Screened porch bid calculator

How much to charge to screen a porch

A published “$55 a square foot” special prices the floor. A residential screened porch is not a floor. It is wall screen that does not scale with square feet, a knee wall that may be nothing or 36 inches of framed work, an existing roof or a new one, and often a ceiling and a second door. Matching the coupon on a 12×16 enclosed porch is how a sold job becomes a two-day loss after the first wall of panels.

The number a square-foot special cannot see

Take a 10×12 attached screen-in under an existing roof, no knee wall, fiberglass mesh, one door. That is 32 lineal feet of wall and 256 square feet of screen — on a 120 square-foot floor. The coupon says $6,600. Raise the same shop to a 12×16 enclosed porch. The floor is 192 square feet, so the coupon says $10,560. The screen did not scale that way: 40 lineal feet, a 36-inch knee wall, a new shed roof, and often beadboard on 192 square feet the 10×12 never had.

Put pet mesh or hurricane mesh on that 12×16. Screen now costs more per square foot the fiberglass 10×12 never priced. 10-foot walls are not “the same job plus two feet.” A second door is not in the square-foot number at all.

How to price it

1. Measure width along the house and depth out from the wall.
2. Count screenable wall: three sides if attached, four if it wraps. Wall-screen square feet is that perimeter times the screen height after the knee wall.
3. Add panels at your widths, knee-wall lineal feet when the job is not full-height screen, and roof or ceiling on the whole floor when you are actually building them.
4. Price mesh (fiberglass / pet / hurricane), doors, a ceiling fan, existing-screen demo, and the permit allowance.
5. Load the wage, add materials and mobilization, mark overhead on direct cost, then divide by one minus the target margin. The walk-away price is total cost.

The screened porch bid calculator does that arithmetic in the browser from your own hours and invoices. Starting panel widths, mesh rates, and material rates are ballpark figures to replace, not a catalog or a code table.

What this is not

This is not a building-code opinion, a permit, a construction specification, or an engineering stamp. Confirm the jurisdiction and a qualified professional before sending a price. The output is arithmetic on the numbers you typed.

No warranty. This free article and calculator are not construction, legal, tax, financial, or engineering advice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors accept no liability for loss or damage from their use.

Common questions

How much to charge to screen a porch?

Start from the floor, count the wall-screen square feet a square-foot special cannot see, then add knee wall, roof, ceiling, mesh, extras, and the permit. A published $55 per square foot special only sees width times depth.

Why do panels and knee wall change the price?

A 10-by-12 screen-in under an existing roof is 32 lineal feet of wall and 256 square feet of screen on a 120 square-foot floor. A 12-by-16 enclosed porch adds a knee wall, a new roof, and often a ceiling. Matching the 10-by-12 coupon is how the enclosed job loses money.

Is this a building-code calculation?

No. Panel widths, spans, and mesh rates here are common starting points on residential bids. They are not a building-code opinion, a permit, or an engineering stamp.