Impact Windows
Impact Windows in Hollywood & South Florida.
Hurricane-rated, HVHZ-approved impact windows, sold, installed, and serviced by a licensed local team out of Hollywood, FL. One contractor from measurement to county inspection.
FL Licensed & Insured
Why South Florida Demands Impact
Impact windows aren't an upgrade in South Florida, they're how the code says your house should be built.
An impact window is a single assembly: a heavy aluminum or composite frame holding a laminated glass unit, two panes of tempered glass bonded around a clear PVB or SentryGlas interlayer. When something hits it at 150+ mph, the outer glass can crack, but the interlayer holds every shard in place. The opening stays sealed. That's the whole point: in a hurricane, the failure mode that destroys a house is a breached envelope. Once the pressure equalizes inside, the roof lifts. Impact glass is what keeps that from happening.
South Florida is the only region in the country governed by the High Velocity Hurricane Zone provisions of the Florida Building Code. HVHZ covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties end-to-end, and the rules are deliberately stricter than the rest of the state. Every glazed opening, windows, doors, skylights, has to pass large-missile impact testing (a 9-lb 2x4 fired at 50 fps), plus 9,000 cycles of pressure loading, before it can be sold or installed here. Products are tracked by individual Miami-Dade NOA (Notice of Acceptance) numbers, and the inspector will pull those numbers off the sticker before he signs off.
Who's it for? Anyone with single-pane glass, anyone with shutters they're tired of putting up, anyone whose insurance carrier just non-renewed them, anyone in a condo that's requiring the building to come up to code, and anyone in a 1970s or 80s home where the original aluminum frames are leaking air and water on a regular Tuesday. If you're inside HVHZ and your openings aren't impact-rated, you are either grandfathered, shuttered, or out of compliance, and you are paying for it on your homeowner premium every year.
Broward vs Miami-Dade: same HVHZ code, different permitting personalities. Broward (Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale) tends to move faster on residential permits, most of our jobs there clear in 7 to 14 days. Miami-Dade (Aventura, North Miami, Miami proper) runs longer review queues and stricter HOA layers, especially on coastal high-rises. We pull permits in both counties weekly and know which reviewer is going to ask what. That's months off the front end of your project.
What We Install
Product lines we trust on every job.
We install every major impact-rated brand: PGT, CGI, ES Windows, WinDoor, Mr. Glass, SIW, Aldora, AirMaster and more. If it carries a Miami-Dade NOA, we install it. The lines below are the workhorses we spec most often.
All products carry Miami-Dade NOA approvals
PGT WinGuard
Aluminum & Vinyl Series
Florida's most-installed impact line. Aluminum frames for coastal and high-rise; vinyl for inland insulation gains. NOA covers virtually every common configuration, fixed, single-hung, horizontal roller, casement, picture, architectural shapes.
CGI Sentinel
Estate & Targa Series
Hollywood-made, premium architectural aluminum. The line we spec when an HOA wants narrower sightlines or a homeowner wants near-frameless picture windows without giving up the impact rating.
ES Windows
Prestige Series
Heavy-commercial grade aluminum used on Miami high-rises. The right answer for oversized openings, full-wall glass walls, and any opening where the engineer wants extra design pressure headroom.
A note on glass packages: standard laminated impact glass is roughly 7/16" thick (1/8" + .090 PVB + 1/8"). For coastal and bedroom openings we usually upgrade to a 9/16" or 1" insulated laminated unit, a sealed argon-filled IGU with the laminated pane on the exterior. You get the same HVHZ impact rating plus measurable gains in U-factor (heat) and STC (sound). On a house under a flight path or on a noisy A1A corridor, the sound difference alone justifies the upgrade.
Our Process
From first call to final inspection.
Typical timeline from signed contract to final county inspection: 5 to 9 weeks. Product lead times drive the schedule, standard PGT configurations ship in ~4 weeks; custom CGI and ES Windows orders run 6 to 8. We confirm the install week the day the truck leaves the factory.
- 01
Free in-home consultation
We visit your home, measure every opening, walk through product options, and answer code questions on the spot. No high-pressure sales, just a working conversation about what your house actually needs.
- 02
Measure & written quote
Final field measurements are turned around in 2 to 3 business days as a line-item written quote: product, glass package, frame color, install labor, stucco/drywall repair, and disposal, all itemized so you can compare apples to apples.
- 03
We pull the permits
Modern Window Solutions pulls Broward or Miami-Dade building permits in our license, including HOA submittals when needed. You sign once; we handle the rest of the paperwork with the city.
- 04
Installation
Our W-9 crews, not subcontracted day-labor, remove the old units, prep the buck, install per the NOA, and re-stucco or re-trim every opening. Drop cloths inside, daily clean-up, and we live in the area, so we're easy to reach during the job.
- 05
County inspection & final walkthrough
We schedule the county inspector, meet them on site, and then walk every opening with you. Lock function, screen fit, weep holes, caulking, nothing closes out until you sign off.
Insurance & Savings
The premium drop is real, and it's documented.
Most quotes within 48 hours
Florida statute 627.0629 requires every admitted homeowner carrier to give you a documented discount for verified wind-mitigation features, and impact-rated glazing on 100% of openings is the biggest line item on that form. We've watched clients shave 25 to 45% off their annual premium after a full impact retrofit, with the highest savings going to homes built before 2002 in zip codes east of I-95.
The way it works: after install, you hire a state-licensed inspector to complete the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802). He checks roof shape, roof deck attachment, roof-wall connection, secondary water resistance, and, the big one, opening protection. To get full credit on opening protection, every glazed opening in the envelope has to be HVHZ large-missile impact rated. One bedroom window left untreated kills the discount on all of them. We design every quote with that in mind.
It matters even more if you're with Citizens Property Insurance. Citizens is the state-run insurer of last resort and they've been aggressively re-underwriting and depopulating policies, meaning if you can show a clean wind-mit form with full impact protection, you're far more likely to get picked up by a private carrier at a real-market rate instead of getting stuck on Citizens at the cap. We'll send you a copy of every NOA sticker we install so your inspector and your agent have everything they need.
FAQ
Straight answers to the questions we get every week.
Service Areas
Installing impact windows across Broward & Miami-Dade.
Same crew, same standards, every job. Pick your city for permit notes, HOA-friendly options, and recent work nearby.
Free Quote
Hurricane season won't wait.
Tell us about your project. A specialist will reach out within one business day.
What do you need?
Pick the closest match. We'll narrow it down on the call.
FL Licensed & Insured · Most quotes within 48 hours
Prefer to talk? Call (786) 651-0377