What we install · Sliding Glass Doors
The Lanai Wall, and What the Water Line Tells You
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.
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
Replacing the door and leaving the reason it failed
Where water came through a ground-floor slider, the door is rarely the whole story. The sill pan, the substrate under the track, the framing at the jambs and sometimes the slab detail were all involved. A replacement that drops a new unit into the same opening, onto the same sill, without establishing what the water did on its way through, produces a better door sitting on an unresolved problem — and the next time it rains hard sideways, the owner learns nothing new about their house.
What we look for on a slider that has seen water
- Where the high-water mark sits relative to the track and the sill.
- Whether the sill pan drains or has been sealed up in a repair.
- What condition the framing is in at both jambs, below the track.
- Whether flooring was replaced up to the opening or through it.
- Whether a previous repair covered the evidence rather than fixing it.
Why the lanai wall is the biggest decision on the house
Southwest Florida houses are designed around the lanai. The rear elevation is frequently more glass than wall, in multi-panel or pocketing configurations that are among the widest residential openings built anywhere in the state.
That makes it simultaneously the most expensive line on the quote, the opening where an approval is most likely to run out at the required size, and — on a ground-floor property — the one most likely to have been in the water. Three separate reasons to survey it properly rather than measure it quickly.
How we handle it
- 01Establish the water history of the opening before pricing a unit.
- 02Confirm the approval covers the actual span and panel count.
- 03Rebuild the sill and drainage path rather than reusing them.
- 04Set the track true so a wide, heavy door runs properly.
We ask directly whether the property took water and how high it came, because on a ground-floor lanai wall that single answer changes what we are looking at. Owners are sometimes reluctant to say, usually because they think it will raise the price. It is far more likely to change the scope than the price, and the version where nobody mentions it is the expensive one.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Our trade is openings. If the survey turns up damaged framing, a compromised slab or trapped moisture behind the opening, that is somebody else's work and occasionally an engineer's. We will show you what we found and stop there instead of quoting a scope we have no business quoting.
FAQ
Common questions
- My slider still works. Does it need replacing?
- Working and rated are different questions, and so is whether the opening around it is sound. If it operates well, is genuinely impact rated and the surrounding structure is dry and solid, then no — and we will say so.
- Should I mention that the house flooded?
- Yes, and it is worth being specific about how high. It changes what we survey rather than inflating the quote, and finding out mid-installation is what actually costs money.
- Can a pocketing slider be impact rated?
- Configurations that pocket into the wall are available rated, but the field is narrower and the approvals tighten as the span grows. It is worth confirming the approval covers your actual width before anyone takes a deposit.
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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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.
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.