What we install · Impact Garage Doors
Six Months Closed, Then Asked to Hold a Storm
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.
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
The opening left off the window quote entirely
Homeowners spend heavily on glazing and leave a wide, thin, unrated door in the front elevation, because it is bought from a different trade and never appears on a window schedule. On this coast there is a second layer to it: a door that has been closed since April, in salt air, with springs and rollers nobody has looked at. It is the largest opening in the wall and it is the one with the least recent attention.
What idle time in salt air does to this opening
- Springs lose condition whether or not the door is being cycled.
- Rollers and hinges seize where they have not moved for months.
- Track fixings corrode in a wall that faces weather all season.
- The bottom seal hardens and stops sealing against the slab.
- Nobody notices any of it, because nobody has opened the door.
Why this one opening drives the rest
Envelope protection behaves like a chain rather than a score. Once a large windward opening is breached, air enters, internal pressure rises, and the loads on the roof and the remaining walls change from what the building was designed against.
That is why a wind mitigation inspection asks whether all openings are protected rather than most of them. Leaving one large unrated opening does not cost a fraction of the benefit — depending on the opening, it can cost most of it.
How we handle it
- 01Look at the jambs and the fixings before deciding replace or reinforce.
- 02Rate the door to the calculated pressure for that elevation.
- 03Match springs and opener to the real weight of the new door.
- 04Cycle and balance it properly before we leave, not approximately.
On a seasonal house we would rather be told the door has not been opened since spring than discover it. It changes what we are looking at from a straight replacement question to a condition question, and it occasionally turns up a problem that has nothing to do with wind rating at all.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Anchoring a rated door into jambs that cannot hold it produces paperwork, not protection. Where the surrounding structure has to be made good first we will tell you, and on a coastal property that has stood idle for years the garage occasionally turns out to be the dearest opening on the job rather than the cheapest.
FAQ
Common questions
- The door has not been opened since April. Does that matter?
- It matters for condition rather than for rating. Springs, rollers and seals age on a calendar as much as on a cycle count, and a door left shut in salt air is not in the same state as one used daily. Worth telling us before the survey.
- Can bracing do instead of replacement?
- Only where the manufacturer publishes a kit for your exact door. Anything fabricated on site for a door with no approved kit carries no approval, whatever it looks like it is doing.
- Is the garage really the weak point?
- On many houses here, yes. It is the largest, thinnest and least braced opening in the wall, which is why wind mitigation inspections single it out rather than counting it with the windows.
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 Entry Doors
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.
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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.