Stainless Steel Hardware Upgrade in Sarasota, FL

Walk through any Sarasota neighborhood and you'll see the telltale orange streaks on pool cage frames — rust bleeding down from corroded screws and fasteners. It's one of the most common issues with screen enclosures in our area, and it's entirely preventable.

The problem starts with the original hardware. Most screen enclosures are built with zinc-plated steel screws because they're cheap and readily available. In a dry climate, zinc plating provides decent corrosion protection. In Sarasota's humid, salt-laden air, that zinc coating breaks down in two to five years. Once the coating is gone, the bare steel rusts rapidly. The rusted screws weaken, the holes they sit in enlarge from corrosion, and eventually the fastener can't hold the frame connection or screen bar securely.

Stainless steel solves this permanently. It contains chromium that creates a self-healing oxide layer on the surface — even if scratched, the protective layer reforms. Stainless steel screws don't rust, don't streak, and don't lose their holding strength in humid conditions.

A hardware upgrade covers every fastener that's accessible and subject to corrosion. This includes the screws that secure screen bars to the main frame, the self-tapping screws at frame joints and connections, bolts and nuts at structural junctions, and door hardware fasteners.

We use 304 grade stainless steel for most applications — it provides excellent corrosion resistance in normal Florida conditions. For homes near the beach or directly on the water, we recommend 316 marine-grade stainless, which offers even higher resistance to salt air corrosion.

The replacement process works best during a full rescreen, since we're already removing screen panels and have access to every fastener. But we can also do a standalone hardware upgrade if your screen is in good shape — we'll work carefully around the existing screen to swap out every corroded screw without damaging the panels.