Roll Down Screens in Port Charlotte, FL
On a canal home built in 1972, the windows get all the attention and the lanai is
twice the size of any of them.
The opening the budget always skips
Protecting a Port Charlotte house usually means working through a list of a dozen or more
openings on a real budget. What tends to happen is that the windows get done, because they are
countable and quotable, and the lanai gets left because it is the expensive one.
Which is backwards. The lanai is the widest opening on the building, it faces the canal and the
open exposure, and it is the one where wind getting in does structural damage rather than water
damage. A house with every window covered and an open lanai has protected the small holes and left
the big one.
It also costs you on the wind mitigation form, which asks whether all glazed openings
are protected. Leaving the lanai open is why plenty of houses here get no credit despite real
money spent on the windows.
Why it has to be a screen
A wide covered opening rules out most products. Panels need posts. An accordion across twenty
feet is a long pull with a lot of stacked blades. A roll down shutter closes it and also closes it
— no light, no view, no breeze.
A screen covers up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high in one span with no centre post,
seals at both edges, and rolls back out of sight afterwards. The fabric on both systems we install
— the MagnaTrack Defender and
UltraShield — is rated for year-round use, so
it doubles as an insect and solar screen the rest of the time.
The cage is not protection
A screen enclosure is not rated opening protection and was never built to be. When one comes
apart its own frame is the debris that goes through the sliders behind it. Charlotte County lost an
enormous amount of enclosure in Ian and a lot of what damaged the houses underneath came off the
houses themselves.
What it depends on
The span, and what the lanai structure will actually carry. On a house of this age the backing
gets verified rather than assumed — a thirty-foot screen puts real load into whatever it is
fixed to, and occasionally that is the first thing to sort out. Port Charlotte is unincorporated, so
permitting runs through Charlotte County and is handled as part of the job.
Talk to us about roll down screens in Port Charlotte
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
Windows first or lanai first?
The lanai, on most canal homes here. It is the largest opening and the one where wind getting in does structural damage. It is also the reason a lot of houses get no wind mitigation credit despite the windows being done.
Does my pool cage count for anything?
Not as opening protection. Screen enclosures are not rated and are not designed to survive a major hurricane, and a failed cage becomes debris right next to the glass behind it.
Can it be used outside of storms?
Yes. The fabric on both systems is rated for year-round use as an insect and solar screen, which is how most people end up using it.
More questions? Our full hurricane shutter & screen FAQ covers products, service, permitting and financing.
More in Port Charlotte: accordion shutters · roll down shutters · storm panels · roll down screens · impact windows · everything we do in Port Charlotte
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