Pool Cage Cost in Tampa Bay, FL: 2026 Guide

Last reviewed October 2026. Prices are published figures with their dates, not quotes.

A new pool cage in Tampa Bay, FL usually costs between $10,000 and $30,000, and a mid-size cage of about 1,500 square feet built to today's code averages around $23,000. Those two figures come from Tampa Bay screen contractors' own 2026 price pages, and they line up with the $12 to $25 per square foot that local installers quote for professional work. If you searched for pool cage cost Tampa or pool enclosure cost Tampa, the numbers below are the published ranges, the date each was posted, and what pushes a job toward the top of the range.

The same logic applies in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota and Hernando counties. What changes from one town to the next is the permit fee, the design wind speed the engineer works to, and the rules your HOA sets on roof shape and color.

What a new pool cage costs in Tampa Bay

Local and Florida sources cluster around $12,000 to $25,000 for a typical new cage. National cost sites print lower numbers, partly because their data is older and partly because they average in small, simple enclosures. Treat the Tampa Bay rows as the most relevant.

Pool cage cost by size

Covered square footage is the biggest single driver of price. More area means more beams, more screen and more fasteners. These are the size bands Florida sources publish.

Rough math for your own cage

Multiply the covered area (the footprint of the cage, not the screen area) by the local $12 to $25 per square foot. A 1,000 sq ft cage works out to about $12,000 to $25,000 on that basis; a 2,000 sq ft cage to about $24,000 to $50,000. The wide spread is real: the low end is a simple one-story mansard, and the high end is a tall or two-story cage with a gable or dome roof, upgraded screen and a super gutter along the house.

Cost by roof style

A mansard roof is the budget baseline; gable roofs typically cost 10 to 20 percent more. A mansard has sloped edges that rise to a flat center section. A gable rises to a peak like a house roof, which gives more height inside but takes more material and engineering.

HOA rules can choose the roof for you

In Lakewood Ranch's Country Club and Edgewater villages, the homeowners manual requires a mansard-type roof on any cage top of 100 square feet or more, bans curved roofs, keeps the cage roof below the height of the house and says no part of the cage may be seen from the street when viewed straight at the front of the home. Seven Oaks in Wesley Chapel does not allow flat roofs or mill-finish aluminum. If your HOA rules out the cheapest style, the 10 to 20 percent gable premium is a cost you plan for, not a choice.

What pushes a pool cage quote up or down

After size and roof style, these are the line items that separate a $12,000 quote from a $25,000 one.

• Height: a two-story cage or a tall gable over a two-story house means longer members, more screen and more labor at height.
• Super gutter: the heavy gutter that ties the cage to the house runs $15 to $30 per linear foot new, or $1,200 to $3,000 for a typical 60 to 100 ft run (Central Florida, March 2026).
• Footings: HomeGuide puts a super gutter or concrete footings to support the enclosure at $1,500 to $2,500 or more on top of the cage.
• Screen choice: polyester adds roughly 20 to 30 percent over standard fiberglass, and No-See-Um or TuffScreen upgrades add about $1,000 to $1,500 nationally.
• Doors: a screen pool door alone runs $50 to $500, and a cage that serves as the pool barrier needs self-closing, self-latching hardware.
• An old cage to take down first: national removal figures are $1.00 to $2.50 per sq ft, or $800 to $2,000 with cleanup and dump fees.
• Engineering and permit: plans must be signed and sealed in most Tampa Bay jurisdictions, and permit fees run about $90 to $380.
• Wind speed and exposure: the code sets design pressures by wind speed and exposure category (B, C or D), so the frame is engineered for your particular site.

Screen options are covered in the pool cage screen types guide, and the shapes themselves in pool enclosure styles.

Permit and engineering costs by county

Expect a building permit fee of roughly $90 to $380 for a new cage in Tampa Bay, plus the cost of engineered plans. Only a handful of building departments publish a fee for this permit type, and several of those schedules are a few years old.

On Seminole's valuation table, a $10,000 job works out to $50 plus nine $9 steps, or $131 before the state surcharges. Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa and Pasco County all require plans signed and sealed by a Florida-registered architect or engineer, and Pinellas County requires sealed plans for all structural work. The Florida Building Code also accepts the Aluminum Association of Florida's high-wind design guide as conforming engineering, and the City of Sarasota lets a contractor cite an engineered specification instead of a one-off sealed drawing. No department published what the engineering itself costs, so ask that it be itemized.

The City of Tampa's screen enclosure guide adds one more possible cost: a topographical survey if the pool includes 1,000 square feet or more of decking. The Tampa Bay pool enclosure permit guide has every jurisdiction's rules, portals and exemptions.

Does the 2023 Florida Building Code make cages cost more?

Not because of wind speeds, at least on the peninsula. The 8th Edition (2023) Florida Building Code moved to the ASCE 7-22 wind standard, but the Florida Building Commission's own fact sheet says wind speeds "changed only in the panhandle area" and that peninsula speeds "effectively have not changed since the 2010 FBC." If a quote blames a big price jump on new wind maps, ask what specifically changed for your lot.

What does vary is where you live within the region. Pinellas County sets 145 mph by local ordinance for ordinary homes. ASCE's own map data puts inland Pasco and Hernando closer to 138 to 140 mph, and Sarasota, Venice and North Port around 149 to 152 mph. Under Section 2002 of the code, each cage is engineered to the wind pressures for its design speed and exposure, so two identical-looking cages in Spring Hill and Venice are not designed to the same loads. Confirm your site's speed with your building department; the hurricane guide lists the values town by town.

Is a pool enclosure worth the cost?

For a pool used most of the year, the case is strong, but count the running costs too. The upside is practical. UF/IFAS lists screens over decks and swimming pools as a defense against lovebugs, which swarm across Florida every April to May and August to September, and Florida has more than 80 mosquito species. A screen enclosure that meets the state barrier rules can also count as the pool's required safety feature, which the Florida pool enclosure requirements guide explains.

• Frame life: 20 to 30 years or more for well-kept aluminum, per Florida contractors. A $23,000 cage over 20 to 30 years is roughly $770 to $1,150 a year.
• Screen life: about 5 to 10 years for standard fiberglass in Florida sun, then a rescreen at roughly $1,500 to $4,500.
• Paint: aluminum cages are commonly repainted every 5 to 10 years at $1.50 to $2.50 per sq ft.
• Insurance: Citizens' HO-3 worksheet says screen pool cages and aluminum-framed screened enclosures open to the weather are not covered.

New cage, rescreen or restoration?

If you already have a cage with a sound frame, a new one is rarely the cheapest fix. Tampa Bay contractors publish these ranges for the alternatives:

See pool cage rescreening for the screen-only route, or pool cage replacement when the frame itself has to go. For a brand-new build, start with pool enclosure installation.

How to compare pool cage quotes

Two quotes are only comparable when they price the same cage. Check that each one states:

• The contractor's license: Florida's Specialty Structure Contractor license covers screened and pool enclosures; Hillsborough also issues a local Aluminum Structure license, and Pinellas contractors register with the PCCLB.
• Covered square footage, height and roof style, so the per-square-foot math can be checked.
• Whether engineered, signed and sealed plans and the permit fee are included.
• The screen product for the roof and for each wall, including any No-See-Um or pet screen panels.
• Super gutter, footings and kick plates, each as a separate line.
• Door count and the self-closing, self-latching hardware if the cage is your pool barrier.
• Tear-down and haul-away of any existing cage.
• Frame and screen colors your HOA allows, with approval obtained before work starts.

Pool cage prices across Tampa Bay

These prices apply across the six counties, from Lutz and Valrico to Clearwater, Lakewood Ranch and Venice. The full list is on the service area page. Already have a cage that needs new screen? The rescreening cost guide breaks those prices down, or you can request a free quote.