What we install · Impact Entry Doors
The Door a Property Manager Uses All Year
An approved entry door is an assembly — slab, frame, hinges, lock, threshold and glazing approved together. On a seasonal property it is also the one opening that gets used all year by somebody who does not live there.
Tell us the address and whether the house is occupied year round. On this coast the second answer changes the recommendation more than the first.
2004
Two landfalls, three weeks apart, on the same stretch of coast
Empty
Glass protects a house when nobody is there to close a shutter
Our crews
We measure, we schedule, and our own people install
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
A rated door that ends up propped open
On a house that is checked on rather than lived in, the front door is handled by property managers, cleaners, pool services and contractors, most of them carrying something. A door that binds or has to be shouldered closed gets propped, and eventually gets left. That is not a code failure and no inspection will catch it, but a propped door is not a rated opening, and the owner is a thousand miles away and has no idea.
What we check that a normal fit-out would not
- That the door closes and latches cleanly with one hand full.
- That the multipoint hardware engages without being lifted or forced.
- That the threshold does not become a trip point for people carrying things.
- That the lock suits everybody who legitimately needs access.
- That nothing about it invites being wedged open on a hot afternoon.
Why the front door earns the attention
Once one opening fails, air enters and internal pressure rises, and the loads on the roof and the remaining walls become something the building was not designed against. A front door is a large, comparatively lightly framed opening in the windward face of many houses.
It is also the opening most likely to be pushed rather than struck. That distinction matters, because a door can hold against a flying object and still fail on sustained pressure if the frame, hinges and lock were never approved to work together.
How we handle it
- 01Specify slab, frame, hardware and glazing as one approved assembly.
- 02Confirm sidelights and transoms fall inside the same approval.
- 03Set the sill pan and flash before the frame goes in.
- 04Hand over to whoever actually uses the door, not only to the owner.
We adjust the door with the people who use it in mind, and where the owner is seasonal we would rather demonstrate it to the property manager than to nobody. A door that works easily stays closed, and staying closed is the entire point of having rated it.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Hardware outside the approval is not something we will fit, and that includes access hardware a property manager has asked for. If a particular lock or handle matters more to you than the rating, that is a fair choice to make — but it has to be made openly, because it changes what we can certify.
FAQ
Common questions
- Can I keep the frame and change only the door?
- Almost never, because the approval is granted to the assembly and the anchoring into the building is a specified part of it. Keeping the old frame usually means what you end up with is no longer the thing that was approved.
- What about a keypad or a smart lock for the property manager?
- Access convenience is a fair requirement on a seasonal house, but it has to be hardware the approval names. Ask before ordering rather than changing it afterwards, because a swap after the fact is the common way an approval quietly stops applying.
- Do the sidelights have to be rated as well?
- Yes. They are glass in the same wall. Rating the door and leaving decorative glass beside it unrated protects very little and it will not pass inspection.
Treasure Coast specifics
The 2004 Rebuild
Frances and Jeanne came ashore at almost the same point on this coast three weeks apart in September 2004. The rebuilding that followed happened at speed, during a shortage, and it left a distinctive housing stock behind.
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A House Nobody Is In
Approved shutters meet the requirement and cost less. They also need somebody at the house to deploy them. On a coast where a large share of properties are empty through hurricane season, that single fact decides most of these jobs.
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Island & Lagoon
The barrier islands here are narrow, with ocean on one side and the Indian River Lagoon on the other. There is very little distance from water in any direction, and that shows up in the fixings long before it shows up in the frames.
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Three Counties, Three Rules
The Treasure Coast is one market to a buyer and three jurisdictions to a permit. Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River each run their own building department, and several municipalities inside them run their own on top of that.
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How We Work Here
We are based in Fort Lauderdale and the Treasure Coast is a real drive from us. We work it in scheduled blocks, and that has consequences worth stating before you call rather than after.
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More what we install
Impact Windows
The core product, and on this coast the argument for it is different from the one made further south. Here the deciding factor is usually not cost or code — it is whether anyone will be at the house when a storm is named.
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Sliding Glass Doors
Sliders here are large, they face water, and they have usually been sitting in salt air for decades. All three of those change what has to be checked before anything is ordered.
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Impact Garage Doors
A double garage door is usually the largest single opening in the envelope. On a seasonal property it is also the one that sits shut and untouched in salt air for months, which ages it differently from one in daily use.
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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.