A covered patio in Dallas–Fort Worth is often built for the months you cannot use it. From June into September the afternoon sun turns the west side into an oven, the mosquitoes and no-see-ums arrive at dusk, and a gusty evening scatters everything that is not weighted down. So the furniture sits there, looked at through the glass. Exterior screens are the simplest way to get the room back: shade that comes down against the sun and the bugs when you want it, and rolls up out of sight when the evening finally turns pleasant. Here is what they do, and what they do not.
The Afternoon SunWhy the Room Sits Empty
Most unused patios face west or south, and the problem is heat before it is light. From midafternoon the low sun pours straight under the cover, pushing the temperature on the patio well past the yard around it and heating the glass doors behind it so the house works harder too. Umbrellas and freestanding shade chase it around; they do not stop it at the opening. An exterior screen does, because it intercepts the sun before it reaches the slab — and the fabric that stops the most heat is the one hung where the heat arrives, at the edge of the cover rather than against the glass.
The ScreenShade That Comes Down With the Sun
A motorized screen is a roll of tight sun fabric in a housing above the opening, run down between two side tracks on a Somfy motor. The fabric is Phifer SunTex, a vinyl-coated weave that stops about 95 to 97 percent of the sun while you still see the yard through it. Down, it cuts the glare and the heat and gives the patio daytime privacy; up, it disappears into the housing and the opening is open again. One tap lowers it when the sun comes around and raises it when the evening cools, which is the whole point of putting shade on a motor instead of a crank.
The InsectsZipped Tracks, No Gap
The reason a tracked screen keeps insects out is the track. The edges of the fabric are zipped into the channels on both sides, so there is no gap down the sides the way a plain roll-down shade leaves, and a weighted bottom bar closes the floor. Lowered fully, the opening is sealed enough to keep out mosquitoes and even no-see-ums, the tiny gnats ordinary screen lets straight through. For an opening that is more about insects than sun, the same frames take a tighter No-See-Ums mesh instead. Either way, we check the side tracks and the bottom bar at installation.
The WindRaise Them
Honesty first: tracked screens are not storm shutters. They handle an ordinary blustery Texas afternoon without trouble, but a real storm is a reason to send them up, not to test them. Because they are motorized that is one tap, and for an exposed patio Somfy makes a wind sensor that raises the screens on its own when a gust crosses a threshold you set. It is the difference between a screen that lasts and one you keep an eye on, and it costs little to add while the motor is going in.
Winter, TooClear Vinyl
Shade is a summer answer, but the same opening solves winter with a different roll. A clear vinyl panel runs in the same side tracks and housing as a sun screen, and closes the patio against wind, rain and cold while the view stays open — a usable room on a bright January afternoon. Many patios end up with both: a sun screen and a vinyl screen on the same opening, each dropped when its season arrives. One opening, two problems solved, with no cords and nothing to store.
One AppScreens With the House
Outdoor Shades is a Blue Note A/V company, and that is why the screens do not have to live on their own remote. We program them onto the same ELAN or Control4 system that runs the lights and the interior shades, so the patio can drop its screens on a timeclock at four o’clock, or from the app that already runs the house. A guest sees one button; underneath, the screen, the lights and the music come up together. It is the part a screen company on its own cannot do.
Made for the OpeningOne Firm, Start to Finish
Every opening is measured, every screen is made to those measurements, and the same people who measured it install it — no handoff, and no one to blame but us. Most screens go in three to four weeks after the deposit, with a rush when a date matters, and the work carries a manufacturer’s warranty of ten years on the screen, five on the motor and remote, and life on the powder-coated frame, plus a year on our own labor. If a screen ever stops at the wrong place, that is usually a limit to reset, not a repair.
The First StepStart With the Free Call
The first step costs nothing: fifteen minutes about the patio, which way it faces, and what bothers you about it now. By the end we can both tell whether screens are the right answer and roughly what they involve, before anyone drives out. If they are not the right answer for your patio, we will say so. A few photographs of the openings, and which way they face, are usually enough for a first reply.
Sources. outdoorshades.com (our own site) and Phifer’s published SunTex and No-See-Ums figures — October 2026.
