New Florida Building Codes mandate installing hurricane shutters over every window or door in your home that has regular or standard glass in it. These new requirements have an impact on you, the homeowner, as you have to make sure this is done in order to have homeowner’s insurance; and no one wants to be caught without insurance protection in the event of a storm. If your home was built before 1998, it is more than likely that your windows and doors don’t meet this requirement. All windows and doors must pass a wind-load or resistance test, and regular windows can’t do this, and must be covered with shutters. The changing pressure during a hurricane can cause devastating damage to your home, and windows and doors must be able to withstand this.
And even though your windows might pass this test- can they pass a missile-impact test? It is not likely. Objects thrown at high speed at regular windows will cause a breech, and the windows and doors of your home are a vital part of the structure of your home, and indeed, help keep it standing. A broken window or door could easily cause the destruction of your home; roofs have been ripped off in the quick-changing pressure and continuous high winds of a hurricane, and even if your roof or walls stay intact, can you imagine the damage that could be done inside your home when 150 mph winds are allowed to enter for a long period of time? Furniture, beloved belongings, and your family would be at risk, and keeping your home and family safe is a major priority. The difference between the air pressure inside your home and outside your home during a hurricane, when a window is broken and there is egress into the house, can tear off your roof, knock down walls, and do devastating damage. Standard windows are not always able to withstand the terrible pressure exerted by hurricanes and tropical storms, and they are certainly not able to stand up against debris thrown by hurricane force winds at high speed.
Hurricane impact windows, even when hit by missile impact, stay intact in the frame and keep your home safe. There will be no damaging winds inside your home, and there will be no abrupt pressure changes inside it, either. The specially laminated glass keeps in the frame, even when broken, allowing no holes or entrance for the wind, and this makes you safer and keeps your home and family protected.
