Decks and outdoor structures
Screened in porch cost
Screening in a covered 12 × 16 ft porch is about $2,643 — 299 sq ft of openings framed and screened with a track system, and a door — or $868 doing it yourself. The same size over a deck is $15,203, because the deck needs a roof, footings that can carry it and a permit before any screen goes up; built from scratch it is $21,383. The screen is the cheap part in every case. This prices the porch from what is there now, measures the openings rather than the floor, and covers rescreening and pool enclosures too.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-24 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Screened in porch cost calculator
What is there now, and the openings to close
A porch with a roof is screened by the square foot of opening. A deck or a patio needs the roof first, and that is most of the money.
The roof and floor are there; only the openings are framed and screened.
The front of the porch.
192 sq ft of floor.
Floor to the beam or ceiling.
40 ft of opening to screen.
Usually one, to the yard.
Vinyl base track screwed to the framing, the screen rolled in with spline and a cap snapped over. Tight, clean, and a torn panel is an afternoon.
Screen to the floor.
None.
A contractor.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
12 × 16 ft — screen in a covered porch
$2,643
$14 per sq ft of porch · 299 sq ft of screen · screening is 100% of it
The roof is already paid for
Roof and floor exist, so the job is 40 ft of openings, 8 ft high, framed and screened — $2,243 — and 1 door.
Measure the openings
40 ft of opening, 299 sq ft of screen.
Screening is priced by the square foot of opening — the open sides times the height, less a knee wall and the doors — not by the floor. A deep, narrow porch against the house has two long sides to screen; a wide, shallow one has one.
The same porch, from each starting point
Same size, same screening; what is already there changes everything else.
What the contractor charges for
- 299 sq ft of openings, screen track system
Vinyl base track screwed to the framing, the screen rolled in with spline and a cap snapped over. Tight, clean, and a torn panel is an afternoon.$2,243 - 1 screen door
A hinged screen door with a closer and a latch, framed into the opening.$400
What it costs
National average. A 16 × 12 ft porch, screen in a covered porch, 3 open sides at 8 ft, screen track system. Not included: painting or staining, flooring over an old slab, gutters on a new roof, or windows for a three-season room.
A new deck floor on its own is priced on the deck page; the fan overhead, on the ceiling fan page.
Worth knowing
- The openings are 40 ft of 3 open sides by 8 ft: 299 sq ft of screen. Screening them is $2,643 — 100% of the job, because the roof and the floor are already there.
- Without a knee wall or a kick rail, the bottom of the screen is where feet, chairs and dogs go through. A kick rail at about 30 in is cheap; a framed knee wall (60 a foot) is stronger and looks built-in.
On this page — 5 sections
The screen is cheap; the roof is not
The short version
- Screening a covered 12 × 16 porch: $2,643. $868 doing it yourself.
- A roof over a deck, then screen: $15,203. The roof and footings are 83% of it.
- From scratch: $21,383, $111 a square foot.
- Screening is priced by the opening, not the floor: 299 sq ft here.
A screened porch is a roof with screen hung under it, and the two parts cost wildly different amounts. Framing and screening the three open sides of a 12 by 16 foot porch is 299 square feet of opening — about $2,243 with a track system, and a door. If the porch already has its roof, that is the job. If it is a deck or a patio, the roof comes first: posts, a beam, rafters and shingles tied into the house, $10,560 for the same floor, plus footings for a load the deck was never designed to carry, plus a permit. Built from nothing, the floor is added too.
$2,643
Covered porch, screened
Roof and floor there
$15,203
Deck, roofed and screened
$1,500 of footings
$14,803
Patio, roofed and screened
Footings at the slab edge
$21,383
From scratch
$111 a sq ft
MaterialsEstimator, Screened porch, patio and pool enclosure price survey · checked 2026-09-24
A deck was not built for a roof
The code’s deck tables, and the builders’ guide most decks are built from, size the joists, beams, posts and footings for people and furniture on the deck. A roof adds its own weight and, in most of the country, its snow — to the same posts and the same footings, and to the ledger bolted to the house. So screening a deck under a new roof starts with the footings: dug out and enlarged, posts replaced with ones that run up to carry the roof beam, the ledger checked. It is a permitted structure and it is inspected. On a patio slab the roof’s posts need their own footings at the edge: a four-inch slab is not a footing.
| Covered porch | Deck with a new roof | |
|---|---|---|
| 12 × 16 ft, track system, one door | $2,643 | $15,203 |
| Screening and door | $2,643 | $2,643 |
| Roof | Already there | $10,560 |
| Footings and posts | Already there | $1,500 |
| Permit | Often none | $500 |
| Time | A few days | Weeks, with inspections |
International Code Council / American Wood Council, IRC R507 and AWC DCA 6 — decks, and why a roof over one is outside the prescriptive tables · checked 2026-09-24
Four ways to screen the openings
Staple and batten is how porches were screened for a century and the cheapest way still; the catch is that replacing a torn screen means pulling every batten. A track system does the same job with a vinyl base, spline and a snap-on cap, and a torn panel is an afternoon. Aluminium screen framing is the tidiest and the longest-lived. Retractable screens disappear into a housing at the top of each opening, for porches that should be open most of the time. Whichever it is, the bottom of the screen needs protecting: a kick rail, or a knee wall.
| Covered 12 × 16, three sides, 8 ft | Per sq ft | Installed | With knee wall | Yourself |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood framing, stapled and battened | $6 | $2,194 | $3,994 | $718 |
| Screen track system | $7.5 | $2,643 | $4,293 | $868 |
| Aluminium screen framing | $13 | $4,287 | $5,387 | $2,273 |
| Motorised retractable screens | $42 | $12,958 | $11,158 | — |
One screen door in every row. The knee wall is framed and sided, about $60 a foot.
Screen Tight / porch screening systems, Porch screening systems — base track, cap and spline installation guides · checked 2026-09-24
Pool enclosures
A pool cage is a different product priced a different way: by the square foot of footprint it covers, about $18, with a minimum near $9,000 — $22,100 for a 30 by 40 foot enclosure. It is aluminium, engineered and stamped for the local design wind speed, which is why the same cage costs more on the coast. Rescreening one is done a panel at a time.
Before signing
- What is there now: roof, floor, both or neither.
- The openings measured, not just the floor.
- For a deck: the footings inspected before the roof is priced.
- The screening method named, and how a torn panel is replaced.
- A knee wall or kick rail at the bottom.
- The permit for any new roof, and who pulls it.
- Fan and lights wired before the ceiling is closed.
What goes wrong
01Pricing a deck like a covered porch
The screening is 2,643; the roof and footings are 12,060.
Instead — Price the roof first; the screen is the small line.
02A roof on the deck's old footings
They were sized for the deck. With a roof and snow on them they settle, and the roof cracks where it meets the house.
Instead — Footings and posts checked and enlarged, under a permit.
03Posts on the patio slab
A 4 in slab cracks under a point load.
Instead — Footings dug at the slab's edge.
04Screen to the floor with a dog
The bottom panel is gone by August.
Instead — A knee wall, a kick rail, or pet screen low down.
05Staple and batten to save money
Every repair pulls every batten.
Instead — A track system: a torn panel is an afternoon.
06No wiring before the ceiling
A fan and lights added afterwards means opening the ceiling.
Instead — Box and circuit before the ceiling goes up.
- 01Say what is there nowA covered porch, a deck, a patio slab, or nothing. That decides whether there is a roof and a floor to pay for.
- 02Measure the floorWidth along the house and depth out from it. It prices the roof and the floor.
- 03Measure the openingsThe open sides' lengths times the height from floor to beam. It prices the screen.
- 04Pick the screeningStaple and batten, a track system, aluminium framing, or retractable — in rising order of price and ease of living with.
- 05Protect the bottomA knee wall or a kick rail, where feet and dogs meet the screen.
- 06Add the roof's paperworkA new roof is a permit and, on a deck, footings checked and enlarged.
Building from scratch starts with a deck floor. The deck page sizes the joists, beams and footings — and a screened porch on it needs those footings upsized for the roof.
If the floor is new- Screened porch
- A roofed porch whose open sides are closed with insect screen. The roof is the structure; the screen is a skin.
- Screen track system
- Vinyl base track screwed around each opening, screen rolled in with spline and a cap snapped over. Tight and easy to rescreen.
- Staple and batten
- Screen stapled to the framing and covered with wood strips. The traditional method; replacing the screen means pulling every batten.
- Knee wall
- A short framed wall, about 30 in, along the bottom of the openings. Protects the screen and makes the porch look built-in.
- Kick rail
- A horizontal rail across each opening at knee height, the cheaper way to divide and protect the screen.
- Shed roof
- A single-slope roof tied under the house's eave. The simplest porch roof; it needs enough height at the house to slope.
- Gable roof
- A two-slope roof with a peak, and a vaulted ceiling under it. More room overhead and about a fifth more money.
- Ledger
- The board bolted to the house that carries one side of a deck or porch roof. It has to be flashed and fastened for the load.
- Footing
- The concrete under a post that spreads its load into the ground. A deck's footings were sized for a deck, not a roof.
- Retractable screen
- A screen that rolls into a housing at the top of the opening, by hand or by motor.
- Pool enclosure
- An aluminium frame and screen over a pool and its deck — a pool cage — engineered for the local wind.
- Three-season room
- A porch closed with windows or vinyl panels instead of screen. A different project, and a different price.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to screen in a porch?
- About $2,643 for a covered 12 × 16 ft porch open on three sides at 8 ft high — 299 sq ft of openings with a screen track system and a screen door. With staple-and-batten framing it is $2,194; with aluminium screen framing $4,287; with a knee wall $4,293. Doing it yourself with a track system is about $868 of materials.
- How much does a screened-in porch cost?
- It depends on what is there before the screen. Screening a porch that already has a roof: $2,643 for 12 × 16 ft. Adding a roof over a deck and screening it: $15,203. Building one from scratch — floor, roof and screen: $21,383, or $24,395 with a gable roof, a fan and lights. The screening is about the same in all three.
- How much does a 12x16 screened porch cost?
- $2,643 to screen in an existing covered one; $15,203 to put a roof on a 12 × 16 deck and screen it; $21,383 built from nothing — $111 a square foot, with $7,680 of floor, $10,560 of roof and $2,643 of screening and door.
- Why is adding a roof so expensive?
- Because it is the structure. A roof over a 12 × 16 deck is posts, a beam, rafters, sheathing and shingles tied into the house — $10,560 — and the deck's footings and posts, sized for a deck, have to be checked and enlarged to carry it and its snow: $1,500. Then the permit. The screening that follows is $2,643.
- What is the best way to screen a porch?
- A screen track system for most porches: vinyl track around each opening, the screen rolled in with spline, a cap over it — tight, clean, and a torn panel is replaced in an afternoon. Staple and batten is cheapest and hardest to maintain. Aluminium framing is the cleanest and longest-lasting and costs about 1.7 times as much. Retractable screens — $12,958 here — are for a porch that should be open most of the year.
- How much does it cost to rescreen a porch?
- About $1,200 for the 12 × 16 porch: the old screen and its battens or spline out, new screen in, about $3 a square foot with a contractor's minimum. Switching from battens to a track system at the same time costs a little more once and makes the next rescreen easy.
- How much does a pool screen enclosure cost?
- About $18 a square foot of footprint — $22,100 for a 30 × 40 ft enclosure over a pool and its deck, with engineering and the permit — with a minimum near $9,000. The shape and the design wind speed move it more than the size: the same cage costs more on the coast.
- Do I need a permit to screen in a porch?
- Screening an existing covered porch often needs none, though some places want one for any enclosure. Adding a roof always does: it is a new structure attached to the house, with footings, a ledger and a roof load to inspect.
- Can a screened porch be turned into a three-season room later?
- Yes, if it is framed for it: openings sized for window or vinyl panel inserts, a knee wall, and a roof and floor that already shed water. It is a separate project, priced by the window.
- Does a screened porch add value?
- A roofed, screened porch is one of the better-returning outdoor additions in buggy climates, because it is usable living space for half the year. Screening an existing covered porch is the cheapest version of it by a wide margin.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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