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Do you need a permit to rescreen a pool cage in Longwood?

Inside City of Longwood limits, no. Longwood’s adopted Florida Building Code amendments (Ordinance No. 21-2196, §105.2) list “replacement of pool enclosure screening” as work exempt from permit. In unincorporated 32750 and 32779, Seminole County governs instead, and the County’s own list of permit-required work includes “Replace or install screen enclosure.” A Longwood mailing address does not settle it.

The exemption, quoted in full

This is the sentence the whole question turns on. It is item 11, “Building exterior,” under the Building heading of §105.2, Work exempt from permit:

“Minor repair and replacement of small areas of trim and siding, fascia and soffit, broken panels of glass, replacement of pool enclosure screening, painting and patching of exterior surfaces, fence repair, existing roof repairs if no greater than 300 square foot total area during a 12 month period and additional attic insulation.”

City of Longwood, Florida Building Code Chapter 1 administrative amendments, Ordinance No. 21-2196, adopted for the 2020 7th Edition FBC, Exhibit A §105.2. Read the adopted amendments (PDF)

No neighbouring Seminole city’s adopted amendments say this about screening, and Seminole County’s own adopted Chapter 1 amendments — Seminole County Code Chapter 40, Appendix A §105.2 — contain exempt-work lists for Gas, Mechanical and Plumbing only. There is no building-exterior screening exemption in them.

Two authorities, one postal city

The City of Longwood states it plainly on its own FAQ:

“Although you may live in the City of Longwood with a 32750 zip code, you may still be in Unincorporated Seminole County. This applies to residents in the 32779 zip code as well.”

City of Longwood FAQ. longwoodfl.org

That is not a technicality here. Most of the large pool-cage neighbourhoods west of I-4 — Sweetwater Oaks, Sweetwater Club, Sabal Point, The Springs, Wekiva Hunt Club, Alaqua Lakes — sit in unincorporated 32779. They have Longwood addresses, Longwood schools and Longwood mail, and their building authority is the County.

Both houses have a Longwood mailing address. Only one of them is in the City of Longwood.

How to find out which one covers your parcel

Do not go by ZIP. Both 32750 and 32779 straddle the city boundary.
Check the parcel, not the address. Look your property up on the Seminole County Property Appraiser (scpafl.org) and read the taxing-district or municipality field.
Or just ask. Longwood’s Building Division will tell you in one phone call whether your parcel is inside city limits.
Then ask the right desk about your job using the contacts below.

City of Longwood Building Division

Covers: Parcels inside City of Longwood limits
Address: Community Development Department, City Hall, 175 West Warren Avenue, Longwood, FL 32750
Planning: 407-260-3462
Inspections: 407-260-3471
Main: 407-260-3440
Rescreen answer: Mesh-only replacement is exempt from permit under Ord. 21-2196 §105.2

Seminole County Building Division

Covers: Unincorporated parcels in 32750 and 32779 — including most of the west-side pool-cage subdivisions
Address: 1101 E. First Street, Sanford, FL 32771
Phone: 407-665-7050
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8am–5pm
Rescreen answer: Not settled in writing. The County’s published list of work requiring a permit includes “Replace or install screen enclosure.” Its adopted Chapter 40 Appendix A §105.2 has no building-exterior screening exemption, and whether a mesh-only rescreen on an unmodified frame counts as an “ordinary minor repair” under §105.2.2 is left to the building official’s approval.

Exempt from the permit is not exempt from the code

Longwood’s own ordinance is explicit that the exemptions “do not relieve the owner or contractor from their duty to comply with applicable provisions of the Florida Building Code.” The work still has to be done right; the City has simply decided it does not need to inspect a mesh swap.

What is not covered by the exemption

Replacing a corroded upright, a beam, or a footer
Changing the enclosure’s dimensions, height or footprint
Re-erecting an enclosure that came down, or building a new one
Screening in a porch or lanai that is currently open

All of that is structural, and it needs a permit in both jurisdictions.

The number your frame is designed to

The same Longwood ordinance fixes the jurisdictional design wind speed by risk category:

“The wind speed for this jurisdiction shall be 129 mph ultimate design wind speed for risk category I buildings and structures … 139 mph ultimate design wind speed for risk category II … and 149 mph ultimate design wind speed for risk category III and IV.”

City of Longwood, Ord. No. 21-2196, definitions, “Wind Speed.”

Screen enclosures are ordinarily Risk Category I, so 129 mph ultimate is the number that governs a Longwood cage frame, anchor or beam repair — not the 139 mph that applies to the house itself. If a contractor quoting structural work on your cage cannot tell you which number they are designing to, that is a useful thing to have learned early.

Seminole County is not in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

The HVHZ is Miami-Dade and Broward. At least one competitor page for this area implies otherwise. Longwood’s standard is the jurisdictional wind speed above, applied through the Florida Building Code — not the HVHZ product-approval regime.

What that means for a cage built before Florida had one statewide code: pre-2002 vs. post-2002 framing, explained →

The oak limb over your cage

The number one repeat cause of torn roof panels in Longwood is a limb, so the tree rules matter to a screen conversation more here than almost anywhere else in Seminole County.

Longwood protects trees of three inches DBH and up under Tree Ordinance No. 09-1894 (Longwood Development Code §3.5.5). A permit is required not only to remove a protected tree but to alter one — damaging, topping, root pruning, cutting or hatracking. But:

The City exempts owner-occupied single-family dwellings from the tree removal permit.
The City exempts emergency removal after storm damage.

So an owner-occupant can legally take down the limb that keeps punching through the roof panel without a City tree permit. A landlord, a rental property, or an HOA common-area tree is a different conversation — and out in unincorporated 32779, the Wekiva River Protection Area’s 50 percent tree-preservation requirement is part of the picture too.

Sources: City of Longwood tree FAQ · Ordinance 09-1894 (PDF)

Questions people actually type

These are verbatim Google and DuckDuckGo autocomplete strings, kept in the wording people type rather than tidied up into marketing questions.

Searched asdo you need a permit for a screen enclosure

In Longwood it depends which side of the city line the house is on. Inside City of Longwood limits, replacing pool enclosure screening is expressly exempt from permit under the City’s adopted Florida Building Code Chapter 1 amendments, Ordinance No. 21-2196 §105.2, Building item 11. In unincorporated Seminole County — which covers much of both 32750 and 32779 — the County’s published list of work requiring a permit includes “Replace or install screen enclosure,” and its adopted amendments carry no building-exterior screening exemption. Building a new enclosure, or altering the structure of an existing one, requires a permit in both jurisdictions.

Searched asdo you need a permit to screen in an existing porch

That is not a rescreen. Enclosing a porch that is currently open changes the structure — new framing, new anchorage, a new wind-load path — and it is not covered by Longwood’s screening exemption, which is written for “replacement of pool enclosure screening” and other minor repair of existing building exterior. Expect a permit whether you are in the city or in unincorporated Seminole County, and expect the design to be checked against the jurisdictional wind speed.

Searched asdo you need a license to rescreen in florida

Honestly: we will not state a licence class we have not verified. Florida regulates construction contracting through DBPR, and Seminole County registers contractors locally, but exactly which class covers screen enclosure and rescreen work — and where the line falls between a registered specialty contractor and a handyman repair — was not confirmed in our research and is not going to be guessed at here. What you can do today is verify any contractor you are considering directly with DBPR and with the Seminole County Building Division before work starts. Longwood Rescreening’s own licence details: .

What this page cannot tell you yet

Two things are genuinely open, and pretending otherwise would defeat the purpose of writing this page at all.

Whether the City of Longwood has adopted 8th Edition (2023) FBC Chapter 1 administrative amendments, and whether the “replacement of pool enclosure screening” exemption and the 129/139/149 mph wind speeds survive verbatim. The document on file and quoted above is Ord. 21-2196, keyed to the 2020 7th Edition.
Written confirmation from Seminole County Building Division on whether a mesh-only rescreen on an existing, unmodified frame requires a permit in unincorporated 32750/32779 — see the county contact block above.

Sources

This page summarises public ordinances and county guidance for homeowners. It is not legal advice, and code text changes — check the current adopted version with the authority that covers your parcel before you rely on it.

Not sure which side of the line you are on?

Give us the street and we will tell you which building authority covers the parcel and what that means for the job. That answer is free whether or not you hire us.

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