What we install · Impact Glass Retrofit
When Keeping the Frames Is the Right Answer
Replacing the glazing while keeping the existing frames. On the right building it saves real money and real disruption. On the wrong one it produces something that is not approved and cannot be made so.
Give us the address and a rough count of openings. We will tell you what the design pressures are before anyone quotes you a price.
HVHZ
Broward is inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone
NOA
Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance is the approval that governs here
Our crews
We measure, we schedule, and our own people install
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
Retrofit sold where it does not apply
Retrofit glazing is approved as a system — a specific glass in a specific frame type with a specific glazing method. It is not a licence to put laminated glass into whatever frame is already there. Where the existing frame is aluminium of the right profile and in sound condition, a retrofit can be entirely legitimate. Where the frames are tired, the wrong section or already leaking, it produces an assembly nobody can certify and a leak nobody can fix.
What has to be true for retrofit
- The existing frame type is covered by the retrofit approval.
- The frames are structurally sound and correctly anchored.
- The perimeter seal is serviceable or can be renewed.
- The resulting assembly holds the pressure the opening needs.
- The building does not need frames replaced for other reasons.
The buildings where this genuinely wins
Broward has a large stock of well-built mid-century and later condominium and single-family properties with heavy aluminium frames in sound condition. On those, retrofit glazing gets the protection in with far less disturbance to interiors, stucco and window treatments, and at a materially lower cost than full replacement.
It is also the option most often not offered, because full replacement is the larger sale. Where it applies, it is the right answer, and it is worth asking any contractor why they have not raised it.
How we handle it
- 01Inspect the frames before offering retrofit as an option at all.
- 02Confirm the approval covers that frame profile.
- 03Replace the perimeter seal as part of the work.
- 04Say plainly when full replacement is the only honest route.
We inspect first and give a straight answer. On a mid-century building with sound aluminium frames, retrofit is often the better job — less disruption, lower cost, same protection. On a building where the frames are the problem, retrofit is a way of spending money without solving anything, and we will say that even though the retrofit is the easier sale.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Retrofit into timber frames, or into frames that are already admitting water, is not something we will do. There is no approved path and it does not become one because the client would prefer it.
FAQ
Common questions
- Is retrofit as good as full replacement?
- For protection, where the approval applies and the frames are sound, yes. Where the frames are not sound it is not an option at all rather than a lesser one.
- Will it look different?
- Slightly. Retrofit glazing usually sits a little differently in the frame and sight lines change marginally. On most buildings it is unnoticeable; on some elevations it is worth seeing a sample first.
- Can you retrofit some openings and replace others?
- Yes, and on a mixed building that is often the sensible plan — retrofit where the frames are good, replace where they are not, rather than applying one approach across a building that is not uniform.
Broward specifics
Broward Is HVHZ
Miami-Dade and Broward are the only counties inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. It is a genuinely different approval regime, and it is the single fact that should shape a Broward quote.
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Design Pressure
Design pressure is calculated per opening from the building, the site and the unit. It is the number that decides what may legally go in the hole, and most homeowners are never shown it.
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Waterfront & Exposure
Broward is cut through with waterway. A house on the Intracoastal, a finger canal or the ocean carries higher design pressures and a corrosion problem the inland houses do not have.
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Older Housing Stock
A great deal of Broward housing predates the code changes that followed 1992. On those buildings the window is the easy part; what the window is fixed into decides the job.
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How We Work Here
Most of this trade sells the job and subcontracts the installation. We do not. On a house where the finish matters, that is the whole difference.
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More what we install
Impact Windows
The core product, and the one most often quoted wrong. What matters is not the brand on the sticker but whether that exact unit holds an NOA for the pressure your specific opening has to resist.
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Sliding Glass Doors
The widest opening in the house, usually facing the water, usually carrying the highest design pressure on the elevation. It is also the one most likely to have been under-specified.
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Entry Doors
An entry door is a small opening carrying a large expectation. On a luxury elevation it is also the piece everyone looks at, which makes the trade-off between approval and appearance sharper here than anywhere else on the house.
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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.