What we install · French & Specialty Shapes
Custom Shapes in a Region That Is Still Rebuilding
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.
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 lead time quoted from a catalogue, not from the queue
Standard published lead times assume normal demand. Southwest Florida has not had normal demand since 2022, and specialty fabrication is where a regional surge shows up first because there is no stock to draw on and no substitution available. A contractor quoting a catalogue figure for an arched unit is quoting a number that was true somewhere else. The homeowner finds out in month four, with the rest of the house finished.
What we confirm before you commit to a date
- The actual current lead time from the fabricator, not the published one.
- Whether the approval covers that shape at that size.
- What is genuinely custom against what is a stocked shape.
- Whether squaring an opening off is worth considering on cost.
- What the sequence looks like if one unit lands late.
Why specialty demand here is not normal demand
A regional rebuild does not consume products evenly. Standard sizes come from stock and volume production absorbs the spike reasonably well. Shaped and oversized units are made individually, so a regional surge lands directly on the fabricators with the least capacity to flex.
That is why we quote the current queue rather than the published figure. It is a less attractive number and it is the one that will actually govern when your house is finished.
How we handle it
- 01Template shaped openings properly rather than measuring them fast.
- 02Place long-lead orders before any simple opening is touched.
- 03Build the whole program backwards from the slowest item.
- 04Give you the real date, including when the real date is disappointing.
We put the shaped units on order first and work the straightforward openings while they are in production. It is an obvious sequence, it is skipped constantly, and it is the reason so many jobs in this region sit visibly unfinished around one arch that was ordered last.
Said plainly
Where we stop
There are shapes that no approved unit reproduces at a price worth paying. At that point you are choosing between squaring the opening off, which permanently alters the elevation, and commissioning genuine custom fabrication at a much higher figure. We will cost both and leave the decision with you.
FAQ
Common questions
- How long will shaped units really take?
- Longer than the standard units on the same job, and the figure moves with regional demand. We will give you what the fabricator is actually quoting this month rather than a general number, because a general number here has been wrong for a while.
- Can any arch be matched?
- Nearly any shape can be reproduced if the budget and the calendar allow it. Cost rises sharply on true ellipses, non-standard radii and very large fixed arches. We would sooner put an honest figure on the shape you actually have than quote a rectangle and raise the substitution afterwards.
- Would squaring the opening off save much?
- It can, and it changes how the elevation reads permanently. It also brings structural and stucco work above the opening into the job, so it is a real option rather than a free one.
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.
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A Two-Year-Old Rebuild
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.
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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.
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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.
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How We Work Here
We are based in Fort Lauderdale and Southwest Florida is the other side of the state. We work it in planned blocks, which has consequences worth knowing before you call rather than after.
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More 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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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.