The Origins of Large Screen Enclosures

Large screen enclosures have been around for many years, particularly in Florida. However, it wasn’t until 1991 that we discovered their potential here in Canada. Below is a brief history of how Suncoast Enclosures came to be.

A Family Discovery

In the late 1960s, two of my dad’s brothers moved to Sydney, Australia, to start a life insurance company. At the time, my cousin, Court James, and I were about 12 years old. Years later, after we both had families, Court discovered the screen enclosure business in Florida. He contacted me, convinced that this idea could work in Canada, provided we could adapt the design for our harsher winters.

Our First Canadian Screen Enclosure

In the winter of 1991, I traveled to Sydney to see the concept firsthand. After my visit, I was confident that Canada could benefit from screen enclosures if we could make them strong enough to handle snow loads. We calculated the materials needed to build one on my house in Edmonton and another on my brother-in-law’s home in southern Alberta. This allowed us to test snow resistance in the north and wind resistance in the south.

The materials arrived late in the summer of 1991, along with one of my cousin’s builders from Australia. He trained me and a friend, who later became our first official builder.

The Snow Load Test

The screen room proved to be a wonderful addition to our home for the rest of the season. I eagerly anticipated the winter snow load test of 1991-92. At that point, I expected to need a system for removing and re-installing the roof sections each year. To my surprise, the roof held up under 6 inches of snow, then 12 inches, and finally over 2 feet. It lasted throughout the entire winter without any damage.

Turning an Idea into a Business

The enjoyment my family and I experienced from the screen room, combined with its durability during the winter, convinced me that this idea had real business potential. We set up a display at the spring home show, and soon, sales followed. In our first year, we built over 30 screen rooms.

Early Challenges and Learning

Some of these rooms were much larger than the one I had built on my home. While most customers were satisfied, one night in late December, I received a call from a client whose large screen room had collapsed under about 6 feet of heavy snow. Another customer reported the same issue later that week.

We cleaned up both sites and went back to the drawing board. After consulting with engineers and our Australian contacts, we identified the problem. The following spring, we rebuilt the rooms, and we haven’t encountered the same issue since.

Expanding Our Offerings

Early on, some customers wanted rainproof roofs, so we began offering polycarbonate roof options. Eventually, we added three-season windows to our screen rooms, providing more versatility and protection. Since that time, our company has evolved to provide even greater options for customers that want flexibility. 

We feel that there are people for whom our original enclosure is not quite a perfect fit. For areas where the hot sun is the bigger issue or the rain we now offer the option of having a structure where the roof can be open for the sun or closed for the rain or positioned anywhere in between. This has led to the introduction of our retractable screens, retractable vinyls, and louvered roof products, which provide this same maximum versatility.