Palm Beach cities · Jupiter
Six Hundred Feet From the Beach in Jupiter, the Tint Stops Being a Choice
Jupiter's window permit package prints a glass rule on its front page. Within 600 feet of the beach, tinted turtle glass is required.
Give us the address. In this county the address decides the pressure, the review, and often the price — before the window does.
Not HVHZ
Palm Beach uses statewide approval, not a Miami-Dade NOA
Still required
The county sits in the wind-borne debris region
Our crews
We measure, we schedule, and our own people install
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
A glass specification the catalog does not know about
The Town of Jupiter prints this on the front page of its own Windows / Doors Replacement permit package, revised August 2024, worded exactly like this: "Buildings within 600 feet of the beach are in the 'Sea Turtle Protection Zone.' Tinted 'Turtle Glass' is required, with a Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) of 45% or less. As specified in Article 14 of the PBC ULDC." The underlying rule is the county's, applied along the coast. Jupiter is the town on this stretch that puts it where a contractor cannot claim not to have seen it.
A made-to-order impact unit is specified by frame, glass build-up, coating and pressure rating. Visible light transmittance is a figure on the glass data sheet that nobody in a window sale reads aloud. Order a clear laminated unit for a house three hundred feet from the dune line and it is the wrong unit, not marginally but against a number the town has published on the front of the form. Made-to-order means that mistake is a re-order and a new lead time, not a swap.
The town is equally direct about the other place jobs go wrong here. Its package states: "Engineer Letters, Affidavits, and Photography will NOT be accepted in lieu of Physical Inspections." Three inspections are required on a replacement in an existing building, a buck inspection, an in-progress inspection and a final, and the package tells you not to remove the product labels or stickers until the final has been approved. There is no paperwork route around any of it.
What the permit package sets out before the work starts
- The Sea Turtle Protection Zone glass rule for buildings within 600 feet of the beach, at 45 percent visible light transmittance or less.
- Replacements are like for like, without change to the existing opening dimensions. Changing the opening size means applying for an Alteration permit instead.
- Three physical inspections: buck, in-progress and final.
- Engineer letters, affidavits and photography are not accepted in place of those inspections.
- Product labels and stickers stay on the glass until the final inspection has been approved.
- Approval may be state product approval with installation instructions, a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance with installation instructions, or signed and sealed engineering for a custom design.
- A permit is required even for one unit. The town's FAQ asks whether you need a permit to change out one window or door and answers, "Yes."
Three and a half miles of coast, and a band you can draw
The town says it has approximately 3.4 miles of beaches, with shores enveloped by dunes, mangroves and sea grape trees. Six hundred feet inland of that is a real, mappable band rather than a footnote, and a good share of the town's most exposed houses sit inside it.
The same package quotes the town's wind figure in its own words: "Wind Speed: The wind speed is 170 mph in the T.O.J. for residential, Risk Category II structures. (Engineering is required for Risk Categories III and IV structures.)" That is the town stating the input its calculations use. It is not a product rating and it is not a High Velocity Hurricane Zone designation. The same package accepts state product approval alongside a Miami-Dade acceptance, which is the plainest evidence available that this is a different regime from the one two counties south.
One thing this town does not have is a historic district. It designates individual resources only, under Section 27-2438 of the Town Code, and the list is mostly civic rather than residential: the railway depot, the old Naval housing building, the civic center, a church, a marina, and a handful of named houses. Ordinary homes are subject instead to the architectural and community appearance standards in Chapter 27 of the code. So the appearance conversation that dominates a job in Delray Beach or West Palm Beach barely arises here, while the glass specification and the inspection sequence dominate instead.
How we run a job here
- 01Measure the distance from the beach at survey and settle the glass specification on that basis before a price is quoted.
- 02Confirm the visible light transmittance figure on the glass data sheet rather than on the product family brochure.
- 03Keep the opening dimensions as they are, or apply for the right permit type, instead of widening an opening on a like-for-like permit.
- 04Schedule for three inspections rather than one, including a buck inspection that has to be called before the opening is closed up.
- 05Leave every label on the glass until the final has been approved, and tell the homeowner why before anyone is tempted to peel them off.
The buck inspection is the one that catches out crews working here for the first time, because it has to be called at a point when the work looks unfinished and the instinct is to press on. Pressing on means opening it back up. We sequence jobs in this town elevation by elevation so an inspection can be called on one part of the house while the crew works on another, which is the only way three inspections do not turn into three separate weeks.
Source: Town of Jupiter Windows / Doors Replacement permit package, revised August 2024, the town's permit submittal FAQ, and its beaches and historic designations pages — checked 2026-09-24
Said plainly
Where we stop
Where the house sits in a deed-restricted community the town says plainly that it cannot enforce association regulations and that you should contact the association for approval. That is your conversation and we cannot have it on your behalf. We will also not quote clear glass for an address inside the turtle zone on the basis that nobody is going to check. The labels stay on the glass until the final, which is precisely so that somebody can.
FAQ
Common questions
- How do I know if my house is in the Sea Turtle Protection Zone?
- The town's package draws the line at 600 feet from the beach. Measure it rather than estimate it, and ask the Building Department to confirm the address, because the answer decides which glass you are allowed to order.
- Can turtle glass be as clear as ordinary impact glass?
- No. The requirement is a visible light transmittance of 45 percent or less, so the unit is tinted by specification. Choose a tint you can live with, because a clear alternative is not on the table for that address.
- Can an engineer's letter save me an inspection?
- Not here. The permit package says engineer letters, affidavits and photography will not be accepted in lieu of physical inspections. Plan the calendar around three real visits: buck, in-progress and final.
- Can I make the opening bigger while the window is out?
- Not on a replacement permit. The package says replacements are like for like without change to the existing opening dimensions, and that changing the size means applying for an Alteration permit instead.
What we install
Impact Windows
The core product, and in this county the one most often over-specified. Palm Beach is outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, so the approved field is wide — and the job is choosing correctly inside it rather than defaulting to the most expensive label.
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Sliding Glass Doors
Sliders are the largest glazed openings in most Palm Beach homes and the ones where a size-based approval limit is most likely to be exceeded. They are also where the structural question above the opening gets skipped.
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Impact Entry Doors
An approved entry door is an assembly. The slab, frame, hinges, lock, threshold and glazing are approved together, and changing one part outside the approval invalidates the whole thing.
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Impact Garage Doors
A double garage door is usually the biggest single opening in the building envelope. It is also the one clients most often leave off a window quote, because it does not feel like a window.
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French & Specialty Shapes
Arched heads, radius tops, oversized fixed glass and French pairs are common on Palm Beach houses and are made to order. They carry the longest lead times on any job and the least flexibility if something is measured wrong.
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Glazing Into Existing Frames
Where the existing frames are structurally sound and an approval exists for glazing into them, replacing only the glass is cheaper, faster and less disruptive than a full replacement.
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What is different about Palm Beach
You Are Not in the HVHZ
The High Velocity Hurricane Zone is Miami-Dade and Broward. It is not Palm Beach. Your openings are governed by statewide Florida Product Approval, which is a wider field, and knowing that changes what you should be quoted.
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The Debris Region
The second mistake in this county is the opposite of the first. Being outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone is not being outside the requirement — Palm Beach County sits in the wind-borne debris region, and openings need protecting.
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Design Review on the Island
The Town of Palm Beach reviews the appearance of exterior work, and several other municipalities in the county run their own review. Where that applies, the design question is settled before the code question, and the order is not negotiable.
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Other cities we cover
Boca Raton
Boca Raton issues window and door permits over the counter for single-family homes. Nothing is checked in advance, so everything is checked on site.
Read more →
West Palm Beach
The city's preservation guidance says generally vinyl is not permitted in windows. On a designated property that decides the product before any calculation does.
Read more →
Delray Beach
Delray Beach's adopted design guidelines list eight things a replacement window must account for. Two of them are about the glass, not the frame.
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.