Impact Doors in Doral, FL

Impact doors are exterior entry doors tested as a complete unit: slab, frame, glass, hinges, locks and threshold. In a storm, a front door can fail by being blown inward, by its latch letting go, or by debris breaking its glass. A door approved for the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone has passed the same missile and pressure tests that impact windows do, and its approval spells out which lock, hinge and fastener setup it was tested with. For Doral homes, that approval is what the building inspector checks.

Single, double and sidelight setups

Many Doral houses and townhomes have a single front door, sometimes with one or two glass sidelights. Larger homes in gated communities often have double doors or a door with a transom above. Each piece, including every sidelight and transom, must be covered by an approval. When a door is grouped with sidelights, the whole assembly is usually ordered and tested as one unit, which is why changing only the slab is rarely possible in this zone.

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Materials

• Fiberglass resists moisture and dents, can be finished to look like wood, and does not rot in humid summers.
• Steel is strong and often lower in cost, but needs its finish kept up where salt air or sprinklers reach it.
• Aluminum and glass suits modern homes with full-lite designs, using laminated glass held in a heavy frame.

Glass inserts in any of these doors must be impact-rated. Decorative glass is available in laminated form.

Swing direction and the threshold

In South Florida, many entry doors open outward, which lets wind pressure push the door against its frame instead of away from it. Inward-swinging impact doors exist, but they need hardware and a threshold built to resist that load. The threshold also has to keep driving rain out. We check the slab height, the step and any landing so that the new sill sheds water away from the house.

Hardware

The approval names the locking system the door was tested with, often a multi-point lock that latches at the top, middle and bottom. Swapping in a different lockset can void that rating. If you want smart locks or keypad entry, we pick a model compatible with the approved hardware before ordering.