What we install · Impact Windows
Every Opening Gets Its Own Number
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.
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
One rating quoted for a whole house
A quote that gives a single design pressure for every opening in the building has not been engineered, it has been estimated. Pressure varies with the height of the opening, its position on the elevation, the exposure category of the site and the size of the unit. A corner opening on the second floor of a waterfront house carries a materially higher number than a small bathroom window on the leeward side of the same building. Quoting them the same way means one of them is wrong, and it is usually the one that matters.
What actually governs the unit
- The Miami-Dade NOA number for that exact configuration and size.
- Positive and negative design pressure calculated per opening.
- Exposure category — waterfront and open ground are not the same as a sheltered inland lot.
- Whether the opening is in the wind-borne debris region, which in Broward is effectively all of it.
- Buck condition and substrate, which decide the anchoring schedule.
Why Broward quotes vary so much
Two quotes for the same house can differ by a large margin and both be honest, because they are specifying different things. One may be pricing a product approved to the minimum pressure that passes; the other to the pressure the corner openings actually see. Neither is lying. They are answering different questions.
The way to compare them is to ignore the totals and look at the schedule. If one quote lists a design pressure and an NOA per opening and the other gives a single figure for the house, you are not comparing like with like — and the cheaper one is cheaper for a reason you can now see.
How we handle it
- 01Measure every opening rather than sampling a few.
- 02Calculate pressures per opening and give you the schedule in writing.
- 03Specify units by NOA, not by brand name.
- 04Install with our own crews and make good the stucco and interior.
We start with a measure, not a price. Every opening is recorded with its dimensions, its height above grade and its exposure, and the design pressures come out of that. Then we specify units that hold an NOA for those numbers at that size — which sometimes means a different product line for the big rear sliders than for the front elevation. You get the schedule before you get the price, so you can see what each opening was assessed at rather than taking one figure on trust.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We do not manufacture glass and we are not a dealer for one brand. That means we will specify whatever holds the right approval, but it also means we cannot promise a particular manufacturer at a particular price.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do I need the same rating on every window?
- No, and paying for it is a common way to overspend. Pressures vary across a building. What you need is each unit approved for what its own opening has to resist — which on most houses means a mix rather than one specification applied everywhere.
- Is a Miami-Dade NOA better than Florida Product Approval?
- For a Broward address it is not better, it is required. HVHZ covers Miami-Dade and Broward only. Elsewhere in Florida the statewide approval is the correct path and an NOA product is often unnecessary spend.
- Can you match what is there for a historic or architect-designed house?
- Usually, and it is worth raising at the measure rather than at install. Sight lines, frame depth and finish all vary between approved products, and on a house where the elevation matters that narrows the list before pressure does.
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
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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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.