Before you price a screen enclosure in Largo, FL, find out who permits your lot: the City of Largo or, for addresses in the Ridgecrest enclave and other unincorporated pockets, Pinellas County. Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas, with 82,485 residents at the 2020 census, sitting between the Intracoastal Waterway to the southwest and Tampa Bay to the northeast. This page answers the questions about screen enclosures Largo owners search for most: permits, materials, lifespan, porch and lanai options, and cost.
Which office permits your Largo address
A Largo mailing address does not mean the City of Largo issues the permit. Ridgecrest forms a large unincorporated enclave between western and central Largo, and the Bardmoor area spans Largo and Seminole addresses, so check your parcel first.
| Where the home is | Permit office | How to apply |
|---|---|---|
| Inside Largo city limits | City of Largo Building Services, 201 Highland Ave, Largo, FL 33770, (727) 586-7488 | Largo Civic Access Portal (LCAP), online |
| Ridgecrest and other unincorporated pockets | Pinellas County Building & Development Review Services | Pinellas County Access Portal |
| Inside Seminole city limits | City of Seminole Building Division | Licensed contractors online; other permit types in person |
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Wikipedia (Largo, Florida) for the Ridgecrest enclave; pinellas.gov building departments list; City of Largo and City of Seminole permit pages. Fetched 2026-10-13. Check your parcel on the county property appraiser site if unsure.
What Largo Building Services asks for
Largo files screen rooms under its "Carport/Screen Rooms" permit type, and the plans must be signed and sealed by a Florida-licensed architect or engineer. The city accepts digital seals only: it does not require or accept hard copies with wet seals.
- An online application through the Largo Civic Access Portal
- A survey of the property
- Signed and sealed plans, designed to Pinellas County's 145 mph wind speed for homes
- Florida Product Approvals for each product used
- The on-site installation instructions
- A contractor registered with Largo, which needs a PCCLB card, a state license and a local business tax receipt
Largo bases its permit fees on the value of the job, labor and materials included, and it does not publish a flat screen enclosure fee. For work you think is exempt, such as a screen-only job, the city asks for a written request to the Building Official. The pool enclosure permit guide compares Largo with every other Tampa Bay jurisdiction.
What a screen enclosure is made of
A screen enclosure is an engineered aluminum frame skinned with insect screen, and every part has its own lifespan. Knowing the parts makes a quote easier to read.
| Part | Rule or spec | Typical life in Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Aluminum frame members | At least 0.040 inch wall thickness (FBC 2002.3.1); designed for wind from two directions (FBC 2002.4) | 20 to 30+ years with care |
| Primary members | Beams, posts, structural gutters, headers, eave rail, purlins, roof brace | Life of the frame |
| Secondary members | Kick plate rails, chair rails, wall brace | Life of the frame |
| Standard screen | Phifer 18x14 fiberglass, the traditional pool and patio mesh | About 5 to 10 years |
| Upgraded screen | 20x20 No-See-Um, PetScreen, TuffScreen polyester | Longer; premium mesh about 8 to 15 years |
| Spline and fasteners | Rubber spline in the channels; stainless masonry screws are common | Replaced at rescreen; screws checked for corrosion |
| Super gutter | Heavy-gauge aluminum gutter carrying the cage roof at the house | About 20 to 30 years |
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Florida Building Code 2023 Section 2002 (via up.codes); Phifer product pages; Florida contractor lifespan guides (Dec 2025 to Mar 2026); University of Florida fastener report (2017). Fetched 2026-10-13.
How long it lasts, in plain numbers
Florida contractors put standard fiberglass at five to seven years in harsh sun and seven to ten in a typical Tampa Bay yard, and a well-built aluminum frame at 20 to 30 years or more. So a Largo cage installed in the 1990s may be on its third screen with a frame that still has life in it, or a frame that is done. The test is the metal, not the age: straight beams and tight screws mean a pool cage rescreening; bent members or corrosion through the wall mean a pool cage replacement.
Screening a porch, lanai or carport in Largo
Not every Largo screen job is a pool cage. Covered porches, back lanais and screen rooms are common, and each has a slightly different route.
Screening in a large porch
A wide porch opening is divided into panels by aluminum uprights, with a chair rail at mid-height and a kick plate at the bottom, so no single sheet of screen spans too far. Nationally, screening in an existing porch costs about $2,000 to $5,000, or $10 to $25 per sq ft (HomeGuide, February 2026). A published Pinellas and Pasco price for existing lanai and patio screen projects starts at $895 to $1,295. See patio screen enclosures for the details.
Enclosing a screened lanai
Swapping screen for solid walls turns a screen enclosure into a sunroom, which the Florida Building Code designs under a separate section, and that kind of build is outside what this site covers. Inside the screen world, two options get most of the benefit: Phifer's vinyl-laminated Glas-Shield on the lower panels for privacy and less blown-in dirt (not for roofs, per the maker), or retractable screens over the open sides. A lanai with torn screen is simply a lanai screen repair.
Types of screen work Largo homeowners ask for
Six kinds of screen work cover nearly every Largo request, from a single torn panel to a whole building:
- Pool cage rescreening: new mesh in every panel of a sound frame.
- Pool screen repair: a few panels, loose spline or a missing kick plate.
- Pool enclosure installation: a new engineered cage with a city permit.
- Front entry screen enclosures: a screened entry over the front door, published at about $700 to $1,800 in Florida.
- Pool cage gutter repair: the gutter where the cage roof meets the house.
- Condo and HOA rescreening: balconies, lanais and community pool cages across a whole property, the closest thing to commercial screen work.
Largo neighborhoods and their enclosures
Golf-course pool homes and large manufactured-home communities both shape screen work in Largo. Bardmoor centers on the Bardmoor Golf & Tennis Club, with sections including Bardmoor Country Club North, Bardmoor Golf View Estates, The Trails at Bardmoor and The Arbors at Bardmoor, and pool homes are common there. On Ulmerton Road, Ranchero Village holds 946 manufactured homes. Screen rooms on manufactured homes can follow different rules, so ask the city which permit type applies before work starts.
Water shapes the rest. Taylor Lake covers 53 acres, Allen's Creek drains northeast Largo into Tampa Bay, and McKay Creek flows through southwest Largo to the Intracoastal. Homes near those waters see more moisture and, closer to the Intracoastal, more salt, which is hard on screws and spline.
Storm damage in Largo
In Largo the bigger storm risk to cages has been falling trees and wind, not surge. During Milton in October 2024, large trees were felled in Largo as across Pinellas, and Pinellas wind gusts ran 80 to 100 mph. A year earlier, Idalia's Pinellas count was 10 structures destroyed, 811 with major damage and 1,016 with minor damage.
Largo and nearby
This page covers all of the city, along US 19 and US 19 Alternate and off State Roads 686 and 688. Nearby pages cover Seminole, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Every town is on the service area page, or go straight to the quote request form.
