Screen Rooms & Motorized Screens
Fixed screen rooms and Fenetex motorized screens — bugs out, breeze in, at the touch of a button.
A screen room turns a covered patio into usable space by keeping insects out while letting the breeze through. It is open-air living, not a sealed room: screened walls under an existing or new roof, framed in aluminum, with a door or two and often a kick panel or chair rail along the bottom. The result is a place to eat, sit, and relax through the long Central Texas shoulder seasons without swatting mosquitoes, and without the cost or permanence of enclosing the space in glass.
We build two versions of this. A fixed screen room frames the openings permanently, which is the durable, always-on choice for a dedicated porch. Motorized screens, and we install Fenetex, mount into recessed tracks and roll down at the touch of a button, so the same patio is open when you want the full view and screened when the bugs come out at dusk. Both are engineered to the opening and tensioned so the mesh does not billow in Hill Country wind, then finished to match the house.
Fixed screens versus motorized screens
The choice between a fixed room and motorized screens comes down to how you want to use the space. A fixed screen room is always screened, which suits a porch you think of as its own room and want bug-free at all times. It is the simpler, more economical build, with fewer moving parts to maintain, and it reads as a permanent part of the house.
Motorized screens keep the patio flexible. Raised, the space is fully open with an unbroken view of the yard; lowered, it is enclosed against insects, low sun, or a light wind. Because they retract into a hood, they disappear when you are not using them, which is why homeowners who do not want to commit a patio to being screened year-round tend to choose them. They do rely on motors and tracks, so they ask for a little more upkeep than a fixed screen.
Building for Texas bugs, sun, and wind
Mesh choice matters more here than most people expect. Standard fiberglass screen stops mosquitoes and flies, but near creeks, greenbelts, and the Hill Country's water features, no-see-ums slip through it, so a tighter no-see-um mesh is often worth it. Households with dogs and cats usually want a pet-resistant weave along the lower panels, where a standard screen gets pushed out or clawed through.
Wind and sun are the other two forces. A screen wall is a large, flexible surface, so the framing and the tension have to be right or the mesh flutters and works loose over time. We size the framing to the span and to our local wind, and we specify UV-stable mesh and finishes so the screen does not turn brittle and the frame does not chalk after a few summers of direct Texas sun.
Common questions
A screen room is open-air: screened walls that keep bugs out while the breeze passes through, so it stays whatever temperature the day is. A sunroom is a sealed, glass-walled room that can be heated and cooled and used year-round. A screen room is the lighter, more affordable way to add outdoor living for the mild months.
They are built to stop insects and cut sun, wind, and light rain, not to seal a room like glass. Lowered, they make a patio noticeably more comfortable in a breeze or a drizzle, but they are not a weather-tight or insulated wall. For a space you want conditioned in summer and winter, a sunroom is the right product.
A no-see-um mesh, which is woven tighter than standard fiberglass screen to close the gaps those insects pass through. It is worth choosing near creeks, greenbelts, and standing water, where they are most active. The trade-off is slightly less airflow and visibility than an open-weave screen, which most people find well worth it.
A fixed screen room needs little beyond occasional cleaning and replacing a panel if it tears. Motorized screens have motors, tracks, and fabric that should be kept clean and clear of debris so they roll smoothly, and like any mechanical system they benefit from occasional attention. Neither is demanding, but the motorized option has more moving parts.