What’s in a Price: Factors That Determine the Price of a Retractable Screen
If you are interested in purchasing a door or window screen, you may be confused at the seemingly large variations in price that exist between screen manufacturers and distributors. Sometimes, the estimate a builder gives you may seem like a completely random number! So, what are the factors that actually contribute to the cost of a screen? In this blog post, we go over the characteristics and measurements a builder uses to determine an accurate estimate for designing and installing the right screen for your home — so you can be sure you’re getting the right bang for your buck.
Size of the Opening
First and foremost, the most prudent factor that will determine the cost of your retractable screen is the size of the opening you are looking to cover. All Phantom Screens are custom-designed, cut, and fit to your specific needs; this means that when an installer takes the measurements of your intended opening, it’s to create your specific screen from scratch. This care and attention to detail is the reason Phantom Screens are known for their high-quality products, but the trade-off is that a high cost may be necessary to account for the materials needed to cover a large opening. This holds especially true if you’re looking to screen an outdoor patio area; motorized screens must be built to specifications that allow it to hold firmly despite its larger size, which means that not only does the screen need to be cut specifically, but the way the mesh is embedded in the frame necessitates a high cost as well. Another opening that may necessitate higher expenses is an opening that is not squared; curved, arched openings incur additional costs that come from fitting the frame into the design correctly.
Design of the Screen
In the same vein, the materials you choose for your specific opening affect the cost as well. Most screen manufacturers offer a wide array of mesh types, frame types, and handle types. These different options mean the permutations for your exact screen will vary greatly from another screen even if it’s the same size; factors such as a more tightly-threaded mesh fabric, a higher-quality frame, or latch-based locks on the handle in the case of screen doors require additional materials than a standard screen without any bells and whistles. All this to say that even if the opening size of two screens is the same, the design and optional features of the screens will have an equally-important impact on its cost.
The design is even more crucial when considering a motorized retractable screen for a patio or other exterior area in your home. Motorized screens’ price depends greatly on the features one opts to implement in it, such as installing sensors for it to automatically open and retract in response to environmental factors or recessing the screen within the opening itself. These optional features offer plenty of opportunities for the homeowner to personalize the screen to their content, but any optional upgrade will also increase the screen’s overall cost.
Professional Installation & Warranty
While not necessarily part of the screen itself, the other features that will factor into the end price of a retractable screen include the professional installation service as well as the given warranty (if any). The warranty offered by the distributor can have lasting effects on the cost of the screen; not only in terms of the price you pay upfront, but also in what you pay over the time you own the screen. A comprehensive warranty that covers all aspects of a screen and for a longer period of time may require a larger cost upfront, but you could actually end up saving money in the long term if the screen is damaged or malfunctions. If the warranty covers the parts that were damaged, you could save nearly an equivalent amount of money to purchasing an entirely new screen outright, as purchasing replacement parts can be quite costly depending on what was damaged. So, despite its high initial cost, you could consider a screen with a warranty to be cheaper than a screen without one taking into account the entirety of the time the screen is in your home.
The bottom line is that how much a retractable screen costs varies on a number of factors which makes it difficult to calculate an exact price until after an installer has taken the measurements of the exact opening you have in mind. And, even then, the features of a screen and the distributor’s warranty can affect the price further. We hope this blog post has assisted with understanding the various factors that go into the cost of a motorized screen.
