By Corey Philip // Aug 15, 2023

The process of getting any home improvement project done starts well before you even get an estimate.  If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve started the process (research) already, and are considering contacting us for an estimate, or perhaps you have us scheduled for an estimate already.  Here are a few things to ‘check’ or at least consider before you get an estimate.  After-all, nothing hurts more than having an awesome idea, only to find out that it can never come to fruition.

Verify Our License and Insurance

The State of Florida makes it easy to verify a contractors license.  Just go here and look it up.  Here is a direct link to our state license.  Unlike many companies who advertise ‘insured’ but seemingly hide their insurance information (likely because they don’t have it), we do things quite differently.  We make our insurance certificate, the actual insurance certificate, transparently available.  No smoke and mirrors.  You can find ours right here: View Our Insurance Certificate.

See What Our Past Customers Say

When choosing any service provider, hearing from their past customers, and checking out their reviews is something that must be done.  Some companies provide bottom of the barrel service, or worse, don’t deliver anything at all.  That is reflected in their reviews, and many go out of their way to hide them.  We take pride in delivering service far superior to our competitors.  Check out our reviews and you’ll see what our customers have to say.  Unlike many contractors, we have nothing to hide.  You can view all of our reviews here.

Know You Want A Patio Or Screen (all parties involved).

I know you probably think this sounds silly, but it’s not.  Trust me.  Knowing that you do or do not want a patio or screen in your backyard is the key to making sound and rash decision on what will be an expensive project.  Earlier this week I had a lady, we’ll call her Jan, call me with big plans for her patio in Fort Myers.  A new screen enclosure, with a picture window for a lake view, and a wood grain finish pergola within it for shade.  It was an awesome idea and would’ve looked astounding.  All I had to was convince her husband that he wanted the astounding patio too.  While I certainly empathize with Jan’s dilemma, I had to tell her that such was not my job.  It’s not what I or our company does.  We’re not in the business of convincing people that they want a patio or screen enclosure.  We help people, who know they want a patio or screen enclosure, choose everything properly, get the right materials, get the project completed headache free, and build a patio that will add value for years to come.

We also have the Learning Center and our Featured Projects to help you get ideas for what is possible and how           it will look.

 Check With Your HOA

The HOA is the official buzz kill of home improvement projects.  Many times, customers have spend hours detailing their ideas, given us a deposit, had plans drafted, and then found out their HOA will not approve it as designed thus incurring costly change orders.  While plans do cost money and are not available until after a deposit is received,  most of the time, a little communication in the very early phases of research will establish what can or cannot be done, long before we arrive on site.

Make Sure Your Proposed Structure Is Within The Buildable Area Of Your Lot.

Despite the fact that you own your property, local zoning ordinance prohibit what you can build and where you can build it on your lot.  On every parcel, property line setbacks exist, meaning that you cannot build right to the edge.  In most places the setbacks vary according to structure type.  As a rule of thumb, we suggest eyeballing other similar structures on your block.  For example, if you want to build a screen enclosure that goes 15′ further back than all of your neighbors, chances are it cannot be done.  If every house on your block is about 50′ from the road and you want to put a carport in front of your home (meaning carport will be 30′ from the road), chances are it cannot be done.  In some cases, a survey of the property will need to be reviewed or a new one ordered to determine exactly what is feasible within zoning constraints.  We can help you review and make the determination, but do just have an idea that these constraints do exist.


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Corey Philip

About the author

Corey began working on screen enclosures as a teenager in 2004 after hurricane Charley devastated his home town of Punta Gorda. 7 years later, after holding positions from foreman, to sales, to project manager, while attending college at Florida Gulf Coast University, Corey and childhood friend Thomas Davis founded Gulf Coast Aluminum in 2011. With a focus on delivering an unparrelled level of service, the company has grown by leaps and bounds under their leadership. Today you’ll find Corey answering the phones In his free time Corey likes training for triathlons, running the trails at Ding Darling park on Sanibel Island, and of course, working on growing Gulf Coast Aluminum.