Hurricane Prep for Your Screen Enclosure
J-Rod and Sons Screen Rooms — family-owned screen room builders in Greater Jacksonville. 15 years in the trade, 300+ enclosures, and a 10-year workmanship warranty on every build.
The short version
You can't hurricane-proof a screen enclosure, and anyone selling you that is lying. A cage is designed to let wind pass through — the screen is the part meant to give. What you can do before a storm: clear everything loose out of it, photograph it for your insurer, and know that a blown-out panel is a good outcome. It means the frame did its job.
Every year around this time somebody asks us how to hurricane-proof their pool cage. The honest answer is that you can't, and understanding why will save you money.
How enclosures actually fail
A screen enclosure is essentially a frame with a lot of surface area and nothing solid to push against. That's deliberate — wind passes through the mesh instead of loading up the structure like a wall would.
When it goes wrong, it goes wrong in a specific order:
- Screen blows out first. By design. The panel is the sacrificial part, and losing one is the system working.
- Then the anchoring. Most real failures we see aren't the screen or even the frame — it's how the thing was attached to the slab. The part nobody inspects.
- Then the frame. Usually because a limb hit it, or because debris turned a panel into a solid surface and the wind finally had something to push.
This is why we build to current wind standards under the Florida Building Code rather than to whatever the enclosure next door was built to fifteen years ago. The requirements have tightened, and plenty of standing cages in Jacksonville wouldn't pass today.
Before the season starts
The useful work happens now, not when a cone shows up on the news:
- Walk the anchors. Rust stains at the base, or a frame lifting off the deck, is the thing to catch early.
- Deal with tears now. A torn panel catches debris and turns a screen into a sail. Ordinary screen repair is cheap; a frame isn't.
- Trim what's over it. Most frame damage we rebuild came off a tree, not the wind itself.
- Photograph it. Do this while it's intact. Time-stamped photos of a healthy enclosure are worth a lot when you're later trying to show an adjuster what the storm actually changed.
When a storm is named
Watch the actual forecast at the National Hurricane Center rather than the loudest thing on your feed. Then:
- Empty it out. Furniture, grills, plants, fire tables. Anything loose inside a cage becomes a projectile against your own screen.
- Don't leave the door swinging. Latch it or secure it.
- Photograph it again. Right before, if you have time.
- Accept the screen may go. That's the design. Rescreening a cage costs a fraction of rebuilding one.
After it passes
Get it looked at even if it looks fine. A frame that took a limb can be bent in ways that are invisible from the ground and fail the next time the wind picks up. That's the job we hate most — a cage that survived one storm and came down in the next, smaller one.
For storm damage work we document what we find with photos and a written scope so your carrier gets a clear, itemized picture. We're not adjusters and we won't tell you what your policy covers — but a vague estimate helps nobody.
And if the damage is limited, we repair. If the frame is compromised, we rebuild. We'll be straight with you about which one you're looking at — the same way we handle rescreen versus replace the rest of the year.
FAQ
Should I remove my screen panels before a hurricane?
Some people do, on the theory that it saves the frame. It's labor-intensive and only worth discussing for a serious storm. Call us before you start cutting — what makes sense depends on your cage and how much warning you have.
Does insurance cover screen enclosure damage?
That's between you and your carrier, and policies differ a lot on enclosures. What we can do is document the damage properly so the claim is based on facts. See our FAQ for how we handle it.
Is a newer enclosure safer in a storm?
Generally yes — wind requirements have tightened over the years, so a cage built to current code is built to more than an older one was.
My screen blew out but the frame looks fine. What now?
That's the system working. Usually it's a rescreen, not a rebuild — but have the frame and anchors checked before you re-skin it.
How fast can you get out after a storm?
Storm weeks are busy and we won't pretend otherwise. We prioritize safety issues like collapsed frames. Call (904) 862-8688 and we'll give you a realistic timeline, not a comfortable one.
Walk the job with the owner.
Tell us what you're thinking. We'll come look, point out what we'd do differently, and only quote what we're confident we can deliver.