The first question for any screen enclosure in Bradenton, FL is which side of the city line you live on. Bradenton is the Manatee County seat, an incorporated city since 1903 with 55,698 residents at the 2020 census, but many homes with a Bradenton mailing address sit in unincorporated Manatee County: River Club, Mill Creek, GreyHawk Landing and Braden Woods among them. The two governments publish different rules and different permit fees for the same pool cage.
This page covers the screen enclosure Bradenton FL questions that matter before you spend money: what a new cage and a rescreen cost, which office issues the permit, what the setback is, what wind the frame is built for, and what to check after a storm. It applies from Village of the Arts and Washington Park in town to the newer subdivisions east toward I-75.
Bradenton screen enclosure facts at a glance
Inside the city, rescreening needs no permit and a new aluminum structure permit costs $300; in the county, rescreening needs no permit but does need a licensed contractor, and the permit is $210. The table below pulls together what each office publishes, along with the storm and wind numbers that shape how a cage here is engineered.
| Topic | City of Bradenton | Unincorporated Manatee County |
|---|---|---|
| Who issues the permit | City Building & Planning Department | Manatee County Building & Permitting Division |
| Rescreen only | No permit ("Screen room, rescreening only") | No permit, but a licensed contractor is required |
| New screen enclosure | Permit required (aluminum structure) | Permit plus state-certified or locally licensed contractor |
| Aluminum structure permit fee | $300 (Resolution 26-50, effective Jul 1, 2026) | $210 (fee schedule effective Apr 1, 2023) |
| Setback for pool cages | Check city zoning | 5 ft from side and rear lines; never in easements or drainage swales |
| Screening an existing lanai with roof and slab | Rescreen exemption applies | No permit, unless walls are paneled in or kick plate is over 12 in |
| Design wind (ASCE 7-22, Risk Cat. II) | About 147 mph at city center | Varies by site; confirm for the address |
| Peak Milton gust nearby | 102 mph, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport | Same station; 80 to 100 mph across the county |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
Compiled from the City of Bradenton list of work not requiring a permit and Resolution 26-50, Manatee County's 'What does not require a permit' (updated 6-16-26) and Building Fee Schedule, the ASCE 7-22 wind geodatabase, and the NWS Tampa Bay Milton impact narrative. Fetched 2026-10-13. Confirm with your building department before work starts.
How much a screen enclosure costs in Bradenton
A brand-new pool cage is a five-figure project, usually $10,000 to $30,000 or more around Tampa Bay, while a full rescreen of an existing cage usually lands between $1,500 and $4,500. That gap is why the first thing to settle is whether your frame is still sound. No Manatee-only price survey exists, so the figures below come from published Tampa Bay and Florida price guides.
| Job | Published range | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| New pool enclosure, typical project | $10,000 to $30,000+ | Tampa Bay screen contractor price page, 2026 |
| New code-built cage, per sq ft | $12 to $25 per sq ft | Tampa Bay contractor guide, Feb 2026 |
| Mid-size new cage, about 1,500 sq ft | About $23,000 | Tampa Bay contractor guide, Feb 2026 |
| Small new cage, under 800 sq ft | $6,000 to $9,600 | Southwest Florida enclosure company, 2026 |
| Full rescreen, Florida | $1,500 to $4,500+ ($1.50 to $3.50 per sq ft) | Florida contractor guides, Dec 2025 and Mar 2026 |
| One torn panel | $75 to $150 | Tampa Bay contractor guide, Jan 2026 |
| Several panels | $250 to $600 | Tampa Bay contractor guide, Jan 2026 |
| Door rebuild or replacement | $250 to $650 per door with hardware | Florida screen company, 2026 |
| Repainting the frame | $1.50 to $2.50 per sq ft | Tampa Bay contractor guide, Jan 2026 |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
Published contractor price guides fetched 2026-10-13. National sites quote wider ranges; treat these as planning numbers, not a quote. Permit fees are extra and set by the city or county.
What pushes a Bradenton cage price up
- Size and height: a tall mansard roof over a 20x40 pool carries far more screen and metal than a flat-roof lanai.
- Engineering: every new cage needs plans, and a site closer to open water can face higher wind pressure.
- Screen choice: 20x20 No-See-Um, PetScreen or vinyl-coated polyester cost more than standard 18x14 fiberglass.
- Footings and gutters: a super gutter or new concrete footings add roughly $1,500 to $2,500 on national figures.
- Tear-down: replacing a storm-bent cage means removal and haul-off before anything new goes up.
- Permit fee: $300 inside the city versus $210 in the county, as published.
Pool cages, lanais and other screen rooms
Most Bradenton screen enclosures are one of three things: a pool cage over the pool and deck, a screened lanai on an existing slab under the house roof, or a small screened front entry. Manatee County's own fee schedule groups glass rooms, lanais and screen enclosures under the same aluminum structure permit, but the rules for each differ in useful ways.
- Pool cage: a free-standing engineered aluminum frame with a screen roof. Always permitted when new. See pool enclosure installation.
- Screened lanai or porch: screen walls under an existing roof on an existing slab. In the county, screening one needs no permit until the walls are closed in with panels or the kick plate goes above 12 inches. See patio screen enclosures.
- Front entry: a screened box over the front door that keeps bugs off the entry. See front entry screen enclosures.
- Roll-down screens: retractable screens over a lanai opening or garage. See retractable screens.
Bradenton permits: city limits or county
Look up your parcel before anything else: city addresses go to the City of Bradenton, and everything east of the city line goes to Manatee County. Both list rescreening as permit-free, which is unusual in Tampa Bay, where most building departments say nothing either way.
Inside the City of Bradenton
The city's list of work not requiring a permit includes "Screen room, rescreening only." A new enclosure is not on that list and falls under the city's aluminum structure permit, which costs $300 under Resolution No. 26-50, in effect since July 1, 2026. The city does not publish its own setback or engineering wording for screen rooms, so ask the Building & Planning Department when a new cage is being designed.
Unincorporated Manatee County
Manatee County puts rescreening and "any repairs of hardware or fasteners" on its no-permit list but adds that the work "requires a license." New carports, porches and screen rooms need both a permit and a state-certified or locally licensed contractor. Aluminum structure permits always need building plans and a site plan or survey, the fee is $210, and pool cages must stay 5 feet off side and rear lines and out of easements and drainage swales. Exemptions do not apply to properties in a flood hazard area, which matters along the Manatee and Braden rivers.
The Tampa Bay pool enclosure permit guide lays out the rules for every county and city in the region side by side.
What Helene and Milton did in Bradenton
Bradenton took two different kinds of hit in 2024: Helene flooded neighborhoods with surge in September, and Milton brought gusts of 100 mph or more two weeks later. Each one stresses a screen enclosure differently.
- Helene: several Bradenton neighborhoods flooded, Chauncey Avenue among them, and the county called the surge unprecedented and rescued more than 300 residents. Its peak gust at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport was 74 mph.
- Milton: the airport recorded a maximum gust of 102 mph, and local reporting measured winds of 100 mph or more in the Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch areas. With 45 percent of homes inspected, Manatee County counted 19 homes destroyed, 536 with major damage and 1,112 with minor damage.
- After the storm: Manatee County said all storm-related repairs required permits but waived the permit fees for them through March 1, 2025.
Surge and wind leave different marks. Floodwater rarely bends a frame, but it can undermine footings, scour the edge of the slab and leave mud and salt in the screen channels. Wind racks the frame, pops screen out of the spline and drives debris through roof panels. After either one, check the frame before ordering new screen. The hurricane damage repair page covers what to photograph for a claim.
After a storm, look for
- Beams or uprights with a kink, twist or visible bow
- Screws sheared or pulled out where the cage meets the house or the super gutter
- A door that drags, will not latch or no longer closes on its own
- Roof panels torn by palm fronds or branches
- Mud lines or salt crust inside the screen channels after flooding
- Gaps at the base where water scoured the deck edge or footing
Salt air and the Manatee River
Homes near the river or the Gulf should have their cage fasteners checked more often than inland homes. Bradenton borders the Manatee River to the north, with fresh and salt water mixing, and Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key lie just west across the Intracoastal. A University of Florida study for the Florida Building Commission found fastener corrosion more serious in coastal environments because of chloride, and noted that the coating on stainless masonry screws commonly used for screen enclosures peeled in testing, which can set up unlike-metal reactions with aluminum.
In practice that means rusty streaks below screw heads, loose screws in the kick plate and chalky paint on the frame. A frame in that condition is often a candidate for pool cage painting and a fastener refresh before, or along with, pool cage rescreening. If beams are corroded through, see pool cage replacement.
How long a Bradenton enclosure lasts
Plan on new screen every 5 to 10 years and a well-kept aluminum frame lasting 20 to 30 years or more. Florida contractors put standard fiberglass at 5 to 7 years in harsh sun and 7 to 10 in a typical Tampa Bay yard, with premium mesh reaching 10 to 15. That means most cages are rescreened two or three times before the frame is replaced.
Signs your Bradenton cage needs work
- Screen that is faded, chalky or splits when pressed
- Panels popped out of the channel after a summer storm
- Bugs inside even with the door shut
- A frame that shakes or racks when you push on an upright
- Rust stains under screws, especially near the river or bay
- Oak leaves and debris dropping through roof panels into the pool
A handful of torn panels is a pool screen repair job. Once a quarter or more of the cage is failing, a full rescreen usually makes more sense.
What the code requires of a Bradenton cage
A new pool cage here is engineered to the Florida Building Code, Section 2002, for a design wind speed that is about 147 mph at the city center. The code sets a minimum wall thickness of 0.040 inch for extruded aluminum members, requires the frame to resist wind from two directions using its Table 2002.4 pressures, and accepts the AAF Guide to Aluminum Construction in High Wind Areas as conforming engineering.
A screen enclosure can also serve as the pool barrier. The Florida Residential Code treats a standard screen enclosure as a non-dwelling wall for that purpose, and state law sets the barrier at 4 feet high on the outside with gates that open outward, self-close and self-latch. That is why a pool cage door that no longer latches is a safety problem, not a cosmetic one. See pool cage door replacement.
The work itself falls under Florida's Specialty Structure Contractor license, whose scope covers screened porches, screened enclosures and pool enclosures. Manatee County requires a licensed contractor even for a rescreen, so asking for the license number before you sign is a sensible step on any Bradenton job.
Bradenton and nearby
Bradenton sits on US 41 between Tampa and Sarasota. Neighbors with their own pages include Lakewood Ranch, Parrish and Sarasota. Every town is on the service area page, and the pool cage cost guide goes deeper on new-cage pricing. When you are ready, request a free quote.
