Pool cages don’t look great forever, as you probably know which is why you stumbled towards our blog.  Each year we are contacted by prospective customers who are sick of looking at metal beams that are fading, turning green, and have rust stains, and would like to get a new pool cage.

Most are surprised to learn that an option to paint and restore the pool cage exists.

Our pool cage restoration process involves 3 major steps:

  1. Replace all the fasteners with a high quality fastener that will retain its strength and not rust.
  2. Re-paint the pool cage with an electrostatic paint that is better than the baked enamel used at the aluminum mill.
  3. Re-screen the pool cage.

There is much more to the process which we cover and show in detail here.

So now comes the question, should you restore it or replace it altogether.  For most the

  • Price

    In general the price of a restoration is 40-50% less than the cost of a replacement pool cage.  Larger, more complex structures would have even further lower relative cost (compared to replacement).

    Then hurricane Irma came through in late 2017 and wiped out thousands of pool cages.  The demand associated with this for new metal has driven the price of pool cage replacements up multiple times over.  The result is that this year the cost for a pool cage restoration is cheaper than ever relative to a replacement pool cage.

  • Timeline.

    After engineering, permitting, and then actually building it, pool cage replacements would take generally 3-4 months.  Post Irma, this year, that timeline for a replacement pool cage is MUCH longer.  The engineers, are backed up months.  So are the building departments that issue permits.  Many contractors are currently project timelines of 2-3 years for replacement.

    Restorations on the flip side, aren’t affected by this at all.  No engineer, no permit, and no backlog!  Currently restorations are scheduled 3-5 weeks out and most are complete in 2-3 weeks.

  • Property Tax.

    Price and timeline are obviously key factors that everyone considers, but here’s one you probably didn’t think about.  When a pool cage is replaced, a permit is pulled.  The local property appraiser looks to these permit records, to assess your property taxes.  A permit pulled for a pool cage at the currently high price.

While these factors are always in the mind of a consumer, they have an even bigger impact in 2018.

If you’d like to get some numbers on a pool cage restoration, you can upload some pictures and request your estimate conveniently here.  In most cases we don’t even need to come out to the property!

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.