FAQ
Florida Keys Impact Window Questions
The questions that actually decide a job in Monroe County, answered plainly.
Give us the mile marker and tell us whether the living floor is up on piers. Those two answers shape the job more than the window does.
FAQ
Questions we are asked most
- Is Monroe County in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone?
- No. The HVHZ is defined by county and covers Miami-Dade and Broward. Monroe sits immediately beyond the southern edge of it and carries the highest design wind speeds in Florida.
- Does that mean the code here is weaker?
- The product testing protocol is less onerous. The design pressures your openings must satisfy are higher than in Miami, because pressure is calculated from wind speed. Those are two different things and conflating them is the usual mistake.
- Should I buy a Miami-Dade approved product?
- You are not required to. Here it is frequently the sensible buy anyway, which is the opposite of the advice we give in Palm Beach — same principle, different numbers. Ask to see the calculation for your openings either way.
- How do I check a quote was calculated properly?
- Ask what design pressure was used for each opening and what height above grade it was based on. On an elevated house, ask specifically whether the height was measured from the ground or from the deck.
- Why do Keys quotes cost more than mainland ones?
- The corrosion specification and the supply route, far more often than the glass. Every property in this county is coastal, so anchors, fixings and finishes cannot be specified down. Ask competing quotes what corrosion package they priced.
- My house is up on piers. Does that change anything?
- Yes. Height above grade raises the calculated pressure, and it raises it fastest at corners. It also makes access and lifting a planning question that belongs in the survey rather than on delivery morning.
- Can I enclose the space under my elevated house?
- That is a floodplain and building department question rather than a window question, and we are not the right people to answer it. Ask them before planning anything at that level, including a door.
- How far ahead should I book?
- Further ahead than on the mainland. Everything is ordered before we start, shaped units carry the longest lead, and the delivery leg cannot absorb a slip. Work planned outside the peak of hurricane season also runs more predictably.
Still not answered?
If your question is not here, call (954) 807-3208. We would rather answer it before you have paid a deposit somewhere.
What we install
Impact Windows
The main event. Monroe carries the state's highest design wind speeds while sitting outside the stricter approval regime, so every bit of the weight lands on getting the calculation right.
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Sliding Glass Doors
Keys sliders tend to be wide, they face open water, and on a great many houses they open onto a deck a full story above the ground. Every one of those raises the number the unit has to hold.
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Impact Entry Doors
An approved entry door is one assembly — slab, frame, hinges, lock, threshold and glazing approved together. In Monroe County the part that fails first is almost never the part that was chosen carefully.
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Impact Garage Doors
A double garage door is the largest opening in most houses. In the Keys it frequently sits at the ground level of an elevated structure, which changes what it is doing and what rules apply to it.
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French & Specialty Shapes
Shaped and oversized units are fabricated for one opening in one house. In Monroe County they also have to travel the length of the Overseas Highway, which removes the tolerance for getting anything wrong.
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Glazing Into Existing Frames
Where frames are sound and an approval exists, changing only the glass is cheaper and far less disruptive. In Monroe County it is also the option most often ruled out, and for a reason worth understanding.
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.