Check your screen enclosure quote
A complete screen enclosure quote states the footprint in square feet and the height, names the screen mesh and the frame gauge, includes the engineering and the permit, says how it attaches to the house and what happens to the gutter, and splits the workmanship warranty from the screen manufacturer's — and this page checks yours against that list, one box at a time.
Ask before you sign
Nothing here matches a documented pattern, but the quote leaves questions open. Get the answers in writing before signing — a legitimate company will have no problem with any of them.
Price check
Enter the quote total and the footprint on the quote to check the price against the published range.
Range: HomeGuide. Published national figures, the same ones our screen enclosure calculator runs on. Not our measurement, and not a quote.
Ask these 10 questions before signing
- “What footprint are you pricing, and what is the peak height?”Every published enclosure price is per square foot of footprint, so a quote without one cannot be checked against any of them. Height drives the aluminium, the wind load and the engineering, and it is the variable two quotes most often differ on silently.
- “What extrusion sizes and wall thickness are you using for the uprights and the beams?”The frame is the part that resists wind and the part you cannot see once the screen is on. It is also the easiest place to make a quote cheaper without the customer noticing, which is exactly why it belongs in writing.
- “Which mesh are you installing, and what is its warranty?”Mesh is the item that gets replaced first and the one homeowners have opinions about after the fact — visibility, airflow, pets, insects. It has its own manufacturer warranty separate from the company's workmanship.
- “Is this designed and sealed to my county's wind-load requirement, and is the engineering in this price?”The enclosure is a structure attached to your house, and in high-wind jurisdictions the permit will not issue without engineering. It is also the item that decides whether an insurance claim after a storm goes anywhere.
- “Is the permit included in this price, and is your company pulling it?”The permit is what puts an inspector on the footings and the attachment. A contractor who avoids the permit is avoiding the inspection, and the final payment should wait for it.
- “What are the footings, and how does the structure attach to the house and the deck?”Wind loads end up in the anchors and the footings, so this is the structural heart of the job and it is invisible after the first day. It is also where a screen enclosure most often causes a roof or deck problem years later if it was done badly.
- “Are you installing a super gutter, and where does the water go once the cage is up?”Tying a cage into the roofline changes where roof water lands. A super gutter is the usual answer and it has its own published price range, so a quote silent on drainage is a quote that has not solved it yet.
- “How many doors, what hardware, and are kick plates included?”Doors are the part that gets used every day and the part that fails first. Counting them on the quote is also the simplest way to confirm two quotes are describing the same enclosure.
- “What is your workmanship warranty, and what is the manufacturer's warranty on the mesh and the frame finish?”The company warrants how it was built; the manufacturers warrant the mesh and the powder-coat finish. A single verbal “fully warranted” covers neither in a way you can use.
- “Is this licence number yours, in this company's name, and active today?”Florida licenses this work specifically as a Specialty Structure Contractor — the only dedicated screen-enclosure class we found in any state. Everywhere else the company appears under a general contractor licence, and the checker says so rather than pretending a screen licence exists.
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Sources last read on August 22, 2026. The verdict is about the quote in your hand, never about a person or a company.
What this checker actually checks
Three things, and it shows its work on all of them. First, completeness: whether the quote states the footprint and the height, names the frame gauge and the mesh, includes engineering to the local wind load, includes the permit, says how the structure attaches and what the footings are, solves the drainage, lists the doors, and splits the two warranties.
Second, price: the total divided by the footprint, held against the published per-square-foot range for that job type — the same HomeGuide figures our screen enclosure calculator runs on, with separate published bands for a new cage, screening an existing porch, building a new porch and rescreening. We have not measured enclosure prices, and this page never pretends to.
Third, the deal terms: the patterns the Federal Trade Commission lists for home improvement work generally — full payment demanded up front, no written contract, no verifiable local address, cash only, and pressure to sign today.
Four different jobs get called “a screen enclosure quote”
And they are priced completely differently, which is the single most common reason two quotes look incomparable. Screening in a porch that already has a roof and a floor runs $10 to $25 per square foot on the published table. Building the porch and then screening it runs $50 to $175 — five to seven times more, because it is a foundation, framing and a roof before any screen goes on. A new pool cage is its own band at $5 to $15 per square foot on one published source and $8 to $15 on two others. And a rescreen, where the frame stays and only the mesh changes, is $2 to $4.
So the first question is not what it costs, it is which of those four you are actually being quoted. This page makes you pick, and then holds the number against that job's own published range rather than against an average of all four.
The wind-load line is the one that matters after a storm
A screen enclosure is a structure bolted to your house, and in coastal and hurricane-prone counties the permit will not issue without engineering sealed to the local wind-load requirement. That engineering is a real cost and a real line item, and it is the difference between a cage that is rebuilt under an insurance claim and one that was never permitted and therefore never covered.
It is also the reason the frame gauge question is not pedantry. The wall thickness of the aluminium and the size of the uprights are what carry the load into the footings, they are invisible once the screen is on, and they are the easiest place for two quotes on the same footprint to differ by thousands. Ask for the extrusion sizes in writing and the two quotes become comparable in one line.
What a green result does and does not mean
Green means the quote in your hand carries the elements a complete quote typically includes, and the price per square foot sits inside a published national range for that job type. It does not mean the build will be good or that the price could not be better. It means the document is complete enough to compare, and comparison is the whole game.
Questions people ask next
- How much should a screen enclosure cost?
- It depends which of four jobs you are quoting. HomeGuide publishes $5 to $15 per square foot for a new pool screen enclosure — two other guides read $8 to $15 on the same job — $10 to $25 to screen in an existing porch, $50 to $175 to build and screen a new porch, and $2 to $4 to rescreen an existing frame. A two-story enclosure carries a published 30% premium, and the permit runs $200 to $500.
- What should a screen enclosure quote include?
- The footprint in square feet and the peak height, the frame extrusion sizes and wall thickness, the screen mesh by type, engineering sealed to the local wind-load requirement, the permit and who pulls it, the footings and how the structure attaches to the house, a solution for roof drainage such as a super gutter, the doors and their hardware, and both warranties — workmanship and the mesh manufacturer's — in writing.
- Why do screen enclosure quotes vary so much for the same size?
- Height, frame gauge and scope. Two 800 square foot cages at different peak heights are different amounts of aluminium and different wind loads. The wall thickness of the uprights is invisible once the screen is on and is the easiest place to make a quote cheaper. And one quote may include engineering, permit, super gutter and doors while the other leaves all four out.
- Do I need a permit for a screen enclosure?
- In most jurisdictions yes, and it carries a published cost range of $200 to $500. It matters more here than on many jobs: the permit inspection covers the footings and the attachment to the house, and in high-wind counties the permit will not issue at all without sealed engineering. An unpermitted enclosure is also the version an insurer is least likely to pay for after a storm.
- Is a screen enclosure contractor licensed?
- In Florida, specifically yes — the state issues a Specialty Structure Contractor licence built for screen enclosures and aluminium structures, and it is the only dedicated class of its kind we found in any state. Everywhere else, a screen company holds a general or specialty contractor licence rather than a screen licence, and this checker says so instead of implying otherwise.
- Does this tool tell me if my screen company is overcharging me?
- No, and it never will. It checks the quote — the document and the deal terms — against published figures and published consumer-protection guidance. A yellow or red result means ask more questions and verify, not that anybody is dishonest.
Built for homeowners by Most Recommended Screen Enclosures, which measures which screen enclosure companies AI assistants actually recommend across U.S. metros. The checklist logic here is ours; the prices, the deal-terms guidance and the licence databases belong to the sources named above, in the copy, where you can check them. How we measure.