane protection is the consequence: a canal is an open wind fetch running right up to the back of the house, and the back of a Cape Coral house is almost always its largest opening.
The Cape Coral house, and its one weak spot
The housing stock here is unusually consistent. Most of it descends from the original Gulf American plat — a grid of quarter-acre lots, single storey, concrete block, with the living space oriented toward the water at the back. Later buildout in the 1990s and 2000s kept the pattern and made the openings bigger. Post-Ian construction is bigger again.
So the same conversation happens at almost every consultation:
- The windows and front elevation are usually fine, or cheap to solve.
- The lanai and the rear sliders are the whole problem. They are wide, they face open water, and they are frequently unprotected.
- The pool cage is not protecting them. A screen enclosure is not rated opening protection. When one comes apart, its aluminum frame becomes debris standing ten feet from your slider.
That is the specific gap a motorized hurricane screen was invented for — a single span across the whole lanai, nothing to store, nothing to hang, nothing to carry in the dark with a storm coming.
The two systems, and which goes on a Cape house
MagnaTrack Defender
Spans up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high — which covers the overwhelming majority of Cape Coral lanais in one screen with no post in the middle. Dual-pull neodymium magnetic track on a low-friction Keder interlock; the magnetic fields dampen wind and debris and hold the screen flat. Self-Adjusting Technology. Florida Building Code approval #30798, US patent 11,421,474.
UltraShield
Housing stays at 7 inches or under at every size, so it does not grow as the opening widens, and it gives the clearest view out in the industry. Patented four-sided end retention, heavy-duty self-tensioning track, and an adjustable aluminum base slat that self-levels to a pitched floor up to 1.75 inches — useful on an older slab that has settled. Florida product approval FL-42141.
Both are Florida product-approved for hurricane protection, and the right one depends on the opening rather than on which we would rather sell. More on our motorized hurricane screens page. Where shutters suit the opening better we fit rolldown and accordion systems, and impact windows and doors.
Permitting with the City of Cape Coral
Cape Coral runs its own building department — this is not a Lee County permit, which catches out contractors from outside the city and occasionally homeowners pulling their own. Lee County’s design wind speed places the whole county inside the Wind-Borne Debris Region, so under Florida Building Code Section 1609.5.2 exterior openings need impact-rated glazing or code-compliant shutters or screens.
Every product needs a current Florida Product Approval rated for the wind zone at your address, and the inspector checks that number against the installation. Permitting is handled as part of the job. This is our home jurisdiction and we are in that office constantly.
Being local actually matters afterward
Anyone can install. The question is who answers the phone in year four when a motor needs looking at, or after the next storm when every company in Florida has a three-week backlog. Our shop is here, our crews live here, and our owner still reviews every warranty claim himself himself.
Where we work
Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Estero, Bonita Springs and Naples.
Hurricane screens across Southwest Florida:
Naples · Fort Myers · Punta Gorda · Bonita Springs · Estero · Sanibel · Fort Myers Beach · Port Charlotte · Marco Island · North Fort Myers · San Carlos Park · Babcock Ranch
Lanai shutters in Cape Coral
“Lanai shutters” usually means one of two different products, and the difference decides whether you like the result.
| What you want | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Cover the lanai but keep the view and the breeze | A motorized hurricane screen — fabric on a track, one span, no post in the middle |
| Close the lanai off completely — dark, quiet, secured | A roll-down shutter — aluminum slats, seals the opening |
| Protect the sliders behind the lanai rather than the lanai itself | Accordion shutters on the openings, at a fraction of the cost |
On a Cape Coral canal home the lanai is nearly always the widest opening on the building, and it usually faces open water. That width is what rules products in and out: past about fifteen feet an accordion becomes a heavy pull with a lot of stacked blades, and panels need a post in the middle. A screen covers the whole span in one piece, and a roll-down closes it completely if you would rather have the house shut.
A lot of Cape Coral jobs end up as both — a screen across the lanai opening and shutters on the windows and doors behind it. That combination protects more of the house per dollar than putting one product everywhere.
Hurricane shutters in Cape Coral, FL
Most Cape Coral houses are single storey on a quarter-acre plat with the living space facing the canal. That means the lanai wants a screen and the windows want shutters — and the windows are where most of the openings actually are. Our accordion shutters are the volume answer here: HVHZ approved, permanently mounted, closed by hand in minutes. We build them, and our roll-down shutters, in the shop on NE 27th Lane. For the front elevation, Bahama shutters; for a tight budget, storm panels.
Shutters and screens are different products doing different jobs, and most houses in Cape Coral end up with some of each. If you are not sure which your openings want, that is exactly what the call is for.
Product pages for Cape Coral
Accordion shutters in Cape Coral
Cut and assembled in our shop on NE 27th Lane, to your opening sizes.
Bahama shutters in Cape Coral
Afternoon sun off the canal kept out of the room, all year.
Roll down shutters in Cape Coral
For the wide canal-front sliders, and for closing the house up when you leave.
Storm panels in Cape Coral
On a single-storey house with someone home year-round, the best value there is.
Roll down screens in Cape Coral
Up to 30ft across the lanai in one span. Your pool cage is not protection.
Impact windows in Cape Coral
EAS units – plus how to check what the last company actually installed.
Talk to us about your openings — Cape Coral
Tell us what you are looking at and someone from our team will call you the same business day. We go through it on the phone first — your openings, the products that actually fit, what is involved — and if it is a fit we come out and put a written quote in your hand. No charge and no obligation.
Cape Coral hurricane screen questions
Do I permit through the City of Cape Coral or Lee County?
The City of Cape Coral runs its own building department, so a job inside the city is a city permit, not a Lee County one. This is our home jurisdiction and permitting is handled as part of the job.
Does my pool cage protect my lanai?
No. Screen enclosures are not rated opening protection and are not designed to survive a major hurricane. When a cage fails its aluminum frame becomes wind-borne debris aimed at the sliders behind it, which is a large part of what happened across Cape Coral in Ian.
Can one screen cover a typical Cape Coral lanai?
Almost always. The MagnaTrack Defender spans up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high in a single screen with no center post, which covers the overwhelming majority of lanais in the city.
Will a hurricane screen stop canal flooding or surge?
No. Hurricane screens are rated for wind pressure and wind-borne debris, not water. Surge and flooding are elevation, flood-opening and insurance matters. Anyone telling you a screen solves flooding is selling you something.
Is it worth protecting the lanai if my windows are already impact-rated?
Usually yes, and it is the most common gap we find. Impact windows protect the glazed openings. They do nothing for a wide unprotected lanai, which on a Cape Coral house is typically the largest exposed face on the building.
More questions? Our full hurricane shutter & screen FAQ covers products, service, permitting and financing.
Florida Screen & Shutter, LLC · 883 NE 27th Ln #5, Cape Coral, FL 33909 · (239) 409-0426
License #SCC131152867 · Fully Licensed & Insured Florida Contractor · MagnaTrack President’s Club, #6 in the country, 2025