Need advice for screen enclosures

Hello, folks. New user here needs your advice

We just installed a screen for our lanai/patio. After the contractor finished the work, we noticed that he didn't put any uprights between concrete posts. The opening between concrete posts is around 15.5 foot wide and a little less 8 foot high. There is a 16 inch kick plate on the bottom. (see the attached photo)

We are located in central Florida, and worried about the durability of the screen, since this looks like a rather large opening without support in the middle, but he assured us that this won't cause any issues. He also insisted that his quote was based on this set up, and if we want to add additional uprights now, he will charge additional $400.

We don't have any prior experience with screen enclosures (we just moved to Florida from another state), so our questions are basically, does this set up make sense? Is it common and should we add additional uprights? This is the first time that we use this particular contractor. It's not that we don't trust him. We just don't know much about the screen installations. Our neighbor has a pool enclosure, and it seems to have much narrower openings between beams. Your advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forums!

I used to live in central fla I assume he was thinking that no added supports makes for a nicer view but it looks too big to be unsupported to me to [but I'm just a painter] Pool enclosures tend to have big pieces of screen but I don't recall ever seeing one that big. Have you discussed your concerns with the contractor?

 

I have to agree with marksr on this one.
The bigger the screen the more flex in the screening causing it to become floppy because it stretched in the frame.
I hope you do not have kids or any animals with that low knee wall.

 

I think the open view looks good. I would take it for a "test drive" and see how it performs. If it starts to get too loose or look shabby I would call him back. I would expect he would warranty his work.

 

Thanks, marksr I did discuss our concern with him, but he got a little defensive. He said it will hold up, and he does provide a 5 year warranty. It's just that we haven't seen anything like this before, and by common sense, screen of this size may become loose very soon. That's why I'm trying to get some unbiased advices from experts. Thanks

 

Thanks for the reply, joecaption. This is exactly our concern. But our contractor keeps saying it will be fine, and he will replace it if anything wrong in the future. But we'd like to make sure it's being done correctly at the first place. We have a toddler son, but no pets.

 

Thanks, Tolyn. I agree that it looks better. Our contractor provides a 5 year warranty on parts and labor, longer than what other contractors are offering, and that's actually the main reason why we chose him.

 

Presumably his warranty is good .... although I've run into a few that weren't
Going by the warranty I'd be inclined to leave it as is and see how it does. Not having added bracing does look better.