Southwest Florida specifics · A Two-Year-Old Rebuild
The Repairs Around You Are Two Years Old, Not Twenty
Most Florida markets deal with old repair work of uncertain quality. Here the work is recent, and the problem is the opposite one: it has not had time to settle, and a share of the people who did it are no longer in the state.
Tell us the address and whether the property has been repaired since 2022. That second answer decides whether this is a window job or something larger.
50%
The threshold that turns a repair into a compliance project
Wind
Impact glass is a wind product. We will not sell it as flood protection
Our crews
We measure, we schedule, and our own people install
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
A warranty from a company that no longer trades
A regional disaster draws in contractors from everywhere, and a good number of them are competent people doing honest work. Some are not, and some were simply never going to stay. Two or three years on, an owner holding a warranty document finds the entity behind it does not answer, has dissolved, or was never licensed to do the work in the first place. The paperwork looks entirely normal. It just does not lead anywhere.
Worth establishing on any post-2022 repair
- Whether the permit for that work was ever closed out.
- Whether the contractor who did it is still licensed and trading.
- Whether the work that was done matches what was permitted.
- Whether any warranty is with an entity that still exists.
- Whether openings were altered during the repair.
Why this is the opposite of an older market
On the east coast, houses repaired after 2004 have had twenty years for problems to surface. Anything badly done has generally announced itself, and what remains has been lived with long enough to be understood.
Here the repair work is recent enough that it has not been tested by much. A poor detail installed in 2023 may not have leaked yet. That is not a reason for alarm, but it is a reason to look at what is actually there rather than to assume that recent means resolved.
How we handle it
- 01Check the permit record for the address before we specify anything.
- 02Flag an open permit early, because it can hold up new work.
- 03Establish what is physically there rather than trusting the file.
- 04Tell you what we found even when it is not our work to fix.
An open permit from a previous repair is the one that catches people, because it can complicate pulling a new one and it is invisible until somebody looks. It costs us nothing to check the record for your address before we quote, and it has changed the order of work on jobs more than once.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We cannot close somebody else's permit or make good on a warranty from a company that has gone. What we can do is tell you what the record shows and what we can see, so that you are dealing with a known situation rather than a surprise at the building department.
FAQ
Common questions
- How do I find out if a permit was closed?
- The county or municipal building department holds the record and it is generally searchable by address. It is worth checking before you take quotes for new work, because an open permit on the property can affect what happens next.
- My repairs were done by an out-of-state contractor. Is that a problem?
- Not automatically — plenty of that work was done properly by licensed people. It is a reason to verify rather than assume, particularly that the work was permitted and that the license covered it.
- What if you find bad previous work?
- We will tell you what we can see and what we cannot. Some of it will be ours to deal with as part of the opening; some belongs to another trade. We would rather show you the problem than quietly build over it.
What we install
Impact Windows
The core product. In Collier and Lee the common situation is not an old house with old windows — it is a reasonably new house that was built fully compliant using shutters, with glazing that was never rated at all.
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Sliding Glass Doors
On this coast the sliders open onto the lanai and they are the widest thing in the building. On a property that took water in 2022 they are also where the evidence of it is easiest to read.
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Impact Entry Doors
An approved entry door is a whole assembly — slab, frame, hinges, lock, threshold and any glazing — approved as one thing. On this coast the threshold detail matters more than most people expect.
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Impact Garage Doors
In most houses the double garage door is the widest opening in the whole envelope. In Collier and Lee it is also the one nearest the ground, which drags it into a conversation that has nothing to do with wind at all.
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French & Specialty Shapes
Arched heads, radius transoms, oversized fixed glass and French pairs are fabricated for one opening in one house. In a region still working through a rebuild, the queue in front of them is longer than the brochure suggests.
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Glazing Into Existing Frames
Where existing frames are sound and an approval exists for glazing into them, changing only the glass is cheaper, faster and far less disruptive. On this coast it suits the condominium stock particularly well.
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More southwest florida specifics
The 50% Rule
If the cost of repairs or improvements reaches half the structure's value, floodplain rules can require the entire building to be brought into current compliance — which may include elevating it. That is a different project from replacing windows.
Read more →
Wind Product, Water Market
Impact glazing is tested against a flying object and a pressure cycle. It is a wind product. In the parts of this region worst hit in 2022, the destroying force was water, and no window on the market addresses that.
Read more →
Newer Houses, Shutters
Much of this region's housing stock is recent and was fully code compliant when built — using shutters rather than rated glazing. Owners assume a newer house has protected openings. Often it has panels in the garage instead.
Read more →
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.