Why doesn't Miami have many screened lanais? (Plantation, Kendall: insurance, house)

[elliswyatt]

Hi all.. Long time listener, first time poster. Please be gentle...

Looking at homes in SWFL vs. the Miami area (suburbs and exurbs included), what I've noticed is that there aren't many homes with screened porches. Is this accurate, or just a reflection of the homes I'm looking at in particular? I know that home and lot sizes are smaller in greater-Miami, but the homes that do have pools or back porches never seem to be screened.

In contrast, homes in SWFL (looking at Pt. Charlotte thru Naples) mostly seem to have a screened porch, and a caged lanai if there's a pool. I can't imagine that the bugs are any worse in Miami than SWFL... And I know that there are plenty of caged lanais in $800,000 properties in the Miami area. But in the $350k-450k range there's not too many, that I've noticed.

Is there a reason behind this?

[planetsurf]

To me -- because they're ugly and becausee they blow away in a hurricane.

You'll find plenty of them in Broward -- drive by Plantation, there are loads.
We had one when I was growing up -- we still got mosquitos in there.

When we remodeled our house, we never considered it -- we have an open and covered patio with a fan that we keep blowing pretty hard when we're out there. No real problem with mosquitos.

[heydade]

After hurricane andrew hundreds of people south of Kendall decided to pocket the insurance money and leave their porches without a screen enclosure....including my parents and their neighbors. Looks nicer actually that way...much more "open" and tropical...plus you can put tall palms all around the pool. The only drawback is that the pool gets dirty much faster....but nothing a barracuda couldn't take care off.

[miamiblue]

Growing up in Miami we had a screened patio that spanned pretty much the length of the back of our house. During hurricane Andrew, a tornado tore the entire patio off the house, carried it over our house and the house across the street and slammed it into the wall behind that house. My parents rebuilt and expanded the roof of the patio after the storm, but did not rescreen it for about 12 years. They finally rescreened it because they found that they did not use it because the mosquitos were bad, even though they have three ceiling fans out there.

I think they were trying to hold off and not rescreen it because of the propensity for tropical storms and hurricanes. Screens do not hold up well, and many of their neighbors did not replace their screen enclosures. My parents just enjoyed their patio a lot more when it was screened, so they eventually gave in.

They used to have an unscreened lanai in the front of the house, but filled it in because it would flood and breed mosquitos in the rainy season. It was not screened because it would have looked awful on the front of the house

And their home is within the price range you mentioned. They would probably be willing to sell it to you in a few years, too.

[doggiebus]

Originally Posted by heydade

After hurricane andrew hundreds of people south of Kendall decided to pocket the insurance money and leave their porches without a screen enclosure....including my parents and their neighbors. Looks nicer actually that way...much more "open" and tropical...plus you can put tall palms all around the pool. The only drawback is that the pool gets dirty much faster....but nothing a barracuda couldn't take care off.

You basically summed it up. My parents did the same thing after Andrew. It makes the whole yard look nicer. When we bought our house, it had one, but the dog kept walking through the screen and so we took the whole thing down.

[elliswyatt]

Thanks for the great responses, everyone. I'm actually a native of Ft. Myers, and the only hurricane we've really tangled with was Charlie - even then it really hit Pt. Charlotte and certainly was no Andrew.

[mquintana]

Screening is the choice of the owner, some choose not to have them...

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by mquintana

Screening is the choice of the owner, some choose not to have them...

What the OP is trying to say though is that they're less common in Dade than in other parts of the state.

[lauralei2]

I think an open, yet covered porch with ceiling fan is easier to keep clean, and more practical. I have a screened "lanai," and I absolutely hate it. It's a dirt magnet. And the screens make it dark. We need to get it rescreened, and to me it's not worth the $$. Just give me a sledgehammer......

[tallrick]

Latin American immigrants are not used to screening, so they have no need for it. Just something else to clean and maintain, and many people find them ugly. Besides, a place without air conditioning is useless to most south Floridians. Around here, screened patios and balconies are very common. The mosquitoes here are aggressive.