Privacy Screen for Lanais and Pool Cages in Florida

You sit down by the pool and realize the neighbor’s upstairs window looks straight at you. Or the street side of your lanai has no cover at all, and every car that slows down gets a view. A lanai privacy screen or a pool cage privacy screen is how you fix it, and the easiest time to plan it is before a rescreen.

The good news is that privacy screen is a real product, made by the same company that makes standard pool screen. The part people worry about is the cost in breeze, view and light. This guide covers what privacy screen is, where it can and cannot go, what it takes away, and how to decide which walls of your cage get it.

What Privacy Screen Actually Is

Privacy screen is regular fiberglass screen with a coating that blocks the view through it. The best-known example is Phifer’s Glas-Shield. Phifer describes it as its 18x14 fiberglass mesh that has been vinyl laminated, and says it “also functions as a privacy screen in vertical (wall) applications” (Phifer, Glas-Shield product page).

Read that sentence slowly. The base is the same 18x14 weave as the standard pool screen on most cages. The vinyl laminate is the change. The laminate is what makes it a privacy product.

Phifer’s pool and patio page says the screen is “a great fit for homeowners who want added privacy with their patio enclosure or pool cage” (Phifer, pool and patio screening). The product page lists charcoal as its color, with clear also shown in the product selector. We cover the other screen choices, like no-see-um and pet screen, in our guide to pool cage screen types. This one stays on privacy.

Lanai Privacy Screen and Pool Cage Privacy Screen: Where It Goes

Here is the rule that matters most. Privacy screen goes on walls, and mostly on the lower part of them. It does not go on the roof.

Phifer says Glas-Shield “can be installed in the lower enclosure panels (chair rail down) to keep dirt and debris out of pool enclosures” and that “it is not made to be used as roofing material or in horizontal applications” (Phifer, Glas-Shield product page). On the pool and patio page, Phifer calls it ideal for the lower panels of a patio or pool cage and says it is not made for roofing (Phifer, pool and patio screening).

The chair rail is the horizontal bar that runs along a cage wall about waist or chair height. Everything below it is the “lower panel.” That is the band of screen at the height of someone sitting in a lounge chair or standing in the shallow end, which is also the band a neighbor’s eye line usually hits.

So on a typical cage the layout looks like this:

• Roof panels: standard screen. Privacy screen is not made for them.
• Upper wall panels: standard screen, so you keep the sky and the light.
• Lower wall panels facing the neighbor or street: privacy screen.
• Lower panels on the other sides: your choice, usually standard.

A lanai is the same idea on a smaller scale. A screened patio off the back door has fewer walls, and often one of them faces something you would rather not look at. Privacy screen on the lower part of that one wall can be enough. If you are not sure whether your space counts as a lanai, a pool cage or a screen room, our guide to the difference between a lanai, pool cage and screen room sorts it out.

Will It Block the Breeze, the View or the Light?

Yes, some. Any screen that hides things from the neighbor also hides some of the yard from you. The honest question is how much, and where.

Here is what the maker’s own pages say. For Glas-Shield, Phifer’s product page lists the 18x14 mesh, the colors and the roll sizes. It does not list an openness percentage, a UV blocking figure or a light figure. That means we cannot give you a number for how much air or light Glas-Shield passes, and we will not make one up.

What we can do is show you what a heavier screen looks like in Phifer’s own numbers. Phifer lists its PetScreen at an openness factor of approximately 36 percent and UV blockage of approximately 64 percent (Phifer, PetScreen). That is a pet screen, not a privacy screen, and it is a different material. But it gives you a sense of the pattern: a sturdier, denser screen means less air and less light than a light, open weave. Treat the 36 percent as a comparison point only, not as a figure for privacy screen.

Phifer’s features page ties its privacy screens to a “tightly-woven mesh” and its open, clear-view screens to “greater outward visibility” (Phifer, screen features). The page does not give a number for the tradeoff. The plain reading is that privacy and view pull in opposite directions. You choose where to spend each.

What does that mean in practice?

Breeze. Screen changes how air moves through a wall. The more of a wall you cover with privacy screen, the less open wall you have. This is why a full wall of it feels different from a lower band of it. Air still comes through the upper panels and the roof, which stay standard.

View out. The laminate that blocks the neighbor also blocks you. Lower panels are the gentle choice here. When you are sitting, your sight line often runs over the top of a chair-rail-height band. Standing, you see right over it. A lounger sits low, so picture your own chairs before you decide.

Light. The roof is the main light source, and the roof stays standard. A band of privacy screen along the bottom of the walls takes less light than covering the whole wall.

Does It Hold Up in Florida Sun and Storms?

We can only tell you what the sources say, and they do not say much about this. Phifer’s Glas-Shield page gives no warranty and no UV figure. We will not claim the screen lasts a number of years.

What we can say from the physical side:

• Privacy screen is a screen, not a wall. It sits in the same aluminum frame as the rest of your cage, held by the same rubber spline.
• It goes in the lower panels. The roof is standard screen, so privacy screen is not the part of the cage facing the sky.
• In the lower panels it does a second job. Phifer says it keeps “dirt and debris out of pool enclosures.” Low panels are where debris blows in at ground level.

For storms, the frame and the spline matter as much as the screen. That is why a rescreen at Rain Storm includes new spline and worn hardware like screws and door closers every time, so the new privacy screen sits in a frame that is ready for it.

How It Is Chosen: Part of a Full Rescreen

This is where people sometimes expect something different. We do full rescreens. We do not swap a single panel. A full rescreen means every wall and roof panel gets new screen in one job, with new spline, the roof panels and worn hardware. It comes with a 1 year warranty.

That is also the best time to add privacy screen. Because the whole cage is being redone anyway, each wall can get its own screen. The roof gets standard. The walls facing the neighbors get privacy screen along the bottom. A wall facing the backyard stays open. You are not paying to remove good screen to add something new. You are deciding what goes back up.

Privacy screen is one of the screen types Rain Storm Solutions can install, along with standard, no-see-um and pet screen. We use Phifer screen, made in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The details of the job are on our pool cage rescreening page, and our lanai rescreening page covers the screened patio side.

How to Decide Which Walls Get It

Here is a way to work through it before the estimate. Walk your cage or lanai with a notebook and answer these.

1. Which walls face a neighbor, a street or a path? These are your candidates. A wall facing a canal, a pond or an empty lot may not need anything.
2. Where do you actually sit? A chair in the corner by the neighbor’s window matters more than a wall nobody looks through.
3. Where is your good view? Keep that wall open. If you love the water or the yard, leave it standard.
4. How much would you miss the breeze on that side? The more wall you cover, the less open wall you have, so keep one side open if you can.
5. Do you also need pet or no-see-um screen? A cage can have a mix. A dog may need pet screen on the door and the bottom row, and privacy screen on the street side. Chris can sort out which goes where.
6. Does your HOA have rules? Some neighborhoods have exterior rules, and we help with the HOA paperwork when it is needed.

In a place like Hernando Beach, with its grid of waterfront homes along dredged canals, you may want the open water side wide open and privacy only on the sides that face the next house. In Spring Hill’s deed-restricted streets off Sterling Hill Boulevard, the question is more often the street and the property next door. Both are the same decision: cover the wall that gets looked through, keep the wall you look through.

What to Ask at the Estimate

Privacy is easier to choose standing in your own pool area. Chris looks at the cage, checks the screen, frame and hardware, and walks the walls with you. He measures and sketches the house, and you get the estimate at your home. It is free and in person, and the price is good for 30 days.

A few questions to bring:

• Which walls do you recommend for privacy, and why those?
• How far up the wall does the privacy panel go on my cage?
• What will the lower band look like from the inside and from the neighbor’s side?
• Can I see a sample of the screen?
• Do you need anything for my HOA?

If you are not sure whether you want privacy screen at all, say so. There is no pressure to decide on the spot, and you can pick it for one wall and leave the rest.

Rain Storm Solutions is a family-owned Florida Certified Specialty Contractor, license SCC131154760. If neighbors can see into your pool or lanai and you want to fix that with your next rescreen, call (727) 857-3714 or get a free estimate and Chris will walk the walls with you.