Are impact windows worth the money in Florida?

The three reasons, honestly ranked

• No more shutters. Every storm season you get back a weekend and a garage full of panels.
• Noise. This is the benefit people mention a year later, and it is the one nobody expects.
• Insurance. There is a credit, and it is real, but on its own it usually does not pay for the windows inside a sensible horizon.

Protect every opening or do not bother

The wind mitigation credit largely wants the whole building envelope protected, and the garage door is the biggest and weakest opening on most houses. Doing the windows and leaving the garage door is the most common expensive half-measure in this market.

The full credit list is in retrofits that lower a Florida insurance bill.

Installation is the whole product

A great window installed badly leaks and fails, and the failure shows up as stained drywall two seasons later. What to insist on: the right fasteners at the right spacing into solid substrate, correct flashing and sealing, a permit, and an inspection.

1. 1Ask for the Florida Product Approval or NOA number for the exact window being installed, in writing.
2. 2Confirm the permit is pulled in the contractor name.
3. 3Ask how the opening is prepared and flashed, and what happens if rot is found in the buck.
4. 4Get the wind mitigation inspection afterwards so the credit actually lands.

If the budget only stretches so far

Spend it on the openings that face the prevailing weather and on the garage door, and plan the rest as a second phase with the same product so the credit is available when it is finished. Doing half now and a different product later is how people end up with neither the discount nor a matching house.

Impact glass against shutters

Accordion or roll-down shutters protect the same openings for less money and earn a similar credit, so the honest comparison is about living with them rather than about protection.

• Shutters are cheaper per opening and can be phased.
• They have to be closed by somebody, which matters if you travel or the house is a rental.
• They do nothing for noise or ultraviolet, which is where impact glass earns its price day to day.
• Roll-downs need maintenance and eventually motors.

A common answer is impact glass on the openings you look through and shutters on the rest, which protects the envelope for less.