What we install · Sliding Glass Doors
The Biggest Opening Is the Hardest One
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.
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
Width is where the numbers get difficult
A large slider spans a structural opening and has to resist pressure across that whole span with no intermediate support. As width increases, the approved pressure for a given product drops — which is why a product that comfortably passes at eight feet may not be approved at sixteen. On the rear elevation of a waterfront Broward house, that is exactly the opening under the most load. It is also the one homeowners most want to be as wide and as thin-framed as possible.
What decides a slider specification
- Overall width and the number of panels.
- Whether the opening is structural and whether the header can carry the unit.
- Approved pressure at that specific size, not the product line maximum.
- Track detail and drainage, which decide how it behaves in wind-driven rain.
- Threshold height, which is where water gets in when it goes wrong.
Why sliders leak when windows do not
Almost every wind-driven rain complaint we are called to look at is a slider rather than a window. The reason is drainage: a slider has a track at floor level that has to shed water outward under pressure, and a threshold set flat, bedded badly or pitched inward will admit water in exactly the conditions the product was bought for.
That failure has nothing to do with the glass or the approval. It is an installation detail, which is why it is worth knowing who is actually fitting the unit rather than who sold it to you.
How we handle it
- 01Confirm the structural opening before specifying anything.
- 02Specify by approved pressure at the actual width.
- 03Set thresholds and pans so the assembly drains outward.
- 04Make good the interior floor junction and the exterior finish.
We check the header and the structural opening first, because on some houses the slider the owner wants is not a window question at all — it is a structural one, and it changes the job. Where the opening stands, we specify by approved pressure at the true width rather than the brochure maximum, set the pan and threshold so water leaves the assembly outward, and finish both faces ourselves.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Widening a structural opening is a different job with an engineer attached. We will tell you when that is what you are asking for, and we will not quote it as a window replacement.
FAQ
Common questions
- Can I get a wider opening than I have now?
- Sometimes, but it becomes a structural job with an engineer involved rather than a replacement. We will say plainly which one you are asking for, because the two are not close in cost or programme.
- Why is my slider quoted so much higher per foot than the windows?
- Approved pressure falls as width rises, so a wide unit often needs a heavier and more expensive product to hold the same number a small window holds easily. The span is doing the work.
- Will you fix the floor and the stucco afterwards?
- Yes, and it is the reason people call us rather than a window-only company. The finish at the threshold and the exterior return is part of our scope, not a separate trade you have to chase.
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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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.
Read more →
Garage Doors
On most houses the garage door is the single largest opening in the envelope, and the one whose failure does the most damage. It is also the one most often left out of an impact upgrade.
Read more →
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.