Roll Down Screens in Punta Gorda, FL
If your house was rebuilt after Charley, the windows are almost certainly rated and
the lanai almost certainly is not. That gap is the single most common thing we find in this town.
The gap the rebuild left
Post-2002 code brought rated windows and doors to Punta Gorda in a way it did not to most of the
region, because so much of the town was rebuilt at once. What the code did not require, and what
almost nobody added voluntarily, was protection for the covered lanai.
So the typical rebuilt house here has good glass and a wide open exposed opening at the back
of it. That is not a small oversight. Wind entering a large opening pressurises the building and
starts lifting the roof structure from underneath, and the lanai is where that starts.
And the pool cage in front of it is not protection. A screen enclosure is not rated opening
protection, never was, and when one fails its own aluminum frame becomes the debris standing a few
feet from your sliders. Punta Gorda has watched that happen twice in twenty years.
What goes on the opening
Fabric on a track in a housing above it, down over the whole span in one piece, sealed at both
edges, retracted out of sight afterwards. Up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high in one
screen, no post in the middle of the harbour or canal view.
We install the MagnaTrack Defender and
UltraShield, both Florida product approved. The fabric
on both is rated for year-round use, so it doubles as an insect and solar screen for the eleven
months there is no storm — which on a canal lot with the sun coming off the water is most of
why it gets used.
Find out what you actually have first
Before spending anything, get hold of your wind mitigation form. It tells you what an inspector
has already recorded about your openings, and on a rebuilt Punta Gorda house it frequently shows
rated windows and no opening protection credit — because the lanai is open. Closing that one
gap is often the cheapest meaningful improvement available to you. More on our
wind mitigation page.
Structural backing at the lanai gets verified rather than assumed; a thirty-foot screen puts real
load into whatever it is fixed to. Permitting runs through the City of Punta Gorda and is handled as
part of the job.
Talk to us about roll down screens in Punta Gorda
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.
Questions we get asked
My windows are rated. Do I need anything else?
Almost certainly the lanai. Post-2002 code brought rated windows and doors but not covered opening protection, and on most rebuilt Punta Gorda houses that lanai is the largest unprotected face on the building.
Does the pool cage count?
No. Screen enclosures are not rated opening protection and are not designed to survive a major hurricane. A failed cage becomes wind-borne debris right beside the glass behind it.
Will it help my insurance?
It might, because the wind mitigation form asks whether every glazed opening is protected – and an open lanai is why a lot of rebuilt houses here get no credit despite having rated windows. Ask your agent what the credit is worth on your policy.
More questions? Our full hurricane shutter & screen FAQ covers products, service, permitting and financing.
More in Punta Gorda: accordion shutters · Bahama shutters · roll down shutters · storm panels · roll down screens · everything we do in Punta Gorda
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