Screen Rooms & Motorized Patio Screen Enclosures
Turn the porch, patio, or under-deck space you already have into a sealed, bug-free, shaded outdoor room with motorized Sentry retractable screens. Jeff Menke's team has built these enclosures across the Twin Cities and the lake country since 1981, every install handled in-house by Sunesta Certified Installers, and you see an exact price before anyone touches your house.
What a Screen Room Actually Is
A screen room is an outdoor space whose open sides are walled with screen so you get the air and the view without the bugs. Done with motorized retractable screens, it appears at the push of a button and disappears into a slim overhead housing when you want full sun. The Sentry runs in widths up to 18 feet and heights up to 12 feet per opening, so a typical deck or porch becomes a sealed room built from individual panels, one per open side. For full Sentry product detail see our retractable screens page.
How Motorized Patio Screens Build the Enclosure
A motorized patio screen drops vertically from an overhead housing on a wireless remote. What makes it a sealed enclosure rather than a loose shade is the captured-edge rail: a floating track on each side holds the fabric edge under tension so wind can't peel it open, and a fine-tooth zipper welded to both sides keeps the fabric from binding as it travels. You choose the openness factor per side, tighter weave for bug and glare control, more open weave to hold the view, and each opening runs its own motor.
Four Patio Screen Enclosure Setups We Install Most
Most Minnesota screen-room projects fall into one of four spaces: an under-deck screen enclosure on a walkout-basement home, a screen porch conversion where one Sentry across the open front ends the mosquito problem, wide window and patio-door walls for brightness and heat control, and garage or carport bays turned into screened workshops. Each side seals with the captured-edge track and rolls up out of the weather when unused.
Retractable Screens for a Porch vs. a Built Screen Porch
A framed screen porch is permanent, usually permitted in Minnesota, and stays exposed all winter. A retractable screen room gives the same sealed feel in the seasons you use it, then retracts into the housing off-season with nothing left out in the snow, ice, or UV. Retractable screens usually do not require a permit in MN cities, install in a single day with no concrete, open fully for an unobstructed yard or lake view, and carry the industry's best multi-year warranty on fabric, frame, and motor.
When a Screen Room Is the Wrong Call
If you want a heated, insulated room you'll use in January, a retractable screen room isn't it: you want a framed and permitted three-season or four-season build, and we'll tell you so on the estimate visit rather than sell you a screen. The Sentry is not a structural enclosure and we won't market it as one. It shines for the seasons you are actually outside.
How a Screen Room Installation Goes
We start with a free in-home measure of every open side, confirming the soffit or header for the housing and, for an under-deck screen enclosure, the joist depth and how rain runs off the deck above. You pick frame color and openness factor per side, each Sentry is built to the inch in the USA over a few weeks, and our in-house certified crew completes the install in a single day with no concrete or ground penetration. Call 763-271-3366 to schedule your free estimate.