Impact Windows, Shutters and Garage Doors: Opening Protection on Florida's Wind Mitigation Form

What is opening protection on a wind mitigation inspection?

Opening protection is the part of a wind mitigation inspection that documents how each opening in your walls and roof stands up to flying debris, and it is where impact windows, hurricane shutters and garage doors earn or lose their place on the form. It is item 9 of the state's Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form. The form spells out what belongs in it: windows, doors, sliding glass doors, skylights and garage doors, with glass block listed as its own column in the chart. Gable vents and other roof vents are left out.

Debris is the reason the item exists. Hurricane winds pick up roof tiles, branches, fence boards and patio furniture and throw them at houses. When one of them breaks through a window or a slider, wind and rain rush in, pressure builds inside the house and pushes outward on the roof and walls, and damage that started at one pane can spread to the whole structure. After Hurricane Andrew, South Florida's 1994 building code made windborne debris protection a requirement for all structures, and in its review of Hurricane Wilma, Miami-Dade's building code office called that requirement the greatest success story in damage mitigation.

This guide stays on item 9 and goes further into it than our overview of what happens during a wind mitigation visit or our page-by-page guide to reading the finished report. It covers how the levels work, what counts as proof, the two product approval systems, shutters, garage doors, the new damaged-opening answer and the window and door problems that show up in South Florida homes.

Glazed vs. non-glazed openings: the two halves of the answer

The opening protection chart on the form has six columns. Four are glazed openings: windows or entry doors, garage doors with glass, skylights and glass block. Two are non-glazed: entry doors and garage doors with no glass. The inspector puts a mark in every row that describes protection found on each type of opening, then checks one answer based on the weakest glazed opening, followed by a sub-level for the weakest non-glazed one.

Glazed simply means glass, and the definition catches more doors than owners expect. A solid front door with a small decorative glass insert is a glazed entry door. A sectional garage door with a row of windows across the top is a glazed garage door. French doors and sliders are glazed. Only a door with no glass at all lands in the non-glazed columns, and those columns have a level the glazed ones do not: D, for doors verified to resist wind pressure under ASTM E330, ANSI/DASMA 108 or PA/TAS 202, without an impact rating.

A quick example shows how the two halves combine. Picture three houses with verified impact windows, doors and skylights everywhere. The first has a solid garage door rated for impact under ANSI/DASMA 115, so it reads A.1. The second has a solid garage door labeled for wind pressure only, so it reads A.2. The third has an old solid garage door with no rating at all, so it reads A.3. Same windows, three different answers, and your insurer can rate each one differently.

The opening protection levels explained: A, B, C, N, X and Z

The 2026 form keeps the familiar letters and adds one. Here is what each glazed-opening answer requires, in the order the form lists them.

Why one garage door or skylight can drag down the whole answer

Item 9 asks for the weakest form of windborne debris protection installed on the structure, and the form tells the inspector to choose the answer from the lowest row marked for any glazed opening. A house is not graded on its typical window. It is graded on its worst one. That is how homeowners with impact glass on nearly every window end up with an X: the upgrade covered the windows they could see from the street and skipped one they forgot about.

These are the openings that most often decide the answer:

• The garage door with windows. A glazed garage door is a glazed opening. Without an impact rating, it sets the letter for the house, not just the sub-level.
• Skylights. An older plastic dome or a flat skylight with no approval behind it reads as unprotected unless documentation turns up.
• Small and high windows. Bathroom windows, transoms over doors, clerestory windows and the window above a stair landing are easy to leave out of a window or shutter order because they are small or awkward to reach.
• Glass block. A glass block wall in an older bathroom is easy to overlook, and it is a glazed opening in its own column of the chart.
• Doors with glass. A decorative front door, a side door into the garage with a window in it, or a single unrated slider.

Partial upgrades are the expensive version of this mistake. Replacing the front windows first and the rest next year may make sense for your budget, but the form will not reflect it until every glazed opening is covered. The same weakest-link logic decides roof-to-wall attachment, where one toe-nailed addition can set the answer for the house, as our guide to hurricane straps vs. clips explains.

How inspectors verify impact windows and doors

From across a room, an impact window looks like any other window. Verification rests on three kinds of proof, roughly in this order: what is on the product, what is in the permit record and what is in your paperwork. Each one can support the answer, and they are strongest together.

Labels and etched marks on the product

Florida's building code requires exterior windows and doors to carry a permanent label, marking or etching that traces them to the manufacturer and the product. New units often arrive with a temporary label showing the design pressure and other ratings, and that sticker only has to stay on until the building official's final approval, so many are gone by the time a wind mitigation inspector arrives. The permanent mark is the one that matters later.

For products approved through Miami-Dade, the Notice of Acceptance spells out the label. A typical window NOA requires each unit to bear a permanent label with the manufacturer's name or logo, city, state, series and the words "Miami-Dade County Product Control Approved". Miami-Dade's labeling guidelines also call for approved laminates and interlayers to be marked, by etching or an equivalent method, in at least one corner of each laminated pane, and they define a permanent label as one that cannot be removed without noticeable damage. We look for those marks on every window and door, inside and out.

One caution: laminated glass by itself is not proof. Laminated glass is used in many products that were never tested as hurricane protection, and what the tests rate is the whole assembly, glass, frame, anchors and installation together. An impact-looking window with no label, no permit and no approval number is graded N, even if it is exactly what it looks like.

Permits

Window, door and shutter replacements in Florida generally require a building permit, and permit applications commonly list the product approval numbers. That makes the permit file one of the best sources of proof when labels are missing. Many South Florida building departments let you search permits by address online, and the record shows what was permitted, when, and whether it passed final inspection.

When labels are missing: finding the approval

1. Ask the installer or seller. Request the contract, the invoice and the permit number. Invoices from window and shutter companies often list the approval numbers.
2. Search the permit record. Look up the address on the city or county building department's site and note every window, door, shutter and garage door permit.
3. Identify the approval. A Florida Product Approval number starts with FL. A Miami-Dade approval is a Notice of Acceptance with its own NOA number and an expiration date.
4. Look it up. Search floridabuilding.org by FL number, or by manufacturer and code version, and Miami-Dade's Product Control site for NOAs.
5. Match the details. Manufacturer, series, glass and size range should match what is installed, and the approval should have been in force when the product was permitted.
6. Send it before the visit. Give the inspector everything you found ahead of time, so it can be checked against the openings on site.

If you are selling, gathering this paperwork early helps buyers price their insurance, and it fits naturally into preparing for a pre-listing inspection. On a brand-new house, labels are usually still on the glass, which makes the final walkthrough the easiest moment to document them, as our guide to new construction inspections describes.

Miami-Dade NOA vs. Florida Product Approval

Two product approval systems matter for openings in South Florida, and the wind mitigation form accepts both: its A and B levels refer to products listed as windborne debris protection devices in the product approval system of the State of Florida or of Miami-Dade County.

Florida Product Approval

The statewide system is run by the Florida Building Commission under Section 553.842 of the Florida Statutes. The law requires approval for panel walls, exterior doors, roofing, skylights, windows and shutters, along with other product categories the commission sets by rule. A product can be approved through a certification mark or listing, a test report from an approved laboratory, an evaluation report from an approved evaluation entity, or an evaluation signed and sealed by a Florida-licensed engineer or architect. Approvals carry an FL number and can be searched on floridabuilding.org by number, manufacturer and code version, and the approval documents typically state whether a product is impact resistant and whether it is rated for use in the HVHZ. The same statute bars marketing a product as hurricane or windstorm impact protection unless it has a state or local approval.

Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance

Miami-Dade County's Product Control Section, part of the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, reviews products that protect the building envelope and issues a Notice of Acceptance, or NOA, for those it approves. A current NOA states that the product was designed to comply with the Florida Building Code, including the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and that it may be used in Miami-Dade and in other areas where the local building official allows it. Each NOA has a number and an expiration date, lists the missile impact rating, sets the labeling, and requires the manufacturer or distributor to give the user a copy of the entire NOA. State law also names Miami-Dade's product control office among the evaluation entities the Florida Building Commission approves.

Large missile vs. small missile

Read the missile rating before assuming a product reaches A or B. The Florida Building Code's HVHZ tests apply the large missile to products up to and including 30 feet above grade and a small missile test, using 2-gram steel balls, above that height. Some products are rated for small missile impact only, which suits the upper floors of a tower. The form defines both A and B by large missile tests, so a product with a small missile rating alone does not meet either definition.

Impact windows in the HVHZ (Miami-Dade and Broward) vs. Palm Beach County

The Florida Building Code applies its High-Velocity Hurricane Zone rules to Miami-Dade and Broward counties only. In that zone, Section 1626 requires all parts of the building envelope, such as exterior walls, the roof, outside doors, skylights, glazing and glass block, to meet impact test criteria or be protected by an external device that does. In those two counties, the practical question for a wind mitigation inspector is less whether protection was required, because new homes there have needed it since the mid-1990s, and more whether the products on your house can be verified and are approved for HVHZ use.

Palm Beach County sits outside the HVHZ and follows Section 1609.1.2, which applies in the code's wind-borne debris region. There, glazed openings have to be impact resistant or protected with an impact-resistant covering tested under standards such as ASTM E1886 and E1996, TAS 201, 202 and 203 or AAMA 506, with ANSI/DASMA 115 for garage doors. The current code also allows wood structural panels at least 7/16 inch thick on certain low-rise residential buildings with a mean roof height of 33 feet or less, under conditions it spells out. A product approved for use outside the HVHZ can be a correct choice in Palm Beach County, while in Broward and Miami-Dade the approval should cover HVHZ use.

For the form itself, the levels are the same in all three counties. What differs is the paperwork you are likely to find, the products installers commonly use and how much salt air the hardware has seen. Our local pages explain wind mitigation inspections city by city.

Hurricane shutters on the wind mitigation form: what makes them count

Shutters are as valid as impact glass on the form. Accordion shutters, roll-down shutters, removable aluminum, steel or clear storm panels, Bahama shutters and impact fabric screens can all support an A or B answer when they are approved windborne debris protection products, tested to one of the listed standards and installed for every glazed opening that depends on them. What separates an A or B shutter answer from an N or an X is usually documentation and completeness.

Here is what we check for each shutter system:

• An approval label on the shutter where its approval places it. Miami-Dade's guidelines, for example, put accordion labels on the bottom of the locking bar or center mate, roll-down labels on the bottom of the hood or the bottom slat, and labels on metal and plastic panels at intervals of no more than three feet, facing out.
• Tracks, headers, anchors or embedded studs permanently in place at every opening the system covers.
• Removable panels on the property, enough to cover each opening, ideally marked for the opening they fit.
• The hardware that holds them: wing nuts, bolts, sill caps and clips.
• Accordions and roll-downs that can still be closed and locked. A shutter that cannot close is not protecting anything.
• The shutter permit, which often carries the approval number.

Plywood and the C answer

Plywood and OSB have their own level. To earn C, panels must meet Table 1609.1.2 of the 2007 Florida Building Code and cover all glazed openings. A house protected by fitted, fastened panels for some windows and impact glass on the rest is graded by its weakest form, so the panels set the letter.

Window film and other coverings

Some products are sold for storms without being listed as windborne debris protection under any of the standards the form names. They cannot support an A or B answer. Section 553.842 also bars selling or marketing a product as hurricane or windstorm impact protection unless it holds a state or local product approval, so ask for that approval number before you buy.

Wind mitigation and garage doors in Florida

The garage door is the largest opening on most houses and an easy one to forget when the windows are replaced. On the form it can sit in either half of the chart. A garage door with windows is a glazed opening, so it needs an impact rating for the house to reach A or B at all. A solid garage door is non-glazed, so it affects the number after the letter: impact rated under ANSI/DASMA 115, it matches level A; rated only for wind pressure under ANSI/DASMA 108, ASTM E330 or PA/TAS 202, it is level D; with no verified rating, it is graded N or X in the chart, which on a house with A or B windows means the .3 sub-level.

Garage doors are tested and approved as a system installed a specific way, which is why their labels say so much. Miami-Dade's labeling guidelines ask for a permanent label on the door's side track, its bottom angle or the inner surface of a panel, showing the manufacturer, the model, the positive and negative design pressures, whether it is impact rated, the installation drawing reference number, the NOA number, the test standards and the approval statement. Do not paint over that label, and keep the installation paperwork with your permits.

FEMA's 2023 wind retrofit guide puts garage doors rated for the design wind pressure, and impact protection for garage doors with glass, in its intermediate package of retrofits. If your door is old, dented or unrated, replacing it with a rated door, under permit, may be the step that completes the protection on the house.

Skylights, glass block and sliding glass doors

These three are easy to overlook on an otherwise well-protected house, so they deserve their own look.

Skylights

Skylights are glazed openings with their own test values. Level A uses ASTM E1886 and E1996 with a 4.5-pound missile, and level B allows a missile from 2 to 4.5 pounds. A skylight replaced during a reroof should have its own permit line and approval. A skylight with no record can be the reason a house with impact windows still reads X.

Glass block

Glass block counts as a glazed opening and has its own column in the chart. Miami-Dade's guidelines call for approved glass block to carry an etched mark on the block edges. Older glass block walls in bathrooms and stairwells often have no record at all, and they are easy to miss when a homeowner orders shutters.

Sliding glass doors and French doors

Sliders and French doors fall in the windows or entry doors column. Impact sliders are heavy, and they are only as good as their condition: the panels have to close and latch, the frame has to be anchored, and the glass has to be intact. A slider that has been forced off its track or will no longer lock is a candidate for the Z answer described next.

The new Z answer: damaged openings on the 2026 form

Z is the newest letter on the form. It records that one or more openings are damaged and in need of repair or replacement, and it sits next to a sentence that applies to the whole item: all openings must be in good condition, and buildings with openings that need replacement do not qualify for wind mitigation rate differentials, regardless of the presence or absence of other features.

Read that sentence carefully. On its face it reaches beyond opening protection to the house's wind mitigation rate differentials as a whole. How each insurer applies it is the insurer's decision, but the practical lesson is simple: repair first, inspect second.

The form does not list examples, so the inspector judges whether an opening needs repair or replacement. Cracked or broken glass, including a cracked laminated pane still held together by its interlayer, a bent or broken frame, a sash or door panel that no longer closes or locks, and a door pulled loose from its anchors are the kinds of conditions that raise the question. After a storm, check every opening before you call your insurer, and see our guide to inspecting a home after a hurricane for the rest of the house. Repairs should be done by a licensed contractor, under permit where one is required, and the invoice belongs in your file for the next inspection.

Window and door problems inspectors find in South Florida homes

If you are looking for a door and window problem inspection in Florida, you probably already see a symptom. Here is how the common ones relate to opening protection and to the house itself.

• Missing labels. Scraped off during cleaning, painted over by a stucco crew or removed with tint film. The window may be fine, but the proof is gone, so the permit file becomes the backup.
• Leaks around the frame. Stained or swollen sills and baseboards, peeling paint below the window and cracked sealant where the frame meets the stucco. Water through the joint between the frame and the wall is an installation or sealant problem, not a glass problem.
• Laminated glass edge problems. Bubbles, cloudiness or discoloration at the edges of a laminated pane can mean the interlayer is separating. It deserves the manufacturer's or a glazing contractor's opinion.
• Fogged insulated units. On impact windows built as insulated glass, a haze between the panes means the seal around the air space has failed. The impact layer may be intact, but it is still a repair.
• Hardware that will not latch. Impact windows and doors are designed to resist pressure when they are closed and latched, so a lock that will not engage deserves a repair before storm season.
• Corroded tracks and rollers. Impact glass is heavy, which is hard on slider rollers, and salt air pits aluminum tracks and steel fasteners near the coast.
• Shutter wear. Missing or mismatched panels, lost wing nuts, bent tracks, accordion wheels that have seized and roll-down motors with no working manual override.
• Replacements with no permit. Windows or doors swapped without a permit leave no record, which can turn a good product into an N.

A wind mitigation inspection records protection and condition only as far as the form asks. If you are buying, a full home inspection looks at every window and door for operation, leaks and damage, and reports what the form does not.

Condo units with impact windows and sliders

In a condominium, most of the wind mitigation form describes the building, but the windows and sliding doors are the part of it closest to your own unit. Whether a wind mitigation form helps your unit, and which other inspections your insurer may want, is covered in our guide to condo insurance inspections for HO-6 policies.

Florida's condominium law requires the board of each residential condominium to adopt hurricane protection specifications for each building, and owner installations are expected to follow them. Who pays to install, maintain and replace windows, doors and shutters generally follows the declaration, so read it, or ask the association, before you plan an upgrade. Ask the association for the approvals and permits behind any building-wide window or shutter project, too, because they are often the only proof for your unit.

Height matters in towers. Glass above 30 feet in the HVHZ may carry a small missile rating only, which does not meet the form's definitions of A or B. If your unit is on an upper floor, check the missile rating on the NOA or approval before expecting a top answer. A condo unit inspection can document what is installed in your unit and its condition.

Shutter and impact window care before hurricane season

Protection only works if it closes, locks and stays documented. A short routine each spring keeps both the hardware and the paperwork ready.

• Rinse salt and sand from shutter tracks, sill tracks and roll-down guides, and lubricate only with what the manufacturer recommends.
• Close and lock every accordion and roll-down once before the season, and test the manual override on motorized roll-downs that have one.
• Count storm panels against the openings, check that each is marked for its opening, and store them with their hardware in a labeled container.
• Replace missing wing nuts, studs, sill anchors and caps now, not when a storm is in the forecast.
• Keep the weep openings in window and slider sills clear so water can drain out.
• Look at the sealant around frames, and have split or loose sealant redone by a qualified contractor.
• Clean around labels and etched marks, never over them, and photograph each label for your records.
• Keep permits, approvals, invoices and your latest wind mitigation report together in one folder.

Upgrading your openings: permits, approvals and the order of work

If you are planning new windows, doors, shutters or a garage door, a few decisions up front make the difference between an upgrade that changes your form and one that does not.

• Hire a licensed contractor and pull a permit. The permit and its final inspection are part of your proof, and in Miami-Dade and Broward the products should carry approvals that cover HVHZ use. In Hollywood, our guide to hurricane upgrades and city permits in Hollywood lists what the city asks for.
• Start from the weakest openings. The garage door, skylights, glass block and small windows are what keep many houses at X or N.
• Plan to cover every glazed opening. The answer moves only when nothing is left unprotected.
• Keep every label and document. Ask for the approval numbers on the contract and invoice, and leave the permanent marks alone.
• Ask your agent before you spend. Insurers price combinations of answers differently, so ask what a specific change would mean on your own policy.

New windows or doors are one of the changes that call for an updated report, as our guide to how long a wind mitigation report lasts explains, so book a new inspection after the final permit. Florida's My Safe Florida Home program has offered free wind mitigation inspections and grants of up to $10,000 toward approved improvements, and its list of eligible work has included impact windows and doors and garage door upgrades. Funding windows open and close, so check mysafeflhome.com for the current status and read our plain guide to the My Safe Florida Home program.

The bottom line

Opening protection is the item where a house is only as strong on paper as its weakest piece of glass. Impact windows, shutters and garage doors count on Florida's wind mitigation form when every glazed opening is covered, when each product can be traced to a Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade NOA through its label, its permit or your paperwork, and when nothing is damaged. Gather the documents, protect the openings that are easy to forget, and repair before you inspect. When you are ready, Peter Lemos, a Certified Master Inspector® and InterNACHI Certified Wind Mitigation Inspector, checks every opening and sends the signed form, usually the same day, anywhere in Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach. Call or text (954) 297-0317 or send us a request for a firm price, and read more about our wind mitigation inspections.

About the author

Peter Lemos, Certified Master Inspector®

Owner and lead inspector of Global Home Inspectors in Hollywood, FL. Peter holds InterNACHI certifications in wind mitigation, 4-point and mold inspection and has served Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties since 2008.