Hurricane ScreensHampstead, NC
$48/sq ft installed, and motorizing an opening adds $700. Nearly every house here already has a screened porch. This is that same opening with mesh rated to ASTM E1886/E1996 instead of mesh that keeps out mosquitoes.
Hampstead, Pender County
What hurricane screens cost in Hampstead, and why the porch you already have is where this starts
Hurricane screens in Hampstead are $48/sq ft installed, and motorizing an opening adds $700. That covers the aramid fabric, the roll assembly, the side channels, stainless anchors, the Pender County permit and a design pressure calculation done on your opening rather than to a county minimum.
Start with what is already on the house. Almost every property between the highway and the sound has a screened porch on it, and that porch already has the posts, the header and the opening this product needs. In most of the country a hurricane screen means adding something. Here it usually means changing what the opening is filled with, which is a cheaper and quicker conversation than people expect when they call.
The difference between what is in that frame now and what we put in it is total, even though it looks similar from twenty feet. Insect mesh is there to stop bugs. StormTex aramid is the same fiber family as body armor and is certified to ASTM E1886/E1996, which is the identical standard every rigid shutter we fit is tested against. One of them counts on a wind mitigation form and the other does not exist as far as an insurance inspection is concerned.
The constraint is the header, and it is the first thing we look at. A porch framed to carry insect screen was never asked to hold anything under load. A rated screen transfers real force into whatever it is anchored to, so on some of the older porches here the honest answer is that the framing needs work before the screen goes on. We would far rather find that standing on your deck with a tape measure than discover it on installation day.
The other thing worth saying about Hampstead specifically is that these porches get used. This is a town of people who live here rather than visit, and a porch facing west over the water takes the full afternoon in summer. A screen left partway down is shade, and a good many owners run them that way from June onward and only think about the storm rating twice a year.
Span is the reason no rigid system can do this job at all. A porch opening runs twenty or thirty feet and a screen crosses it in one piece with nothing standing in the middle. An accordion would meet in the middle of it and a roll-down needs head-box height a porch beam rarely leaves you.
| Product | Retractable hurricane screen, StormTex aramid fabric |
| Installed price | $48 per square foot |
| Motorization | $700 per opening |
| Location | Hampstead, NC (Pender County) |
| Existing porch | Usually reusable; the header is what we check |
| Against insect mesh | Same look at distance, ASTM E1886/E1996 rated, insurance eligible |
| Daily use | Partway down for shade; full down for a storm |
| Included | Pender County permit and per-opening design pressure analysis |
When a hurricane screen is the wrong choice in Hampstead
It earns its price on a porch. Away from the porch there is almost always a better answer.
Questions we get in Hampstead
Why Hampstead homeowners call AHS
Founded in 2006 by Michael Burns. We fabricate and install ourselves — no subcontractors on your house.
Related Resources
Hurricane Screens for YourHampstead Home
Send a photograph of the porch as it is now, with the posts visible. Nine times out of ten we can tell you from that whether the opening is reusable.