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 neighbors track tropical waves, the pre-storm rush to stockpile, and the routine of transporting ladders to mount panels. After 20 years specifying, setting up, and fixing building envelopes from Secret Largo to Palm Beach, I've seen what holds up and what does not. When the objective is real defense with year-round convenience, Miami-Dade approved, energy‑efficient impact windows exceed shutters in ways that exceed storm day. They alter how a home feels in August, how peaceful your living-room stays on a Saturday night, and how positive you are when a storm line spins up much faster than predicted.
This is a useful look at why numerous South Florida property owners are moving from shutters to cyclone impact-resistant windows, how to read the standards behind "Miami-Dade authorized," what materials matter, and how to get the setup right the very first time.
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Miami-Dade County's Product Control Division sets among the toughest standards in the country for building components exposed to windborne debris. Approval is not a marketing sticker. It is earned through specific lab tests that imitate genuine typhoon conditions.
First comes large rocket effect. A 9-pound 2x4 is contended the glass at approximately 34 miles per hour. That simulates roofing system tiles, branches, or pieces of fencing that fly in the eyewall. After the impact, the same system deals with cyclic pressure loading, countless pressurization and depressurization cycles that simulate rapid wind gusts over hours. If the glass remains in the frame without letting the envelope breach, it passes. The difference in between "satisfies Florida building code windows" and "Miami-Dade approved windows" frequently lives in these test thresholds. Miami-Dade is simply stiffer, especially in High Velocity Hurricane Zone requirements, that include Miami-Dade and Broward.
Wind scores vary by opening size and design pressures, signified as PSF worths. On ocean-facing properties or high-rises, I often define units ranked at +60/ -80 PSF or higher. Inland or in more safeguarded direct exposures, rankings in the +45/ -60 PSF range can be enough, but you size and spec based upon the site's wind map, building height, and surrounding structures. A professional knows that a corner exposure at the 2nd story demands various reinforcement than a sheltered window under a deep porch.
Hurricane shutters vs effect windows is not a one-to-one comparison. Boca Raton hurricane window installation Shutters can satisfy code, and they're much better than nothing. But they ask you to do operate at the worst possible time. When a watch turns to a warning and the projection track tightens, the last thing you desire is a ladder, a dead cordless drill, and a missing wing nut.
Impact windows reside in place. You get constant defense, even if a pop-up storm surprises you while you're stuck on United States 1. You likewise get advantages every day of Boca Raton window upgrades the year.
Noise control is the most underappreciated benefit. Laminated impact glass is essentially a sandwich: 2 panes of glass bonded by a resistant interlayer, usually PVB interlayer glass or SentryGlas. That interlayer damps sound. On jobs along hectic corridors like Biscayne Boulevard or near flight paths, I have actually determined interior sound drops in the 5 to 10 decibel variety, sometimes more when paired with insulated glass units.
Security improves since laminated glass withstands forced entry. A robber can shatter the external lite with a hammer, but the interlayer holds the shards. They fulfill a sticky, stubborn membrane instead of a quick course inside. Insurance underwriters understand this, which is why policies often offer credits for effect doors and windows. In my jobs, premiums generally drop 10 to 25 percent, depending upon the carrier and how many openings are protected.
Energy performance is the 3rd pillar. Energy-efficient effect windows with modern-day low-E impact glass and warm-edge spacers can cut solar heat gain while preserving visible light. That means less cooling demand, specifically on west and south direct exposures where the afternoon sun penalizes interiors. In one Coral Gables retrofit, we changed 1980s single-pane sliders with laminated low-E effect systems. Summer season afternoon peak load stopped by approximately a lots of cooling, and the home's annual electrical power use fell in between 12 and 18 percent. Outcomes vary with weather-resistant impact windows shading, attic insulation, and heating and cooling efficiency, but the instructions is consistent.
Laminated effect glass is the heart of the system, but not all laminated items are equal.
Most residential hurricane windows utilize a PVB interlayer glass stack, frequently 0.030 to 0.090 inches thick in single or multiple plies. Thicker interlayers enhance effect resistance and sound control, but they include weight and expense. For oceanfront or high openings, you might see SGP (ionoplast) interlayers, which are stiffer and stronger than PVB, enabling thinner sections to achieve higher style pressures. For noise-sensitive sites, acoustic PVB formulations tweak the polymer to much better soak up noise in the 1,000 to 3,000 Hz range, where traffic and voices sit.
Tempered glass windows come up typically in discussions due to the fact that tempered glass is more powerful in flexing than annealed glass. That holds true, and tempered lites are frequently utilized as the external or inner ply in an effect unit. However tempered alone is not impact-resistant in the cyclone sense. When it fails, it takes off into little cubes and falls out of the frame, which leaves the opening susceptible. The impact performance comes from laminated building, not tempering by itself. Many systems use a tempered outer lite laminated to an annealed inner lite, or both tempered, but constantly bonded through a PVB or ionoplast interlayer.
Low-E finishings matter for comfort. A soft-coat low-E tuned for South Florida usually targets a solar heat gain coefficient in the 0.25 to 0.35 range while keeping visible light transmission around 50 percent or higher. Go too low on SHGC and the glass can look gray or green, especially in bigger openings. The sweet area depends on your exterior orientation and shading. On east and west elevations, I often tighten up SHGC and accept a slight tint to handle early morning and afternoon blasts. On north elevations, I lean toward higher visible transmittance for daylighting.
Frames best window installation options are the other half of the story. Aluminum frames dominate here due to the fact that they handle big openings and won't swell. Thermal breaks and enhanced glazing gaskets have actually narrowed the energy space with vinyl. Premium vinyl impact frames, when enhanced properly, can perform well for standard-sized openings and have better insulating values, but I avoid them for really broad sliders or high storefront-style windows in high-wind zones. Wood-clad units look gorgeous in older Mediterranean Revival homes, but they require mindful maintenance and clever flashing. The Florida sun ruins inexpensive vinyl and chalks low-grade aluminum surfaces rapidly. Look for powder-coated finishes ranked for coastal exposure, and request written guarantee information in salt-air environments.
Window setup can make or break performance. An expensive system installed like a handyman swap-out will not pass a storm's stress test. The load path is the core. Effect forces have to travel from the glass through the frame, to the anchors, into the substrate, and after that into the structure's framing or masonry.
In cinder block building, you want stainless or hot-dipped galvanized anchors embedded into strong product. Hollow cells must be grouted or you need to hit the bond beam. Tapcons in soft, unfilled block are a failure waiting to occur. In wood-framed houses, structural screws should bite into solid trimmers, not simply sheathing. Shimming and plumb positioning matter so the locks engage cleanly and the weatherstripping compresses evenly.
The sealant joint is not simply visual. A properly sized backer rod and high-quality polyurethane or silyl-modified polymer sealant create a durable, versatile seal that deals with thermal expansion. Too little a bead and it tears under motion. Too big and it treatments badly. On coastal tasks, I never ever pair different metals without a barrier, and I constantly define corrosion-resistant fasteners. Ten 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 combination with the water-resistive barrier are important. If you rely on sealant alone, water will discover its method. That wetness may not show up as a drip. It may rot a sill plate slowly, then betray itself as a buckling flooring or a moldy smell 2 typhoon seasons later.
I have absolutely nothing versus properly designed shutters. Accordion shutters that are maintained and lubricated, roll-down shutters with battery backups, and even removable panels saved carefully can secure homes effectively. They likewise help in specific cases.
Second homes or seasonal leasings where budget plan is tight in some cases lean on shutters to fulfill the Florida building regulations windows requirement for secured openings. On specialized openings like a lanai that is rarely utilized in summertime, a tidy motorized roll-down can be affordable, especially if pairing with impact doors and windows somewhere else stresses the budget. For property owners who prepare to move within a year, shutters can be a brief bridge to compliance before a sale.
But shutters bring trade-offs. They darken your house when released, and they require action at specifically the time you are juggling insurance documents, gas cans, and family logistics. Throughout Typhoon Irma, I enjoyed 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 continual winds, often loosening up fasteners gradually if not maintained.
For long-term owners who wish to set it and forget it, effect windows give typhoon proof windows protection while preserving daylight and view. The convenience grows important once you have actually experienced one storm season with absolutely no prep beyond locking the sash.
South Florida homes combat two battles: latent load from humidity and sensible load from direct solar heat gain. Impact glass upgrades can help both if specified intelligently.
Low-E impact glass uses microscopically thin metallic layers to reflect infrared energy while letting noticeable light through. With the best finish stacks, you can obstruct a big part of convected heat and UV. UV blockage in laminated systems comes largely from the interlayer itself, which generally filters 95 to 99 percent of UV, minimizing fading of fabrics and floor covering. Add the low-E, and you suppress the solar heat that drives your AC insane midafternoon.
I examine glass specs with 3 numbers: U-factor, SHGC, and VT. While U-factor matters more up north, it still assists here by lowering nighttime heat flow and keeping the interior glass temperature closer to space temperature, which lowers condensation risk. SHGC drives how much solar heat enters. VT influences how brilliant the interior feels. Balance is key. Some house owners desire the crisp, clear appearance of greater VT, even if it indicates accepting a few 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 harsh light.
In useful terms, going from clear single-pane sliders to modern low-E laminated double-glazed systems can reduce peak solar gains by 30 to 50 percent on the most exposed sides. Couple that with tuned overhangs, light-colored exterior surfaces, and a properly sized variable-speed heating and cooling, and you begin to build durability. If the grid goes down and you change to a generator, a lower cooling load means a smaller generator and less gallons of fuel.
Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, or NOA, is the file you request for. It information the authorized setups, sizes, anchors, and pressures evaluated. It is not enough to hear "these are Miami-Dade approved windows" in a display room. Validate the NOA matches the specific model and choices you are purchasing, consisting of the glazing makeup and hardware. If you remain in Broward or Miami-Dade, your permitting office will want this paper trail.
Statewide, the Florida Item Approval system offers FL numbers that show code compliance. In the rest of the state outside the High Speed Cyclone Zone, Florida building code windows can count on Florida Item Approval without Miami-Dade specific NOAs. Many top producers carry both. Where spending plans enable, I choose NOA products even outside the zone because the testing is stiffer.
NFRC labels handle energy metrics. They won't inform you effect performance, however they show U-factor, SHGC, VT, and air leakage. Aim for air leakage at or listed below 0.3 cfm/ft ². Tighter is better for humidity control, however ensure your home still has balanced ventilation. Sealing the envelope and disregarding 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 expenses vary with size, shape, finish, and access. On uncomplicated single-family homes, per-opening costs often land in between 1,200 and 3,000 dollars for standard sizes. Big multi-panel sliders, custom arches, and coastal-grade surfaces raise the numbers quickly.
Where you recoup worth:
If you plan to own the residential or commercial property for five years or more, the mathematics typically tilts in favor of effect windows, particularly when you factor the intangible of peace of mind. If you prepare to offer within a year and require to reveal compliance rapidly, shutters might make more short-term sense. Context matters.
I take notice of hardware and devices. Multi-point locks on sashes and awnings enhance seal compression and security. For sliders, robust tandem rollers in stainless real estates glide smoother and last longer on sandy patios. Look at the sill design on sliding doors. Weep systems need to be crafted to drain heavy rainfall 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 contravene of neighborhood associations or produce mirror-like glare toward surrounding properties. In coastal ecosystems, extremely reflective glass can confuse birds or sea turtles in some jurisdictions. Local pros know which coverings balance performance with compliance.
Color stability is a big deal. Dark bronze or black frames look wonderful on contemporary homes, but in Florida sun inexpensive surfaces chalk and fade. AAMA 2605-rated finishes supply the very best color retention and chalk resistance. I specify them for seaside direct exposures whenever spending plans allow.
Historic districts often require profiles that mimic old wood sash sightlines. There are impact-rated windows that fit these requirements, but lead times extend and costs climb. Expect extra review by architectural boards, and line up a specialist acquainted with these submissions.
Condos have another layer of governance. Associations in some cases define a narrow list of authorized products for uniformity. They likewise care about noise control between systems. If your building sits directly on Collins Opportunity or deals with a hectic beach boardwalk, push for acoustic laminated alternatives. Deal with structure management on staging and lift access. Weekend work windows and limited parking can add days and dollars.
Large openings, like a 16-foot-wide slider, need special attention in design pressure, deflection, and operating hardware. Not every unit that looks durable in a showroom satisfies the wind loads on a ninth-floor veranda. Do not depend on catalog optimum sizes. Utilize the NOA tables that represent your site's zone, positive and unfavorable pressures, and mullion combinations if any.
The finest jobs start with a measured study and direct exposure analysis. You map each opening, keep in mind the substrate, and identify any framing irregularities or settlement fractures. During proposal, the contractor shows you the NOA and the Florida Product Approval, notes anchor types, and explains how each opening will be flashed and sealed. They plan for stucco or drywall repairs, not pretend no damage will occur.
On install day, they eliminate one opening at a time to keep the house protected. They protect floorings, draw back window treatments, and cap sprinklers. Old frames bring out care to maintain interior finishes. New systems get dry-fit, shimmed, and anchored per the schedule. The team checks squareness and diagonals before setting sealant. They photograph anchors for the permit file, especially if they will be hidden. After glazing, they water-test with a controlled spray to confirm drain courses and seals. The inspector sees a cool 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 secret rattle throughout thunderstorms. You did not need to require a roller adjustment after the very first week. That is the standard.
Impact rating does not equivalent breakproof. Laminated glass can split under serious effects, but it should remain in the frame and hold together. After a storm that sends out debris into the glass, you might see star fractures or spidering. The window did its task. Replace the sash or IGU after the event.
Window films do not convert non-impact windows into typhoon impact-resistant windows. They can include shatter resistance, but they do not alternative to a tested, anchored system. Your insurance company and building department will not count films as protected openings.
Interior humidity matters. Tight, energy-efficient impact windows minimize air leak. That's excellent, however it increases the significance of a correctly sized heating and cooling with excellent dehumidification. If your system is large, the thermostat satisfies rapidly and fails to pull enough moisture from the air. Ask your heating and cooling pro to examine practical heat ratio, airflow, and run time. You desire constant, longer cycles, not brief bursts.
Maintenance is straightforward but not optional. Tidy weep holes on sliders, wash salt spray from frames, and lube hardware every year with a silicone-based product that will not gum up in heat. Little habits extend lifespan.
There are legitimate reasons to mix solutions. A pair of seldom utilized garage windows can keep removable panels to shave budget plan. A deep-set porch with very little sun exposure may do great with accordion shutters if you focus on other upgrades like a brand-new roof deck attachment or a prepared garage door. Shutters can likewise protect outdoor kitchen areas or cabana openings where grease and smoke would age fancy hardware prematurely.
If you choose shutters, invest in quality. Stainless fasteners, smooth tracks, and motors with manual overrides for roll-downs make a distinction. Appoint duty for release and practice once beyond a storm watch. Inventory your hardware. The day you need 32 wing nuts is not the early morning you want to discover you have 29.
Impact windows are not only about surviving the huge one. They improve daily living. The living-room remains cooler and quieter. The AC cycles calmly instead of racing at 4 p.m. You sleep without freight trains of wind sound when a squall line passes at 2 a.m. When a cyclone threatens, your preparation list gets shorter. You lock the sashes, set storm mode on the alarm, and concentrate on people rather than panels.
For much of my clients, that intangible is the deciding element. They understand storms will come. They likewise understand life in South Florida is too great to live inside a fortress that only gets up in August. Miami-Dade authorized windows offer you both: a clear view of Biscayne Bay on a breezy February morning and peaceful confidence when the spaghetti models point our method September.
If you are weighing the option, start with a site-specific evaluation. Match your direct exposures to develop pressures, select the best laminated glass stack for wind and heat, select frames that fit the architecture and conditions, and employ a team that appreciates the load course. Done right, energy‑efficient effect windows provide what shutters can not: defense that never asks for a ladder and a better home every day of the year.