Florida Keys specifics · There Is No Inland
Every Building in This County Is a Coastal Building
In every other Florida market a buyer can move inland and pay less. In Monroe County that option does not exist. Every property is coastal, so the specification decisions that are optional elsewhere are not optional here.
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.
Highest
Monroe carries the highest design wind speeds in Florida
Not HVHZ
And it is governed by statewide approval, not a Miami-Dade NOA
One road
Everything arrives down US-1. We plan the job around that
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
A specification written for a market that has a cheaper half
Mainland contractors carry two mental specifications: one for waterfront and one for everything else. The second is cheaper, it is what gets quoted by default, and it is entirely appropriate three miles inland. Brought down here it is applied to buildings that are all, without exception, in the first category. The window itself is usually fine. What gets specified down are the fixings, the anchors and the finish system, and those are precisely the parts that universal salt exposure attacks.
What has to be specified up, everywhere, every time
- Anchors and fixings, chosen for corrosion rather than for cost.
- The condition of the substrate those anchors go into.
- Frame finish system, specified for permanent exposure.
- Hardware on operable units, which fails before the glass does.
- Perimeter sealing that will survive continuous salt loading.
What continuous exposure actually does
Salt-laden air attacks fixings and the material around them long before it does anything visible to a frame. That is what makes it awkward: the part that degrades is the part nobody can inspect, sitting behind an assembly that still looks perfectly serviceable.
It is also why we open up rather than quoting from a walk-around on this county's buildings. The visible condition of a window here is close to useless as a guide to the condition of what is holding it in.
How we handle it
- 01Assume coastal exposure on every job in the county, without exception.
- 02Inspect existing fixings rather than reusing an anchoring route.
- 03Specify the corrosion package as standard, not as an upgrade.
- 04Explain plainly why a Keys quote sits above a mainland one.
This is usually the honest explanation when a Keys quote comes in above a mainland one for what looks like the same work. It is rarely the glass. It is the fixings, the finishes and the fact that there is no version of this job where corrosion is somebody else's problem. A contractor quoting Keys work at mainland prices has either absorbed it or has not specified it.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Good specification slows corrosion, it does not abolish it. Coastal buildings need rinsing and periodic attention to hardware whatever is fitted, and we would rather say that than imply we are selling something maintenance free.
FAQ
Common questions
- Why is a Keys quote higher than a mainland one?
- Usually the fixings, anchors and finish system rather than the glass, plus the logistics of a single road. If two quotes differ sharply, ask both what corrosion specification they have priced.
- Is my house far enough from the water to matter?
- In Monroe County, no building is. That is the point of this page — the inland category that exists everywhere else in Florida does not exist here.
- Will good specification stop corrosion?
- It slows it substantially and it does not stop it. Rinsing and periodic attention to hardware still matter, and anyone selling you a maintenance-free coastal window is overstating it.
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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More florida keys specifics
Highest Wind, Lower Tier
The High Velocity Hurricane Zone covers Miami-Dade and Broward. Monroe County is not in it, and carries higher design wind speeds than either. The strictest test protocol does not apply where the numbers are hardest.
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One Road In
Every material used in Monroe County arrives along one road. There is no second route, no nearby branch to run back to, and no way to absorb a mistake by sending somebody tomorrow.
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Up on Piers
A great deal of Keys housing has its living floor raised on piers or columns. That raises height above grade, which raises the calculated pressure, and it turns straightforward access into a planning problem.
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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.