What we install · Impact Entry Doors
The Front Door Is a Pressure-Rated Assembly, Not a Slab
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.
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
The hardware swap that quietly voids the approval
Entry doors are where clients most often want to make a change after the fact — a different handle set, a heavier deadbolt, a decorative glass insert, a multipoint lock swapped for something the client already owns. The approval covers a specific assembly including its hardware and its glazing. Substituting a component the approval does not name is not a small aesthetic decision, it is a different assembly, and it will not be the one on the paperwork.
What the approval actually covers
- The slab construction and its skin.
- The frame and the jamb material.
- The hinge count, size and fastening.
- The locking hardware, including whether it is multipoint.
- Any glazing in the door or in sidelights and transoms.
- The threshold and the sill pan detail.
Why the front door is worth doing properly
Once one opening fails in a storm, internal pressure rises and the whole building envelope is loaded differently. A front door is a large, comparatively lightly framed opening in the windward face of a lot of houses, and it is the opening most likely to be pushed rather than struck.
It is also the opening a client sees and touches every day, which is why the finish quality of the fit matters here more than anywhere else on the job. A door that binds, drops or needs a shove is a fitting failure, and the client lives with it constantly rather than discovering it in a storm.
How we handle it
- 01Specify the assembly as a whole rather than selecting parts separately.
- 02Confirm sidelights and transoms are inside the same approval.
- 03Set the sill pan and flash the opening before the frame goes in.
- 04Adjust and hand over a door that closes correctly without force.
On a Palm Beach entry, the sidelight and transom are usually where the surprise lives. A door that is approved on its own may not be approved in the wider composition around it, and a grand entrance with fixed glass either side is a bigger assembly than the door. We specify the whole composition at once, which sometimes narrows the aesthetic choice more than a client expects — and it is better to find that out at selection than at inspection.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We will not fit hardware outside the approval, however much a client prefers the look of it. If a specific handle set matters more than the rating, that is a legitimate choice, but it has to be a knowing one and it changes what we can put on the certificate.
FAQ
Common questions
- Can I keep my existing door frame?
- Rarely, and it is usually a false economy. The approval covers the assembly, frame included, and the anchoring into the structure is a specified part of it. Keeping an old frame typically means the new door is no longer the approved assembly.
- Do sidelights and transoms need to be impact rated too?
- Yes. They are openings in the same wall and they are glass. Rating the door and leaving decorative glass beside it unrated protects very little, and it will not satisfy the inspection.
- Will an impact door look different from what I have?
- Usually a little. Frames are heavier and sight lines are a touch wider than an old non-rated door. On a house under municipal design review, that difference is worth checking against the review requirement before ordering, because it is the sort of detail a board notices.
Palm Beach specifics
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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The Western Communities
Move inland from the coast and the calculated pressures fall while the houses get larger. That combination changes the economics of a job here more than anything else in the county.
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How We Work Here
We are based in Broward and we work throughout Palm Beach County. That is worth stating plainly, along with what it does and does not mean for how a job runs.
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More 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 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.
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.