Motorized Screens in Mount Pleasant, SC
Retractable screens that lower across a porch, lanai, or outdoor kitchen from a remote and roll up out of sight when you want the open air back. Measured, built, and installed by ShadeCoast crews across Mount Pleasant, from the Old Village to Park West and Dunes West.
No-See-Um
Mesh
The fine weave marsh-side porches need. Standard screen lets midges through.
Review-Ready
Paperwork
Specs, colors, and dimensions for your HOA or the Old Village commission.
One Remote,
Every Bay
Each opening gets its own screen, so you close only the side you need.
A town built on tidal water.
Most of Mount Pleasant sits within a short walk of marsh, a tidal creek, the harbor, or the Wando. That water is why people buy here, and it is also where the biting midges breed. On a still evening they come off the spartina right when you sit down to eat, and ordinary porch screen does nothing to stop them.
A motorized screen solves the evening without giving up the afternoon. Leave the porch open while the breeze is coming across the marsh, then lower the insect mesh at dusk from a remote. In the morning it rolls back into a housing at the top of the opening and the porch looks the way it did before we arrived.
The houses vary a lot across town, and so do the openings. Older homes in the Old Village often have deep front and side porches with painted columns. The newer neighborhoods farther north, like Park West, Carolina Park, and Dunes West, tend to have a covered rear porch or lanai off the kitchen, often next to a pool. Both work well with retractable screens, but they call for different mounting and different mesh choices.
Raised houses near the water add one more case: the porch is a full story up, open on three sides, and the only place to sit that catches the breeze. Screens there mount to the beam and the posts like any other porch, but the wind load is higher and service means a ladder, so we size the tracks for the exposure and set the motor limits carefully at install.
- Porches, lanais, outdoor kitchens, and second-story decks
- Screens sized to each bay between columns
- Housing and track colors matched to your trim where the product line allows
- Remote, wall switch, or smart-home control
Four screens,
matched to the porch.
Most Mount Pleasant jobs use one or two of these. Some porches stack two in the same housing.
Insect Screens
No-see-um mesh for homes along Shem Creek, the Wando, and the marsh edges. Stops midges and mosquitoes and still passes the breeze.
View Insect Screens →
Shade Screens
For the porch that bakes from mid-afternoon on, or catches glare off the water. Mesh options block up to 99% of UV.
View Shade Screens →
Hurricane Screens
Storm-rated mesh in reinforced tracks for wide porch and lanai openings that shutters handle badly.
View Hurricane Screens →
Clear Vinyl
Blocks the cold wind off the water from December into March, so the porch stays usable with a heater.
View Clear Vinyl →
What the water
does to a screen.
Wind. A house that faces open marsh or the harbor has nothing to slow the wind down, and summer thunderstorms often push a gust front ahead of the rain. Shade and insect screens are meant to be raised in high wind, and in side tracks they hold up to ordinary breeze far better than a loose curtain. If you want protection that stays down in a storm, that is what hurricane screens are for.
Salt. Near the harbor and along the creeks, salt settles on the mesh and in the side tracks. Rinse both with a garden hose every so often, keep the tracks clear of leaves, and run the screens up and down at least once a month so nothing sticks. The housing is powder-coated and built to live outside on the coast.
Sun off the water. A marsh-facing porch gets direct sun and reflected glare at the same time. A shade screen cuts both, and from inside you can still see out. For a porch that needs shade in the afternoon and bug protection at night, we put a shade screen and an insect screen in one housing, each on its own motor.
Who signs off
before we build.
A motorized screen adds a housing at the top of the opening and tracks down the sides, so it counts as a visible exterior change. In Mount Pleasant that can mean up to three separate checks, depending on the address.
- Old Village Historic District. Exterior changes in the district, which runs from Shem Creek south to the harbor, go before the Town’s Historic District Preservation Commission for a Certificate of Appropriateness, and the Town requires a pre-application meeting with planning staff first. The district’s guidelines allow porches on historic houses to be screened when the original columns, railings, and detailing are left intact, and they say those porches should be screened rather than enclosed. We plan housings and tracks to sit inside the existing columns rather than cutting into them.
- HOA or POA review. Most planned neighborhoods review exterior changes. Dunes West, for example, requires its Architectural Review Board to approve changes of any kind before work begins. Carolina Park’s published design guidelines allow rear porches to be screened and ask that porch enclosures stay off street-facing elevations. Every board has its own form, so get yours before we measure.
- Town building permit. The Town of Mount Pleasant requires permits for work that alters a structure, exempting only very small jobs, and its Building Inspection Division will confirm by email whether a particular scope needs one. When a permit applies, ShadeCoast handles it.
For any of these, we supply the product specs, housing and mesh colors, and dimensions the application asks for, and we do not order until you have approval in hand.
What sets the price
on a screen job.
Every screen is built to its opening, so we quote after measuring rather than from a price list. These are the things that move the number:
- Number of openings. Each bay gets its own screen, motor, and tracks, so a porch with five bays costs more than one with two, even at the same total width.
- Width and drop. Wider and taller openings need more mesh and a larger housing. Very wide spans sometimes need an added post or a split into two screens.
- Mesh type. Insect, shade, hurricane-rated, and clear vinyl are priced differently. Stacking two screens in one housing adds a second motor and screen.
- Motor and controls. A single remote is the baseline. Wall switches, smart-home integration, and grouping several screens on one button add to it.
- Mounting conditions. A flat beam with clean columns is simple. Uneven bays on an older porch, masonry, or a second-story deck take more time and hardware.
- Power. Motors need power at the housing. If there is no outlet or wiring nearby, that is part of the job.
Timing affects the schedule more than the price. HOA and Old Village review both take time, and spring is when most people decide they want the porch back, so starting the paperwork in winter keeps the install ahead of no-see-um season.
The estimate is free. We measure every bay, show you mesh samples in your own light, and give you a written quote you can take to your board.
Mount Pleasant
screen questions.
What East Cooper homeowners ask before screening a porch.
How much do motorized screens cost in Mount Pleasant?
It depends on the porch. The main factors are how many openings you are screening, how wide and tall each one is, the mesh you choose, how many motors and what controls you want, and how straightforward the mounting is. We measure at no cost and give you a written quote for your exact openings.
Will retractable screens stop no-see-ums near the marsh?
Yes, with no-see-um mesh. Standard insect screen lets the midges through. We specify the finer mesh for porches near salt marsh and tidal creeks and run it in side tracks so there are no gaps at the edges.
Can I put motorized screens on a porch in the Old Village?
Often, yes, with approval. Exterior changes in the Old Village Historic District need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Town’s Historic District Preservation Commission, starting with a pre-application meeting with planning staff. The district’s guidelines allow historic porches to be screened when the original features are preserved. We provide the specs and colors the application needs.
Does my HOA need to approve motorized screens?
In most Mount Pleasant planned neighborhoods, yes. Boards like the Dunes West Architectural Review Board review changes before work begins. Ask your board for its form first; we supply the dimensions, product details, and housing color for it.
Do the screens have to come up when wind picks up off the harbor?
Shade and insect screens should be raised in high wind and before storms. If you want mesh that stays down as storm protection, hurricane screens use storm-rated mesh in reinforced tracks.
Can one opening have both a shade screen and an insect screen?
Yes. We can put both in one housing, each on its own motor, so you lower the shade mesh in the afternoon and switch to insect mesh at dusk from the same remote.
More for
Mount Pleasant.
Screen the porch
before the next dusk.
A ShadeCoast specialist will measure your Mount Pleasant porch or lanai, bring mesh samples, and quote a motorized screen system. Free, no obligation.