Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement: Impact Windows, Patio Doors and Entry Doors
Expert residential and commercial window services. Approval numbers on every quote, permits and inspections handled by us.
- Licensed and insured Broward window and door installer
- Approval number on every opening we quote
- Permits pulled and inspections scheduled by us
- Se Habla Español
Our Window Services in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Energy-Efficient Windows and Solar Control Glass
Almost nothing a Fort Lauderdale house loses through its windows is heat escaping. It is heat arriving, day after day, on east and west glass from March through October, with the air conditioner quietly paying the bill every afternoon.
Vinyl Replacement Windows
Vinyl is the value frame almost everywhere in America. In Broward it is a good answer for a narrower set of openings than the price tag suggests, and the reason is the approval listing rather than the material itself.
Fiberglass Windows
Fiberglass is the frame we admire most and specify least in Broward, and we would rather tell you that in the first minute than after a deposit. The material is excellent.
Aluminum-Clad Wood Windows
This is the page where we argue against the product. Aluminum-clad wood is a beautiful window and, in most of Broward County, the wrong specification.
Aluminum Windows
In most of the country aluminum is the frame you talk a homeowner out of. In Broward it is the frame we specify most often, for one reason: it holds the highest design pressures at the widest openings, with a deeper approved catalog than anything else here.
Double-Hung and Single-Hung Windows
Most Broward homeowners who ask for double-hung windows are describing a shape they know from somewhere else. In this county the practical, widely approved version of that shape is the single-hung, and understanding why saves money and avoids a plan-review problem.
Casement and Awning Windows
Awning windows are the shape South Florida invented a use for. A sash hinged at the top and cranked outward at the bottom keeps rain out of a room while it is raining, which in a county with an August thunderstorm most afternoons is not a small feature.
Horizontal Roller and Sliding Windows
The horizontal roller is the workhorse of Broward housing. Walk any block built between 1955 and 1985 and most of the glass in the wall slides sideways, because the shape suits wide openings, stays inside the wall plane, and does not care what is on the patio.
Bay and Bow Window Assemblies
Bays and bows are the assembly the High Velocity Hurricane Zone treats least kindly, and it is worth knowing why before you fall in love with a drawing. The individual windows are usually approved.
Picture and Architectural Windows
Fixed glass looks like the easy item on a quote. Nothing operates, nothing wears out, nothing needs adjusting.
Egress Windows
An egress window is a life-safety opening before it is a window. The code calls it an emergency escape and rescue opening, requires one in every sleeping room, and expects it to work in both directions: someone climbing out, someone in turnout gear climbing in.
Impact and Hurricane Windows
This is the whole county's default, and it is worth being precise about what the requirement actually is. Broward and Miami-Dade are the only two counties inside Florida's High Velocity Hurricane Zone.
Sliding Glass Patio Doors
The patio slider is the largest opening in most Broward houses and the one that decides how the place feels. It is also the assembly where the High Velocity Hurricane Zone bites hardest, because everything an approval limits scales with the panel.
French Doors
A pair of hinged glass doors reads better than a slider in almost any room, and in Broward the swing direction is not a style question. It is a structural one, and it changes the price, the hardware and sometimes whether the approval covers what you want at all.
Entry Doors
The front door is the smallest opening on this list and the one most likely to be forgotten during a window project. It is also a glazed opening in the eyes of the code, which means it needs the same approval path as the windows around it.
Window Screens and Rescreening
Screens are the least glamorous item on this list and the one homeowners ask about most often, usually a season or two after a window project, when the mesh has gone soft in the sun and the frames have started to bow at the corners. First, the thing that has to be said plainly: a screen is not opening protection.
Glass Repair and Insulated Glass Replacement
A fogged pane, a cracked lite or a failed seal looks like a small repair, and outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone it usually is. Here the answer depends entirely on what kind of unit you have, and the difference is thousands of dollars.
Commercial Storefront and Curtain Wall Glass
Commercial glazing in Broward runs on the same approval logic as a house, then adds two things a house does not have. One is height, which changes the impact test.
Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement installs replacement windows, sliding glass patio doors, French doors, entry doors and commercial storefront glass across Broward County. We work in laminated impact glass, thermally improved aluminum, fusion-welded vinyl and clad wood, and we quote from the product approval rather than from a brochure.
That distinction decides the job here. Broward sits inside Florida's High Velocity Hurricane Zone, so a permitted opening needs a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a Florida Product Approval carrying the HVHZ endorsement, tested to TAS 201, TAS 202 and TAS 203. A product that is perfectly legal elsewhere in the state can be unpermittable on this side of the county line.
So every quote names the model, the approval number, the tested size range and the anchor schedule the drawings actually require for your substrate. Where a cheaper answer is the right one, such as approved shutters or storm panels over sound existing glass, we will price that alongside the impact package and tell you which one we would buy. Free measured estimate, written scope, permits pulled and inspections scheduled by us.
What Fort Lauderdale Customers Say
Two other companies quoted a number in ten minutes. These guys measured every opening, then came back and told us the rear slider was wider than the approval covered and gave us three configurations that were. The permit went through first time.
They talked us out of half the job. Front and side elevations got impact units, the rear got approved panels because we are selling in a few years. Nobody else offered that. Install was clean and the stucco return looks original.
Our building needed storefront glass replaced at street level while the tenants stayed open. They worked in sections, dried in each opening the same day, and handed the board a folder with every approval number by elevation.
The buck under two of our windows was rotted and they showed me before ordering rather than after. Cost more than the first estimate and I still felt like I got the honest version. Rollers on the new slider are stainless and it moves with one hand.
Why Fort Lauderdale Chooses Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement
- ✓We quote from the current product approval, not a catalog, so the model, tested size range and approval number are on the estimate you sign.
- ✓The anchor schedule gets read before the price is set, because concrete, hollow block and a wood buck are three different installations at three different costs.
- ✓We open the perimeter of a sample opening during the survey, so failed buck material and masonry repair are priced up front instead of appearing as a change order.
- ✓We will tell you when approved shutters over sound existing glass are the cheaper legal answer, and quote that alongside the impact package.
- ✓Approvals are renewed and can lapse, so we re-verify every approval number at order and again at delivery rather than at the inspection.
- ✓One crew does the demolition, the install and the stucco return, and the same person who measured meets the inspector at the final.
About Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement is a glazing and opening-protection contractor working Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Broward County. The work is replacement windows, sliding and hinged patio doors, entry doors, screens, insulated glass repair and commercial storefront glazing, in laminated impact glass and in approved shutter systems where those are the better answer.
The method is the same on every job. We read the product approval first, confirm your openings against its tested size table, check the substrate the anchors have to reach, and then price. It is slower than a same-day number, and it is why our jobs do not get redesigned at plan review or rebuilt after an inspection.
When not to hire us: if you want the cheapest possible number and do not want to hear that an opening falls outside its listing, or that a buck has to be replaced first, we are the wrong company. We will also tell you to keep sound existing glass and add approved shutters when that is genuinely the better spend, and some people would rather not be talked out of the bigger job.
How It Works
- 1
Pull the approval before we price the window
We start with what the plans examiner will accept: the current Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or the HVHZ-endorsed Florida Product Approval for each model, and the tested size table inside it. Openings that fall outside the listing get identified now rather than at plan review, when the fix costs weeks.
- 2
Measure the opening and look at the substrate
Every opening gets measured to sightline dimensions, and we open a section of the perimeter to see what the anchors will actually be going into. Concrete, hollow block and a wood buck are three different anchor schedules, and a wet buck is a repair line in the quote instead of a surprise on install day.
- 3
Permit package with the approval drawings attached
The submittal goes to your municipality with the approval documents, the anchor detail, the glass makeup and the design pressures for each opening. Association or architectural review packages are prepared at the same time, because the two approvals run on separate clocks and only one of them is the county's.
- 4
Install to the drawings, then the inspection
Anchors go in at the type, diameter, embedment and spacing the approval specifies. Sill pans, perimeter sealant and stucco returns are detailed to drain rather than to trap water, we re-verify the approval is still current at delivery, and we meet the inspector at the final.
Commercial storefront, curtain wall and association glazing
Broward's commercial stock runs from single-story retail strips along the arterials to mid-rise offices and the condominium towers on the barrier island. All of it lives under the same High Velocity Hurricane Zone rules as the houses, with one difference that reorders budgets: the thirty-foot line. Below it, glazing has to take the large missile under TAS 201.
Above it, the small missile applies instead. That means the ground-floor storefront on a mid-rise is usually the heavier specification, not the tower glass above it. We handle scheduled replacement, emergency board-up and reglazing, entrance door hardware, and the documentation packages boards and property managers need when a building is refinanced or sold.
- ✓Center-set aluminum storefront framing in the common two-inch face profiles, glazed from the exterior
- ✓Curtain wall spans with mullion deflection checked against the actual floor-to-floor dimension
- ✓Large-missile TAS 201 glazing below thirty feet and small-missile assemblies above it
- ✓Heavy-stile aluminum entrances on offset pivots with closers matched to real traffic counts
- ✓Tempered and laminated lites carrying permanent labels the inspector can read in place
- ✓Spandrel and shadow-box conditions water-tested rather than guessed at
- ✓Sequenced work with each opening dried in the same day it is opened
- ✓Closeout package of approval numbers, glass makeups and anchorage details by elevation
Service Areas
Fort Lauderdale Window Replacement serves Fort Lauderdale, FL and surrounding communities including:
Recent Projects Across Broward County
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to buy impact windows in Fort Lauderdale, or can I use shutters?
You have a legal choice. The requirement is that glazed openings are protected, and approved shutters, accordions or storm panels over existing glass satisfy it. Impact units cost more and give you protection nobody has to deploy, plus quieter rooms and ultraviolet control every day of the year. On a house you plan to sell soon, or on a rear elevation of small openings, a shutter package is often the better spend and we will quote it that way.
What is an NOA, and why does Broward keep asking for one?
A Notice of Acceptance is Miami-Dade County's product approval document. Broward accepts it, and also accepts a Florida Product Approval whose state listing carries the High Velocity Hurricane Zone endorsement. Either one proves the exact window, in the exact size and configuration, passed TAS 201 impact testing, TAS 202 static pressure and TAS 203 cyclic loading. Without one, the permit does not get issued.
Can I install a window here that is approved elsewhere in Florida?
Only if its listing carries the HVHZ endorsement. Broward and Miami-Dade are the only two counties inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, and a statewide approval without that endorsement has no permit path in this county. This is the single most common surprise for homeowners who moved down from elsewhere in the state and got a quote based on what their old house had.
How long does a Fort Lauderdale window permit take?
It varies by municipality, and Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Plantation and the county's own building division all run their own queues. Plan review is typically a few weeks when the submittal is complete, and much longer when it is not. Most delays we see come from a missing approval document, an opening outside the tested size, or an anchor detail that does not match the substrate on site.
Will new windows change my windstorm insurance?
They can, but the paperwork is what does it. Florida insurers price wind coverage off a uniform mitigation inspection, and opening protection is one of the items on that form. Once the permit is closed, a licensed inspector can document the protection and your carrier decides what it is worth. We do not quote insurance savings, because we do not underwrite your policy and neither does anyone else selling you a window.
Do impact windows cut noise from the airport and the highway?
Noticeably, though not to silence. The laminated interlayer damps sound in a way an air gap alone does not, and the effect is strongest in the mid frequencies where road and aircraft noise live. Asymmetric laminated makeups do better still where they are available inside an approved configuration. Anyone promising silence on a flight path is overselling a real benefit.