- 4.950 Google reviews
- 11 yrsInstalling since 2015
- 9,000+Windows & doors installed
- LicensedFL Lic. #CGC1530499
Impact windows, generally
What are impact windows?
Impact windows are windows built with laminated safety glass — two panes bonded to a clear plastic interlayer, usually PVB or SentryGlas — set in a reinforced frame and tested as a complete assembly. When something hits one hard enough to break it, the glass cracks but stays stuck to the interlayer instead of leaving the opening. The frame stays anchored and the building envelope stays sealed. That last part is the whole point: most catastrophic hurricane damage to a house happens after an opening fails and the pressure inside the house spikes.
Are impact windows worth it in Florida?
For most South Florida homes, yes — but the reason is usually not the one people expect. Storm protection is the headline, and it is real. The benefits that homeowners actually notice day to day are the noise reduction, which is dramatic on a busy road, and the insurance wind mitigation credit, which recurs every renewal for as long as you own the house. Set against that, impact windows cost meaningfully more than non-impact replacements and the payback runs over years, not months.
What is the difference between impact windows and hurricane shutters?
Shutters are cheaper to buy and have to be deployed before every storm; impact windows cost more and are permanently in place. Shutters protect the opening only when someone is home, physically able, and has enough warning to put them up — which is exactly the failure mode that catches people. Impact windows also deliver the noise reduction, the UV control and the security benefit year-round, none of which a shutter does. Both satisfy Florida Building Code for opening protection.
Do impact windows really reduce noise?
Yes, noticeably. The laminated interlayer damps sound transmission in a way a single pane or a standard insulated unit does not, particularly in the mid frequencies that carry traffic and aircraft noise. Homeowners near A1A, Federal Highway or a flight path routinely mention it unprompted as the benefit they did not expect. It is not soundproofing and nobody should sell it as such.
Do impact windows stop break-ins?
They make forced entry through the glass considerably harder. A laminated pane does not shatter out of the frame — an intruder ends up hammering at a sagging but intact sheet, in the open, for a long time. That is a strong deterrent, not a guarantee, and it is a side benefit rather than a reason on its own.
Code, approvals and permits
What is HVHZ, and is my home in it?
HVHZ stands for High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, the strictest wind-borne debris region in the Florida Building Code. Miami-Dade and Broward counties are entirely inside it. Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties are outside it, though they still sit in wind-borne debris regions with their own design pressure requirements. Being outside the HVHZ generally widens the range of approved products available for your home rather than lowering the protection standard.
What is a Miami-Dade NOA?
A Notice of Acceptance is Miami-Dade County's product approval — proof that a specific window or door assembly passed the large missile impact and cyclic pressure testing required in the HVHZ. It is the strictest approval in the United States, which is why products carrying it are accepted well beyond Miami-Dade. Outside the HVHZ, statewide Florida Product Approval is the applicable route.
Do I need a permit to replace windows in Florida?
Yes. Replacing windows or doors is permitted work in every South Florida municipality, and the permit has to be pulled by a licensed contractor with the product approval documents attached. We pull the permit, schedule the inspections and hand over the closed permit at the end. If a contractor offers to do the job without a permit, understand what that costs you: no inspection, no insurance credit, and a disclosure problem when you sell.
How long does permitting take in South Florida?
It varies a great deal by municipality — some turn around in days, others take weeks, and the same county can be fast in one city and slow in the next. We submit as soon as the final measure is done so permitting runs in parallel with manufacturing rather than after it. We will tell you what the current turnaround looks like in your specific municipality when we quote.
What are egress requirements and do they affect my windows?
Florida Building Code requires bedrooms to have at least one window that opens wide enough to escape through and to be reached from outside. That sets a minimum clear opening for the operable sash. It matters at replacement time because switching a bedroom window to a style with a smaller clear opening — a single hung in place of a casement, for example — can fail egress even though the rough opening did not change. We check every bedroom opening against it at the measure.
Cost, insurance and grants
How much do impact windows cost in South Florida?
Enough factors move the number that a range printed on a website is close to meaningless, and we would rather not publish one we cannot stand behind. What drives it: opening count and size, operating style (fixed glass is the cheapest per square foot, casements and specialty shapes the most), glass specification, frame material, whether the openings are at height, and how much stucco and trim work the tie-ins require. We quote from a real measure, itemised, at no cost.
Do impact windows lower my homeowners insurance?
Usually, yes — through the wind mitigation credit. After installation, a licensed inspector completes a uniform mitigation verification form (the OIR-B1-1802) recording your opening protection, and your carrier reprices the wind portion of your premium from it. The size of the credit depends on your carrier, your policy and your property, so treat any contractor quoting you a specific percentage as quoting someone else's renewal. Ask your agent what your own carrier allows before you buy.
What is My Safe Florida Home?
A state program that pays a share of the cost of qualifying wind-mitigation improvements — including impact windows and doors — on homesteaded Florida homes, after a free state wind mitigation inspection. It is a grant rather than a loan. Funding is appropriated by the Legislature in cycles and the program has opened and closed repeatedly, so check whether applications are currently open before planning around it.
Do impact windows increase home value?
In South Florida they are increasingly treated as expected rather than as an upgrade, which is a real effect even if it is hard to put a figure on. A buyer comparing two similar homes reads impact-protected openings as one fewer immediate expense and a lower insurance quote of their own. We are not going to attach a percentage to that — anyone who does is guessing.
Is it cheaper to replace all the windows at once?
Per opening, generally yes. Mobilisation, permitting and the crew's setup are largely fixed costs that get spread across the job, so a whole-home replacement costs less per window than doing four now and six next year. The wind mitigation credit is also the strongest argument for doing everything at once: most carriers require every glazed opening to be protected before the best opening-protection classification applies.
Products and specification
Aluminium or vinyl frames — which is better in South Florida?
We install aluminium as the default here. Aluminium is stiffer, which lets it carry larger spans of glass in narrower sightlines — and South Florida homes are full of big openings where a vinyl frame would need heavier profiles or an extra mullion to hit the same design pressure. Vinyl has the better thermal number on paper, but in a climate where the cooling load is dominated by solar gain through the glass, the glass specification moves your energy bill far more than the frame material does.
What brands of impact windows do you install?
We are an authorised installer for ECO Window Systems and Mr. Glass, both manufactured in South Florida. Working with a small number of manufacturers we know well is deliberate: it means we know the lead times, the hardware, the failure modes and the warranty process rather than learning them on your job.
What glass options are there and which should I choose?
The three decisions are the interlayer, the coating and whether the unit is insulated. PVB is the standard laminated interlayer and is right for most homes; SentryGlas is stiffer and used where design pressures or spans demand it. A low-E coating cuts solar heat gain and is the single change that most affects comfort and cooling cost in this climate. Insulated laminated units add a second sealed pane, which helps thermally and acoustically but costs more and weighs more. We will spec it against your actual elevations rather than selling the top of the range by reflex.
How long do impact windows last?
The frames and laminated glass are long-lived — decades in normal service. What ages first is hardware and seals: rollers, locks, balances and the perimeter sealant. On coastal properties, salt exposure accelerates hardware wear, which is why we specify marine-grade hardware on jobs near the ocean and the Intracoastal rather than treating it as an upsell.
Can impact windows be installed in a condo or a high-rise?
Yes, with an extra layer of process. Condos and HOAs almost always maintain an approved product list and an architectural review, and the association's approval usually determines the product before the building code narrows it further. Higher elevations also carry higher design pressures. We handle the association submission alongside the permit.
Working with ClearView
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. ClearView Impact Systems holds Florida Certified General Contractor licence #CGC1530499 and carries liability and workers' compensation coverage. The licence is free to verify on the Florida DBPR licence search and we would encourage you to check it — for us and for everyone else you are getting a quote from.
Do you use subcontractors?
Installation is done by our own crews. This is the question we would put at the top of the list when comparing contractors in this market, because subcontracted installation is common and it is where accountability tends to disappear — the sales company blames the crew, the crew blames the product, and the homeowner is in the middle.
How long does the whole process take?
Typically 4–7 weeks from order to delivery on the manufacturing side, with permitting running in parallel, then a few days on site for a whole-home job. The variables that move it are municipal permit turnaround, HOA approval where one is involved, and manufacturer backlog, which lengthens noticeably as hurricane season approaches.
What areas do you serve?
Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and St. Lucie counties. We come to you — measuring and specifying has to happen at your home to be worth anything, so that is where the appointment is. The office runs by appointment as well if you would rather come to us.
What happens if something goes wrong after installation?
Call us. The products carry manufacturer warranties which we register on your behalf, and our installation work is warranted separately — the two cover different failures and it is worth understanding which is which before you need either. Because we install with our own crews, a workmanship issue does not require us to locate a subcontractor who moved on two years ago.
How many reviews do you have?
50 Google reviews at 4.9 out of 5, plus verified homeowner reviews on Angi where we rate 5.0. Both are linked from our reviews page and both go to the live listing rather than to excerpts we selected.
Still deciding?
The pages below go deeper than an FAQ answer can — how the insurance credit is actually calculated, how the state grant works, and what each window and door style suits.