Hurricane Screens in Fort Myers, FL
Motorized hurricane screens for Lee County homes, permitted and installed — from a contractor twenty minutes up the road in Cape Coral.
There is no single “Fort Myers house.” A 1925 bungalow off McGregor, a 1970s ranch in Whiskey Creek and a 2019 build in Gateway are three different structures with three different weak points, and the hurricane product that is right for one of them is often wrong for the next. That is worth saying plainly, because most quotes in this market are written as though every opening is the same opening.
Start with the code, because in Lee County it is not optional
Lee County’s design wind speed puts the entire county inside the Wind-Borne Debris Region. Under Florida Building Code Section 1609.5.2, that means every exterior opening on a home has to be either impact-rated glazing or protected by code-compliant shutters or screens. Not the front windows. Every opening.
Design wind speeds across the county run roughly 150 to 180 mph depending on where you are, and every product going on an opening needs a current Florida Product Approval number rated for the wind zone at your address. The inspector checks that number against the installation.
Two permitting offices, and people call the wrong one constantly. If you are inside the City of Fort Myers limits, the city reviews the job. If you are in unincorporated Lee County — Whiskey Creek, Iona, San Carlos Park, most of Gateway — it goes through the Lee County Department of Community Development on Monroe Street downtown. Permitting is handled as part of the job.
Three housing stocks, three problems
Historic river district
McGregor Boulevard, Edison Park, Dean Park. Older framing, deep porches, original openings that are rarely square and almost never a standard size. This is custom-measure work, and it is where a stock-size product looks worst.
Mid-century inland
Whiskey Creek, The Villas, Cypress Lake, Iona. Concrete block, wide low lanais, and pool cages added decades after the house. Iona took five feet of surge and more in places during Ian. Above that line, the failures were wind and debris.
Newer east county
Gateway, Pelican Preserve, and the growth out toward I-75. Tile roofs, tight lot lines, close-set landscaping and an HOA with an opinion about what can hang on the exterior. Screens tend to clear architectural review more easily than a visible shutter track.
What Ian actually did here
Ian made landfall as a Category 4 in September 2022 and put 150 mph winds and a major surge through Lee County. The barrier islands and Fort Myers Beach took the worst of it. Inland Fort Myers flooded along the Caloosahatchee and lost an enormous amount of roofing and screen enclosure — and that second category is the one people underrate. A pool cage is not opening protection. When a cage goes, its aluminum becomes the debris that breaches the openings behind it.
Screens or shutters for a Fort Myers home
| Situation | What usually fits |
|---|---|
| Wide lanai or pool cage opening, 15–30 ft | Motorized hurricane screen — one piece, no center post, nothing to store |
| Standard windows on an older home | Accordion shutters, or impact windows if you are replacing the units anyway |
| Want it closed from inside, or from your phone | Motorized screen or a rolling shutter |
| Sun and heat as much as storms | Retractable solar screens, separate from the hurricane product |
The two hurricane screen systems we install: MagnaTrack Defender, which spans up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high on a dual-pull neodymium magnetic track — the magnetic fields dampen wind and debris and hold the screen flat — under Florida Building Code approval #30798. And UltraShield, Florida product approval FL-42141, whose housing stays 7 inches or under at every size and gives the clearest view out in the industry.
Full detail on both is on our motorized hurricane screens page. If shutters are the better fit for your openings, we install those too — rolldown, accordion, and impact windows and doors.
Where we work in Lee County
Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Iona, San Carlos Park, Gateway, Estero and Bonita Springs. We are a Cape Coral company, so Fort Myers is a local job, not a road trip — which matters more for service calls afterward than it does for the install.
Hurricane screens across Southwest Florida:
Cape Coral · Naples · Punta Gorda · Bonita Springs · Estero · Sanibel · Fort Myers Beach · Port Charlotte · Marco Island · North Fort Myers · San Carlos Park · Babcock Ranch
Hurricane shutters in Fort Myers, FL
Fort Myers has three different housing stocks and each one wants a different shutter. On a historic McGregor or Dean Park home the openings are rarely square, which is where building our own accordion shutters earns its keep. Mid-century Whiskey Creek and Iona homes usually take accordions on the windows and a screen across the lanai. Newer Gateway builds with an HOA tend toward roll-down shutters, which sit in a housing rather than stacking on the wall.
Shutters and screens are different products doing different jobs, and most houses in Fort Myers 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 Fort Myers
Accordion shutters in Fort Myers
Made to fit, which is what the historic stock around McGregor needs.
Bahama shutters in Fort Myers
The one storm product that belongs on a Dean Park elevation.
Roll down shutters in Fort Myers
For the upstairs openings nobody is going to climb a ladder to.
Storm panels in Fort Myers
Excellent on mid-century block, awkward on the historic core.
Roll down screens in Fort Myers
Manual or motorized, one clear span across the wide mid-century lanai.
Impact windows in Fort Myers
EAS units, permitted – and when to spend the money elsewhere first.
Talk to us about your openings — Fort Myers
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.
Fort Myers hurricane screen questions
Does Fort Myers require opening protection on every window?
Lee County is entirely within the Wind-Borne Debris Region, so under Florida Building Code 1609.5.2 every exterior opening needs impact-rated glazing or approved shutters or screens. What that means for an existing home depends on what work you are doing and when it was built — we will tell you straight at the consultation.
Do I permit through the City of Fort Myers or Lee County?
It depends on your address. Inside city limits it is the City of Fort Myers. In unincorporated Lee County it is the Lee County Department of Community Development. We sort out which one applies and handle the permitting for you.
Will a hurricane screen protect my pool cage?
A screen protects the openings of the house behind the cage, which is the part that matters. Screen enclosures are not rated opening protection and are not designed to survive a major hurricane. If your cage comes apart, a rated screen across the lanai openings is what keeps that debris out of the house.
How wide an opening can a single screen cover?
Up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high with the MagnaTrack Defender, which handles nearly every residential lanai in Lee County in one piece with no center post.
Can these be operated during a power outage?
Yes. Every motorized system we install has a manual override, which is the whole point — the one thing you can count on in a hurricane is losing power. If the power is already out when you go to close up, you crank it down by hand. Motors are a convenience, not the thing the protection depends on.
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