Choosing screen mesh for an Altamonte Springs pool cage
For most Altamonte Springs pool cages the choice is 18x14 standard fiberglass mesh or 20x20 no-see-um mesh. On the west side of the city, near the 150-acre Lake Lotus preserve and the Little Wekiva floodplain, 20x20 is the one that keeps biting midges out — they pass straight through 18x14.
Two numbers decide most of it.
Openings per linear inch, drawn to scale relative to each other. Not a substitute for holding a sample against the light.
Mesh is specified as openings per linear inch, warp by weft. Standard pool cage mesh is 18x14. No-see-um mesh is 20x20 — twenty openings per inch in both directions, a smaller and squarer hole.
That sounds like a marginal difference and is not. Biting midges (Culicoides species, the no-see-um) are small enough to pass through standard screening — UF/IFAS says so directly — so an 18x14 cage is not a barrier to them at all. They are most active at dawn and dusk and on still, humid days after rain, and in warm Florida they run roughly March through October.
The trade is airflow and light. More strands per inch means less air moving through the cage and a slightly darker view out of it. On a cage with no midge problem, that is a cost with no benefit attached.
Why the west side of this city is a 20x20 address.
The City of Altamonte Springs bought Lake Lotus in 1972 specifically to keep it from being developed, and still owns it: roughly 150 acres, including 120 acres of woods and wetlands — cypress swamp, marsh and hardwood forest along Lake Lotus and the Little Wekiva River floodplain — sitting in the middle of the city off Maitland Boulevard.
That is the part worth understanding before choosing mesh. This is not a vacant parcel awaiting a developer; it is a city-owned preserve that has been protected for more than fifty years and will not be drained. The breeding habitat next to those neighborhoods is permanent, so midge pressure there is a property of the address rather than a bad year. Homes in Spring Oaks are marketed with Little Wekiva River views — the same water, the same corridor.
If you are on that side of the city and people stop sitting out at dusk, the mesh is the reason and 20x20 is the fix. If you are on the Lake Orienta side in 32701 with no midge complaints, standard 18x14 is very likely the right spend.
Four meshes, and where each earns its money.
| Mesh | Published rate | Stops | Where it belongs in Altamonte Springs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18x14 standard fiberglass | $0.75–$1.25/sq ft | Mosquitoes, leaves, debris | The default. Most of 32701 and any cage away from the floodplain. |
| Polyester | $1.20–$1.80/sq ft | As above, tougher weave | Where standard mesh is failing early from handling rather than sun. |
| Pet-resistant vinyl-coated polyester | $1.50–$2.50/sq ft | Claws and impact | Lower bays and either side of the door only. Rarely worth it cage-wide. |
| 20x20 no-see-um | +$0.50/sq ft | Biting midges as well as mosquitoes | West side — Lake Lotus, Little Wekiva corridor, Spring Oaks. |
| Solar screen | $1.80–$3.00/sq ft | Heat and glare | West-facing decks that are unusable by late afternoon. |
These are researched market estimates published by other Florida screen companies in 2025–2026 — A Screen Repair Inc (Orlando), Full Screen Fix (Orlando, which names Altamonte Springs as a service area), Absolute Aluminum (Venice) and Brownings Aluminum (Ocala). They are Florida-wide or Orlando-metro figures, not Altamonte Springs Rescreening’s prices and not specific to Altamonte Springs. Altamonte Springs Rescreening’s own rate starts at $1.76 per square foot, installed — the real floor against the ranges shown.
What actually kills mesh here is the sun, not the storm.
Storms take out panels dramatically and occasionally. Ultraviolet light takes out every panel on the cage quietly and continuously, and it is what sets the 7-to-10-year rescreen cycle in Central Florida.
- UV — average maximum index around 7 from May through September, dropping to about 4 in January. Inland Altamonte Springs, roughly ten miles north of downtown Orlando at 79 feet elevation, gets no coastal breeze to moderate it.
- Rain — about 50 inches a year, concentrated in afternoon thunderstorms from June to September. August is the wettest month at about 5.31 inches; March and December the driest at about 1.34 inches.
- Pollen — oak heaviest in spring, grass through summer. Pollen does not destroy mesh but it clogs it, which is what makes a cage look finished before it structurally is.
- Storm season — June through November, peaking in September. Wind-driven debris is the largest single cause of sudden panel loss.
Climate figures above are from secondary weather sources for the Orlando area.
What is the difference between 18x14 and 20x20 mesh?
The numbers are openings per linear inch, warp by weft. Standard 18x14 has 18 strands one way and 14 the other, giving a slightly rectangular opening; 20x20 has 20 in both directions, giving a smaller, square opening. The practical difference is what gets through. 18x14 stops mosquitoes and leaves; it does not stop biting midges, which UF/IFAS notes are small enough to pass through standard screening. 20x20 no-see-um mesh is built for exactly that. The cost is airflow and light: a finer weave moves less air and reads darker from inside the cage.
What type of screen mesh is best for Florida?
There is no single best, and the honest answer is address-specific. Standard 18x14 fiberglass is the default and the cheapest to replace on the 7-to-10-year cycle Central Florida UV imposes. 20x20 no-see-um is the right call near wetland — in Altamonte Springs that means the western side of the city, near the city-owned 150-acre Lake Lotus preserve and the Little Wekiva floodplain. Pet-resistant vinyl-coated polyester belongs in the lower panels and around doors where an animal actually reaches, not across the whole cage. Solar screen cuts heat and glare on a west-facing deck at the cost of view and airflow.
What's the cheapest mesh option for a Florida pool cage?
Standard 18x14 fiberglass, by a clear margin. Other Florida companies publish it at roughly $0.75–$1.25 per square foot installed, against $1.20–$1.80 for polyester, $1.50–$2.50 for pet-resistant and $1.80–$3.00 for solar screen. Those are other companies’ published market figures, not Altamonte Springs Rescreening’s. Cheapest per square foot is not automatically cheapest over ten years — if a dog goes through the same two lower panels every year, pet-resistant mesh in those two bays costs less than four repeat repairs.