STS Impact Windows, Doors & Roofing is a veteran-owned company based in South Florida that specializes in premium hurricane protection solutions, including impact windows, doors, custom storefronts, and roofing. Combining over 25 years of industry experience with military precision, STS provides expert installation, full transparency, and outstanding customer service, backed by a leading 3-year installation warranty. Their comprehensive services ensure security and peace of mind for both residential and commercial clients, with a strong focus on quality, reliability, and efficiency.
View on Google MapsSTS Impact Windows and Doors specializes in hurricane protection solutions, offering high-quality impact windows, storm-resistant doors, custom storefronts, and professional roofing services. With expert installation, full transparency, and outstanding customer service, the company ensures homes and businesses stay secure and energy-efficient.
STS Impact Windows and Doors is located at 1000 Holland Dr Suite 10, Boca Raton, FL 33487, United States. The company proudly serves residential and commercial clients across Florida and throughout the United States, delivering reliable storm protection solutions. View their location on Google Maps.
Yes, STS Impact Windows and Doors is a veteran-owned company recognized for its dedication, integrity, and service to the community. This background adds an extra level of trust and reliability for homeowners and businesses seeking storm protection solutions.
STS Impact Windows and Doors provides a wide range of services including the installation of hurricane impact windows, impact doors, custom commercial storefronts, and roofing services. Each project is backed by expert craftsmanship, a 3-year installation warranty, and over 25 years of industry experience.
The company proudly serves both residential homeowners and commercial property owners. From protecting family homes to fortifying businesses with hurricane-rated storefronts, STS Impact Windows and Doors delivers customized solutions that ensure safety, durability, and efficiency.
Clients benefit from the company’s focus on quality, reliability, and efficiency. Their impact-resistant windows and doors not only enhance security and hurricane protection but also improve energy efficiency, reduce noise, and increase property value. With a 3-year installation warranty, customers can trust in long-term performance and peace of mind.
STS Impact Windows and Doors has been recognized with multiple industry honors, including the South Florida Veteran Owned Business Excellence Award, Best Hurricane Protection Provider 2023 Florida, and the Angi’s Super Service Award for Window Installation. These awards highlight their commitment to excellence, customer satisfaction, and industry leadership.
You can reach STS Impact Windows and Doors by phone at 561-600-1018 or visit their website at stswindows.com. They are open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and are available on Facebook and Instagram for updates and project showcases.
Business Name: STS Impact Windows & Doors
Address: 1000 Holland Dr #10, Boca Raton, FL 33487, United States
Phone: (561)-600-1018
Hurricane season shapes life along Florida's coasts. You feel it in the way next-door neighbors track tropical waves, the pre-storm rush to stockpile, and the ritual of hauling ladders to install panels. After 20 years specifying, installing, and troubleshooting building envelopes from Key Largo to Palm Beach, I've seen what holds up and what doesn't. When the objective is genuine defense with year-round convenience, Miami-Dade authorized, energy‑efficient impact windows outperform shutters in ways that surpass storm day. They alter how a home feels in August, how peaceful your living-room stays on a Saturday night, and how confident you are when a storm line spins up quicker than predicted.
This is a practical take a look at why numerous South Florida homeowners are moving from shutters to typhoon impact-resistant windows, how to read the standards behind "Miami-Dade approved," what products matter, and how to get the setup right the first time.
Miami-Dade County's Item Control Division sets among the most difficult criteria in the nation for building parts exposed to windborne debris. Approval is not a marketing sticker label. It is earned through specific lab tests that imitate genuine hurricane conditions.
First comes large missile impact. A 9-pound 2x4 is shot at the glass at approximately 34 miles per hour. That mimics roofing system tiles, branches, or pieces of fencing that fly in the eyewall. After the impact, the same unit deals with cyclic pressure loading, countless pressurization and depressurization cycles that mimic quick wind gusts over hours. If the glass stays in the frame without letting the envelope breach, it passes. The difference between "satisfies Florida building code windows" and "Miami-Dade authorized windows" frequently resides in these test thresholds. Miami-Dade is simply stiffer, especially in High Speed Hurricane Zone requirements, which include Miami-Dade and Broward.
Wind ratings vary by opening size and design pressures, denoted as PSF worths. On ocean-facing homes or high-rises, I frequently define units ranked at +60/ -80 PSF or greater. Inland or in more safeguarded exposures, ratings in the +45/ -60 PSF range can suffice, but you size and specification based upon the website's wind map, constructing height, and surrounding structures. An expert knows that a corner direct exposure at the second story demands various reinforcement than a protected window under a deep porch.

Hurricane shutters vs effect windows is not a one-to-one comparison. Shutters can fulfill code, and they're much better than nothing. However they ask you to do operate at the worst possible time. When a watch turns to a caution and the forecast track tightens, the last thing you desire is a ladder, a dead cordless drill, and a missing wing nut.
Impact windows live in place. You get continuous protection, even if a pop-up storm surprises you while you're stuck on US 1. You also get benefits every day of the year.
Noise control is the most underappreciated advantage. Laminated effect glass is essentially a sandwich: two panes of glass bonded by a resistant interlayer, generally PVB interlayer glass or SentryGlas. That interlayer damps noise. On tasks along busy corridors like Biscayne Boulevard or near flight courses, I have actually determined interior noise drops in the 5 to 10 decibel variety, sometimes more when paired with insulated glass units.
Security enhances because laminated glass withstands forced entry. A robber can shatter the outer lite with a hammer, however the interlayer holds the fragments. They satisfy a sticky, persistent membrane instead of a quick course inside. Insurance underwriters understand this, which is why policies frequently provide credits for impact doors and windows. In my projects, premiums usually drop 10 to 25 percent, depending upon the provider and the number of openings are protected.
Energy efficiency is the third pillar. Energy-efficient effect windows with contemporary low-E effect glass and warm-edge spacers can cut solar heat gain while maintaining noticeable light. That suggests less a/c need, specifically on west and south exposures where the afternoon sun punishes interiors. In one Coral Gables retrofit, we changed 1980s single-pane sliders with laminated low-E impact systems. Summer afternoon peak load dropped by approximately a ton of cooling, and the home's annual electrical power use fell between 12 and 18 percent. Results vary with shading, attic insulation, and a/c performance, however the instructions is consistent.
Laminated impact glass is the heart of the system, but not all laminated items are equal.
Most residential cyclone windows utilize a PVB interlayer glass stack, commonly 0.030 to 0.090 inches thick in single or multiple plies. Thicker interlayers enhance impact resistance and sound control, however they add weight and expense. For oceanfront or tall openings, you may see SGP (ionoplast) interlayers, which are stiffer and more powerful than PVB, allowing thinner sections to attain higher design pressures. For noise-sensitive websites, acoustic PVB formulations modify the polymer to better take in noise in the 1,000 to 3,000 Hz variety, where traffic and voices sit.
Tempered glass windows come up often in conversations since tempered glass is stronger in flexing than annealed glass. That's true, and tempered lites are typically used as the outer or window replacement inner ply in an effect unit. But tempered alone is not impact-resistant in the cyclone sense. When it fails, it blows up into small cubes and falls out of the frame, which leaves the opening susceptible. The effect performance comes from laminated building, not tempering by itself. Lots of systems utilize a tempered outer lite laminated to a hardened inner lite, or both tempered, but constantly bonded through a PVB or ionoplast interlayer.
Low-E coatings matter for convenience. A soft-coat low-E tuned for South Florida normally targets a solar heat gain coefficient in the 0.25 to 0.35 variety while keeping visible light transmission around 50 percent or greater. Go too low on SHGC and the glass can look gray or green, especially in larger openings. The sweet area depends on your façade orientation and shading. On east and west elevations, I typically tighten up SHGC and accept a small tint to handle morning and afternoon blasts. On north elevations, I favor higher visible transmittance for daylighting.
Frames are the other half of the story. Aluminum frames control here because they manage big openings and won't swell. Thermal breaks and enhanced glazing gaskets have actually narrowed the energy gap with vinyl. Top quality vinyl effect frames, when reinforced properly, can perform well for standard-sized openings and have much better insulating values, however I prevent them for really large sliders or high storefront-style windows in high-wind zones. Wood-clad systems look gorgeous in older Mediterranean Revival homes, but they demand careful maintenance and clever flashing. The Florida sun damages inexpensive vinyl and chalks low-grade aluminum surfaces rapidly. Search for powder-coated surfaces ranked for seaside direct exposure, and request written warranty details in salt-air environments.
Window setup can make or break performance. A pricey system installed like a handyman swap-out will not pass a storm's tension test. The load course is the essence. Impact forces need to take a trip from the glass through the frame, to the anchors, into the substrate, and then into the structure's framing or masonry.
In concrete block construction, you desire stainless or hot-dipped galvanized anchors embedded into strong product. Hollow cells must be grouted or you require to strike the bond beam. Tapcons in soft, unfilled block are a failure waiting to occur. In wood-framed homes, structural screws need to bite into strong trimmers, not simply sheathing. Shimming and plumb alignment matter so the locks engage easily and the weatherstripping compresses evenly.
The sealant joint is not simply aesthetic. An appropriately sized backer rod and premium polyurethane or silyl-modified polymer sealant produce a resilient, flexible seal that handles thermal growth. Too small a bead and it tears under movement. Too big and it cures inadequately. On seaside jobs, I never combine different metals without a barrier, and I constantly define corrosion-resistant fasteners. 10 years later, you will see who took shortcuts.
Flashing is the other non-negotiable. Pan flashing at sills, self-adhered membranes at jambs and heads, and integration with the water-resistive barrier are vital. If you depend on sealant alone, water will find its way in. That moisture might disappoint up as a drip. It may rot a sill plate gradually, then betray itself as a buckling floor or a moldy smell two hurricane seasons later.
I have absolutely nothing against well-designed shutters. Accordion shutters that are preserved and oiled, roll-down shutters with battery backups, and even removable panels saved thoroughly can protect homes efficiently. They likewise assist in specific cases.
Second homes or seasonal rentals where budget plan is tight in some cases lean on shutters to meet the Florida building code windows requirement for protected openings. On specialized openings like a lanai that is rarely used in summer, a tidy motorized roll-down can be reasonable, especially if pairing with effect windows and doors somewhere else worries the spending plan. For property owners who prepare to move within a year, shutters can be a short bridge to compliance before a sale.
But shutters bring trade-offs. They darken your home when deployed, and they need action at specifically the time you are managing insurance papers, gas Home hardening upgrades cans, and household logistics. During Cyclone Irma, I watched a next-door neighbor attempt to install steel panels hours before landfall. The ladder sank in saturated soil, a panel slipped, and we invested the next hour in the urgent care waiting room. He made it through with stitches. His living-room window did not. Shutters also rattle and can vibrate under sustained winds, in some cases loosening up fasteners with time if not maintained.
For long-term owners who want to set it and forget it, impact windows give hurricane proof windows protection while preserving daylight and view. The convenience grows important once you have actually experienced one storm season with zero preparation beyond locking the sash.
South Florida homes combat 2 fights: latent load from humidity and reasonable load from direct solar heat gain. Effect glass upgrades can help both if specified intelligently.
Low-E impact glass uses microscopically thin metallic layers to reflect infrared energy while letting visible light through. With the right covering stacks, you can obstruct a large part of convected heat and UV. UV obstruction in laminated systems comes mostly from the interlayer itself, which typically filters 95 to 99 percent of UV, reducing fading of materials and flooring. Add the low-E, and you curb the solar heat that drives your air conditioning crazy midafternoon.
I assess glass specs with three numbers: U-factor, SHGC, and VT. While U-factor matters more up north, it still helps here by decreasing nighttime heat flow and keeping the interior glass temperature closer to space temperature, which lowers condensation danger. SHGC drives just how much solar heat enters. VT influences how intense the interior feels. Balance is essential. Some property owners want the crisp, clear look of greater VT, even if it suggests accepting a couple of degrees more heat in late afternoon, because their landscaping and roofing system overhangs currently do some shading. Others prefer a stronger tint for glare control on waterfront lots that show extreme light.
In practical terms, going from clear single-pane sliders to modern-day low-E laminated double-glazed units can reduce peak solar gains by 30 to 50 percent on the most exposed sides. Couple that with tuned overhangs, light-colored exterior finishes, and a correctly sized variable-speed HVAC, and you begin to construct durability. If the grid decreases and you change to a generator, a lower cooling load indicates a smaller sized generator and less gallons of fuel.
Miami-Dade Notification of Acceptance, or NOA, is the document you request. It information the authorized configurations, sizes, anchors, and pressures tested. It is not enough to hear "these are Miami-Dade approved windows" in a showroom. Validate the NOA matches the exact model and choices you are purchasing, consisting of the glazing makeup and hardware. If you are in Broward or Miami-Dade, your allowing office will desire this paper trail.
Statewide, the Florida Item Approval system supplies FL numbers that reveal code compliance. In the remainder of the state outside the High Speed Typhoon Zone, Florida building regulations windows can depend on Florida Product Approval without Miami-Dade specific NOAs. Numerous leading makers bring both. Where budgets enable, I choose NOA items even outside the zone due to the fact that the screening is stiffer.
NFRC labels deal with energy metrics. They won't inform you effect performance, but they show U-factor, SHGC, VT, and air leakage. Go for air leakage at or listed below 0.3 cfm/ft ². Tighter is better for humidity control, however make certain your home still has balanced ventilation. Sealing the envelope and ignoring fresh air is a dish for indoor air quality complaints.
Impact windows cost more upfront than shutters. There's no spin around that. Set up costs differ with size, shape, finish, and access. On simple single-family homes, per-opening expenses typically land in between 1,200 and 3,000 dollars for basic sizes. Large multi-panel sliders, customized arches, and coastal-grade finishes raise the numbers quickly.
Where you recoup worth:
If you plan to own the residential or commercial property for 5 years or more, the math typically tilts in favor of effect windows, particularly when you factor the intangible of comfort. If you prepare to offer within a year and need to reveal compliance rapidly, shutters may make more short-term sense. Context matters.
I take notice of hardware and devices. Multi-point locks on sashes and awnings improve seal compression and security. For sliders, robust tandem rollers in stainless housings slide smoother and last longer on sandy outdoor patios. Take a look at the sill style on sliding doors. Weep systems need to be engineered to drain pipes heavy rains without letting wind-driven water blow back in. Ask to see a cutaway sample in the showroom.
Tint colors and reflectivity are more than fashion. Reflective movies can run afoul of neighborhood associations or produce mirror-like glare toward neighboring properties. In coastal communities, extremely reflective glass can puzzle birds or sea turtles in some jurisdictions. Regional pros know which coatings balance performance with compliance.
Color stability is a huge deal. Dark bronze or black frames look great on modern homes, however in Florida sun low-cost finishes chalk and fade. AAMA 2605-rated finishings offer the best color retention and chalk resistance. I define them for seaside exposures whenever budget plans allow.
Historic districts often need profiles that mimic old wood sash sightlines. There are impact-rated windows that fit these requirements, however lead times extend and costs climb. Anticipate additional review by architectural boards, and line up a specialist acquainted with these submissions.
Condos have another layer of governance. Associations often specify a narrow list of approved items for harmony. They likewise care about sound control in between units. If your structure sits directly on Collins Avenue or deals with a busy beach boardwalk, push for acoustic laminated choices. Deal with structure management on staging and lift gain access to. Weekend work windows and limited parking can include days and dollars.
Large openings, like a 16-foot-wide slider, require unique attention in style pressure, deflection, and operating hardware. Not every unit that looks sturdy in a showroom satisfies the wind loads on a ninth-floor veranda. Do not rely on brochure maximum sizes. Use the NOA tables that correspond to your website's zone, favorable and negative pressures, and mullion mixes if any.
The finest tasks start with a determined study and direct exposure analysis. You map each opening, keep in mind the substrate, and identify any framing irregularities or settlement cracks. During proposal, the contractor shows you the NOA and the Florida Product Approval, lists anchor types, and discusses how each opening will be flashed and sealed. They prepare for stucco or drywall repairs, not pretend no damage will occur.
On install day, they remove one opening at a time to keep your house secure. They protect floors, pull back window treatments, and cap sprinklers. Old frames bring out care to maintain interior surfaces. New systems get dry-fit, shimmed, and anchored per the schedule. The team checks squareness and diagonals before setting sealant. They photo anchors for the permit file, specifically if they will be concealed. After glazing, they water-test with a controlled spray to verify drainage courses and seals. The inspector sees a neat jobsite, clear labels, and documentation in order.
Six months later on, your windows still close with two fingers, locks bite smoothly, and there is no mystery rattle during thunderstorms. You did not have to require a roller adjustment after the very first week. That is the standard.
Impact rating does not equal breakproof. Laminated glass can split under severe effects, however it must remain in the frame and hold together. After a storm that sends out particles into the glass, you may see star fractures or spidering. The window did its job. Replace the sash or IGU after the event.
Window films do not convert non-impact windows into cyclone impact-resistant windows. They can include shatter resistance, however they do not replacement for an evaluated, anchored system. Your insurance company and structure department will not count films as secured openings.
Interior humidity matters. Tight, energy-efficient impact windows lower air leak. That's terrific, however it increases the value of a properly sized heating and cooling with good dehumidification. If your system is extra-large, the thermostat pleases rapidly and fails to pull enough moisture from the air. Ask your heating and cooling pro to check reasonable heat ratio, air flow, and run time. You want stable, longer cycles, not short bursts.
Maintenance is uncomplicated but not optional. Clean weep holes on sliders, wash salt spray from frames, and lubricate hardware every year with a silicone-based item that will not gum up in heat. Small practices extend lifespan.
There are genuine reasons to blend solutions. A pair of rarely used garage windows can keep removable panels to shave budget plan. A deep-set deck with minimal sun direct exposure might do great with accordion shutters if you prioritize other upgrades like a brand-new roofing deck attachment or a prepared garage door. Shutters can also safeguard outdoor kitchen areas or cabana openings where grease and smoke would age fancy hardware prematurely.
If you select shutters, purchase quality. Stainless fasteners, smooth tracks, and motors with handbook bypasses for roll-downs make a stormproof window maintenance difference. Assign duty for implementation and practice as soon as beyond a storm watch. Inventory your hardware. The day you need 32 wing nuts is not the early morning you want to find you have 29.
Impact windows are not only about surviving the huge one. They reshape daily living. The living room stays cooler and quieter. The air conditioner cycles calmly rather of racing at 4 p.m. You sleep without freight trains of wind noise when a squall line passes at 2 a.m. When a hurricane threatens, your preparation list gets much shorter. You lock the sashes, set storm mode on the alarm, and concentrate on individuals rather than panels.
For much of my clients, that intangible is the deciding element. They understand storms will come. They likewise know life in South Florida is too good to live inside a fortress that just gets up in August. Miami-Dade approved windows offer you both: a clear view of Biscayne Bay on a breezy February early morning and peaceful self-confidence when the spaghetti models point our way in September.
If you are weighing the option, start with a site-specific assessment. Match your exposures to create pressures, choose the ideal laminated glass stack for wind and heat, choose frames that fit the architecture and conditions, and work with a team that appreciates the load path. Done right, energy‑efficient impact windows deliver what shutters can not: security that never ever asks for a ladder and a much better home every day of the year.