Roll Down Screens in Estero, FL
You bought the lot for the view. A roll down screen is the only rated product that
covers the whole lanai without putting a post in the middle of it.
Why the lanai is the Estero problem
Estero homes are overwhelmingly sited on something — a golf hole, a preserve, a lake, the
river corridor. The lanai faces it, the lanai is the widest opening on the building, and the lanai
is almost always the least protected part of the house.
That combination is worse than it looks. A wide, low, unprotected opening on the exposed side of
the building is precisely where wind gets in, and once it is inside the building pressurises and
starts pushing outward on the roof from underneath. The lanai is not a secondary opening. On most
Estero houses it is the one that matters.
And the pool cage over it is not protection. A screen enclosure is not rated opening protection,
it never was, and when a cage fails its own aluminum becomes the debris standing ten feet from your
sliders.
What a roll down screen actually does
Fabric on a track, in a housing above the opening. It comes down over the whole span in one
piece, seals at both edges, and retracts out of sight when the weather passes.
- Up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high in a single screen, which covers the large
majority of Estero lanais with no centre post - You keep the view and the airflow — sitting behind one you are looking at the golf hole,
not at a wall - Nothing to store, nothing to carry, nothing in the garage
- Rated for year-round use, so the same screen works as an insect and solar screen for the eleven
months there is no storm
The two systems we install are the MagnaTrack
Defender and UltraShield. Both are Florida product
approved and both were tested the same way: a nine-pound 2×4 fired at the product, then thousands of
pressure cycles. If you have heard these called
Kevlar screens, that is a nickname rather than the fabric.
Screens or shutters on a lanai
| What you want | What that is |
|---|---|
| Cover the lanai and keep the view | A roll down screen — one span, no post |
| Close the lanai off completely, dark and secured | Roll down shutters |
| Protect the sliders behind the lanai, not the lanai itself | Accordion shutters, at a fraction of the cost |
A lot of Estero jobs end up as a screen across the lanai and shutters on the windows and doors
behind it. That combination protects more of the house per dollar than putting one product
everywhere.
Permitting in the Village of Estero
Estero runs its own building department, so this is a Village submittal. Structural backing at
the lanai gets verified rather than assumed — a 30-foot screen puts real load into whatever it
is attached to. Permitting is handled as part of the job.
Talk to us about roll down screens in Estero
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
How wide an opening can one screen cover?
Up to 30 feet wide by 20 feet high in a single screen with the MagnaTrack Defender, which covers the large majority of Estero lanais in one piece with no centre post. Your actual opening is checked against the approved size and pressure schedule before anything is ordered.
Does my pool cage already protect the 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 standing a few feet from the openings behind it.
Can I use the screen when there is no storm?
Yes. The fabric on both systems we install is rated for year-round use as an insect and solar screen. Cheaper polypropylene screens are storm-only because UV destroys them — that is the material difference that decides what you actually get for the money.
More questions? Our full hurricane shutter & screen FAQ covers products, service, permitting and financing.
More in Estero: accordion shutters · Bahama shutters · roll down shutters · storm panels · roll down screens · everything we do in Estero
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