Screened porch cost in Georgia: rescreen or new

What a rescreen usually runs around Rome

Rescreening means new screen in the framing that's already there, and the job usually runs $400 to $800+. That's for the whole porch, so it won't tell you what one panel costs. Where your porch lands depends on how many openings it has and how big they are.

Treat the range as a yardstick for a quote you've been given, since it can't replace one. A figure far above it is worth a question, and the answer should be specific: rot under the old screen, a heavier mesh, a door to fit.

What makes one rescreen land higher than another?

Four things move a rescreen up or down.

• The screen itself. Standard fiberglass, aluminum, a heavier pet-rated mesh and a solar screen are different materials at different prices.
• The openings. How many, how big, and how high off the floor, because a tall opening means a ladder.
• How the screen is held. Framed panels with spline come out and go back as units. Screen stapled to a wood frame under trim means pulling the trim and resetting it.
• What's under the old screen. A sound frame is the easy case. A bottom rail that's been wet behind the mesh for years is the one that changes the number.

Check the frame before you buy screen

Screen is the last layer on a porch and the part you can see. The frame it's stretched on, the posts under the roof and the floor beneath it are what the money rides on. New screen over a rotted bottom rail looks fine until the wood gives up, and then the screen pulls loose along with it.

Push a screwdriver into the bottom rails, the post bases and the sills, the way the probe test for soft wood lays out. Where the porch sits on a deck frame, the posts and footings need the checks for deck posts and footings. Soft wood moves you out of rescreen territory, and the rescreen range stops applying.

What decides the cost of a new screened porch?

A new porch is a roofed room tied into the house, so its cost turns on questions a photo can't answer. Is there already a roof, or does one have to be built? How does a new roof meet the old roofline? What do the footings and the frame have to carry? Is a permit part of it, and does it want a drawing? Each answer moves the total, and the roof is the biggest question.

Closing in a deck that's already there is the more common version, and it comes down to the old frame. Whether that deck can carry a roof is a frame question first, and if the frame needs work, what deck repair costs shows where board work ends and frame work starts. A roofed structure attached to a house is also where permits begin to matter, and how a permit differs from a license is worth a read before you plan one.

A screen door gets fitted to the opening as it actually is, and on an older porch that opening may not be square, so the fitting is most of the work.

How a rescreen goes, and when it's yours to do

Framed panels with spline are among the easiest repairs on a house. Pull the old spline with a pick or a small screwdriver, lay new screen over the frame with a couple of inches to spare, press new spline into the groove with a spline roller, since the old stuff is usually brittle by then, and trim the extra with a sharp utility knife. Pull the screen just tight enough to lose the wrinkles. Pulled drum tight, it bows the frame and the screen ripples.

Pet-rated mesh is stiffer and takes more force to seat, and tall openings mean working off a ladder, which is where a second pair of hands earns its keep. Screen stapled to a wood frame under trim is doable too but fussier, since the trim has to come off and go back without splitting.

It stops being your job with soft frames, with any opening too tall to reach safely, and with a roof that doesn't exist yet. One torn panel can wait for the next trip, and the arithmetic of bundling small jobs shows why.

What to settle first, in order

Settle these in order. Frame first, because it decides whether this is a rescreen at all. Screen second, once you know how many openings there are and what mesh suits the porch. The door last, since it has to fit the opening as it ends up.

If the frame is sound and the screen is shot, you're in rescreen territory and the range applies. If a post or a rail is soft, the number you need is a repair number first. If what you want is a porch that doesn't exist yet, you need a drawing before anyone can price it.

For screened porch work, tell us whether there's already a roof over the space and roughly how big it is. A photo of it as it stands helps, and the quote costs nothing.

Questions that come with this one