How do I know if my pool cage needs rescreening vs. repair?
Count the failures and check the age. Two or three torn panels on a cage under about ten years old is a repair job. A fourth or fifth failure on a cage in Lake Mary’s typical 25–45 year range usually means the rest of the mesh is the same age and has taken the same sun — at that point, a full rescreen is usually the cheaper answer over the next five years, not the more expensive one.
The three questions that actually decide it
How old is the cage?
Most Lake Mary subdivisions went up in one long wave from the late 1970s through the early 2000s — Greenwood Lakes from 1978, Cardinal Oaks 1979–1990, Timacuan 1989–2001, Chase Groves 1991–2002, Tuscany 2000–2004. A handful, like Steeple Chase (2014–2019), are meaningfully newer — see the Steeple Chase page for how that changes the calculus.
How many panels have actually failed?
Not how many look faded — how many have torn, sagged or lost mesh from the channel. Count by position; upper and mansard panels cost more to redo than ground-level ones.
Is the failure spline, mesh, or fasteners?
Spline and fastener failure on one panel is a strong predictor for the rest of the cage, because they all aged together. Storm or impact damage to one panel is not — that is a repair regardless of the cage’s age.
Why the maths usually favours the full rescreen on an old cage
Chasing individual panel failures on a 25–45 year old cage means a trip charge and a panel price every few months as the rest of the same-age mesh follows the first failures. A full rescreen is a larger single cost but resets the whole cage at once — see the full rescreen cost breakdown against the single-panel repair cost to compare the two directly for your panel count.
Questions people actually ask
What is the actual break-even between repair and a full rescreen?
There is no fixed panel count — it is a function of age. On a cage under ten years old, repairing two or three failed panels is almost always cheaper over time. On a cage in Lake Mary’s typical 25–45 year range, the rest of the mesh has taken the same sun as the panels that already failed, so a fourth panel failure is a strong signal the whole cage is at the same point.
Does a partial rescreen look obviously patched?
Only if the mesh colour or weave does not match. A new charcoal 18x14 panel next to sun-faded charcoal 18x14 is visible for a while then blends in; a grey panel next to charcoal never does. Insist on a colour and weave match on any partial repair.
Send the panel count
And roughly when the cage went up. That is usually enough to give an honest answer either way, not just a quote.
Phone: (689) 666-9380 · Email: quotes@lakemaryrescreening.com