Wind-rated
Doors tested as complete assemblies and approved for Florida, installed exactly as specified, with the balance and sealed rollers that keep them quiet every day.
Ask what rating your opening needs — (239) 388-2592A wind-rated garage door is built and tested as one complete system, rated for a stated design pressure that pushes in and pulls out. Reinforced sections, horizontal struts, heavier hinges and track anchored to the framing share that load.
Each approved model has a Florida product approval, and the rating your opening needs depends on its size and location. A rated door is still a garage door, so balance, sealed rollers and a properly set opener keep it running quietly day to day.
Rated doors normally carry a label on an inside edge or end stile showing the approval and its design pressure. If you cannot find one, the door was probably never rated.
Horizontal reinforcing bars running behind the panels often, though not always, indicate a wind-rated assembly.
If the panels visibly bow, or the door bangs in its track during an ordinary squall, it probably lacks the reinforcement that hurricane-force pressure requires.
Thin, unreinforced doors installed before current wind codes were not built or tested for the pressures openings face today.
We measure the opening and confirm the design pressure your home's exposure and size call for before any door is discussed.
You pick from doors whose Florida product approval meets that rating, in insulated, windowed or plain steel versions.
Fasteners at the jambs, brackets on the track and struts across the panels are set at the positions the approval drawings show, and the labels and paperwork are left in place for the inspector.
Wind-rated doors are tested against a specific design pressure in both directions. Impact-rated doors also survive a flying-debris test, which matters most for doors with glass and in the most exposed zones. Your location and the building code decide which one applies to you.
Sometimes. A manufacturer may offer a reinforcement kit approved for one particular door model. Many older doors have no approved kit at all, and homemade bracing never changes a door's rating. First we read the label and identify the model, then say which route makes sense.
Yes. In Florida, a new garage door typically requires a building permit, plus a product-approved door suited to your opening, and an inspection once it is installed. Repairs to the door you already have usually do not require one.
If you can find a label along the door's edge, read it to us, and we will talk through what your opening needs.
Check your door's rating with us — (239) 388-2592