POOL SCREENING
A residence never conveys a warm, homey feel if it includes a pool screen. Sorry about that. If your architecture is to appear Old World or Traditional, a pool screen will only denigrate your home, lending an ambience between tradegy and comedy. Of course, some people have no qualms about viewing the world though a black veil. For outsiders, it appears that the owners are in constant mourning over the locality where they reside. Enclosing your valuable pool in black vinyl compares to wearing a diamond ring covered in plastic wrap. In short; it's in bad taste.
Pool screens posess the all the attactive ambience of a tarp draped across a hurricane-damaged structure. Speaking of storms, take a guess how efficient pool screens are in resisting high winds. You probably will guess right. Pool screens always appear as temporary structures, because in fact, they are.
If bugs and other pests are a concern, pools already have a built-in insect repellant system; the steady evaporation of chlorine attracts no living thing. Animals with a spark of intelligence, such as squirrels and raccoons, ever so common in the South, will find screening a mere challenge and are more than happy to claw and chew hole in screens, just to explore what's inside.
Only the owner can decide about paying the high price of ugliness to keep debris from their pool area. Often, screening is damaged by the very things it is meant to protect the pool from; tannin from leaves weaken and stain screen material and minor twigs tear holes. Please ask other pool owners, both with and without pools screens about the practicality. Be assured that the majority will claim it's a lot more trouble removing debris on top of their screen, than from the pool itself. Today's swimming pools are designed with skimmers or troughs to catch debris that finds its way to the water surface. Modern cleaning and flitration systems are much more efficient than those available to our parents.
Obviously, we neither design or recommend pool screen enclosures. Yet all our clients who have heeded our suggestion to remove their screen have relished the transition from virtual imprisonment of the 'bird cage effect' to total freedom, gaining a quality outdoor living space in the process. Be free.
Licensed Landscape Architect / Florida License No. 0001760