Repair or replace? You'll get a straight answer on the first visit · (863) 563-5576
Storm protection
A clear answer on whether your current door can be braced to meet the rating or needs replacing, and an approved door installed if it does.
Find out if your door is storm-ready — (863) 563-5576
When a garage door fails in a hurricane, wind pours into the house and pushes up on the roof from inside while it pulls from above. That combination is how roofs come off. It's why Florida's building code holds replacement garage doors to a tested design pressure.
Rated doors use reinforced sections, horizontal struts and heavier track and hinges, and each carries a product approval. Some existing doors can be upgraded with a manufacturer's approved bracing kit, which can be the more economical route. If yours can't, we'll explain the rated replacements that fit.
Tested doors normally carry a sticker on an inside edge or end stile that lists the design pressure. If you can't find one, the door probably was never rated.
Reinforcing struts across the back of the panels are a common, though not certain, sign of a wind-rated door.
If the door visibly flexes or bangs in its track during an ordinary thunderstorm, it likely lacks the bracing a hurricane demands.
Doors hung before current wind codes often weren't built or tested for today's pressures.
The opening is measured and the required design pressure confirmed for your house's exposure and size.
If an approved retrofit kit exists for your door model, that's an option. If not, you choose from approved rated doors.
Jamb fasteners, track brackets and struts go in exactly as the approval specifies, since the rating assumes that exact installation.
Labels stay on the door and paperwork is left for the permit inspection and any wind mitigation inspection you arrange.
Wind-rated doors are tested to resist a set design pressure pushing in and pulling out. Impact-rated doors must also withstand a test where debris is fired at them; that tends to matter for doors with glass and in the code's highest wind zones. Your location and the code requirements decide which applies.
Possibly. Many Florida policies offer discounts when a home's openings are protected, and a garage door with a proper approval counts toward that. An inspector can note it on a wind mitigation report, and your agent can tell you what it's worth on your policy.
Ordering and permitting a rated door isn't quick, so the time to ask is well before a storm shows up in the forecast.
Ask whether your door can be braced — (863) 563-5576