Hurricane Protection for Glass Doors. What is the Best?

Impact glass for fiberglass doors makes for the best hurricane protection for glass doors

The best hurricane protection for glass doors is clearly impact glass. These are specially designed fiberglass door inserts with impact rated glass and frames. This laminated glass is especially designed to protect the outer layer of the glass panel from penetration from flying debris. This glass meets strict guidelines from the DPBR Florida Building Materials building codes. These are expensive tests manufactures undergo to be approved for hurricane impact approval. Each impact glass unit, every size undergoes a projectile test to achieve product approval. This uniform distance and velocity test for each size unit assures the homeowner that any flying debris will not penetrate the glass. A penetration is important because that leads to wind and pressure on the roof and destruction of the building. This does not mean that the glass is unbreakable, just not penetrable.

The fiberglass doors undergo impact approval also. In Florida, PlastPro Fiberglass doors are either impact approved or standard approval. This is confusing to some homeowners because the standard door with Impact Glass Inserts is Impact approved in all counties except Dade County. So in Dade county only, you need impact doors and impact glass door inserts. In all other Florida counties, the standard doors, with impact glass does meet impact approval code. We provide our etched glass designs on standard tempered glass inserts as well as hurricane impact rated glass door inserts. Using the impact rated will qualify your door as hurricane proof doors as long as all other conditions are met.

This is a complicated process to determine which approval code to use but we can provide this for you once you have purchased your door unit. Not beforehand. You can request these papers with your delivery.

Protection for non impact glass doors

Metal Shutters

These shutters are attached to hinged doors as needed. These are not useful for sliding glass doors. Convenient and easily applied, they are stored separately when not in use. These units have met Florida approval for hurricane protection. These metal panels are much thicker than the non impact approved metal panel. They have brackets that attach the panels with wing nuts top and bottom of the door. Most anyone can manage these hurricane shutters. The additional advantage of these removable shutters is that you can still use the door normally to enter and exit. This is called egress and is a requirement included in storm protection permitting during construction.

Plywood panels

For Inswing doors this is an easy application. You will cut the plywood as large as possible to fit into the setback for your door. The plywood is wedged in with 2×4 lumber cut with slight angles on the ends to the width of the door inset. The 2×4 lumber should be about 3/8″ longer than the width to secure it tightly after allowing for the thickness of the wedge pieces that protect the stucco. This method can be used on windows also. You will use a hammer to wedge it ( and to unwedge it) This can be a 2 person job on large windows. Plywood should be 3/8″ .

Close interior doors during hurricanes

There’s no such thing as being over-prepared when you know a natural disaster is headed your way. When a hurricane is quickly approaching, preparedness is key to staying safe.

You may not realize this simple precaution. Whether you evacuate or decide to wait it out at home, there’s an important way to protect your home from damage during a hurricane that you may not know about.

After rigorous wind testing, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety is recommending that homeowners make sure to close all interior doors, as well as all windows and exterior doors.

Storm like Hurricane Irma brings strong winds, homes are under extreme pressure. When wind enters through any open door or window, it can create even more pressure on the roof. Essentially, the pressure in your home builds like the air in a balloon, which can eventually cause your roof to cave in and allow water into your house, according to IBHS.

Keeping your interior doors closed helps disperse the pressure throughout your home, reducing the effect that all of that force can have on your roof—basically the one thing that separates you from the storm.

To ensure that your roof stays put and that you and your family stay out of harm’s way, close all interior doors, windows, and exterior doors of your home.

For more ways to stay safe during a hurricane, bookmark this tropical storm and hurricane preparedness checklist.