Impact vs Non Impact Doors: What Southwest Florida Homeowners Should Know Before They Choose
We get asked this almost every day in our Fort Myers and Naples showrooms, and it is a fair question. Nobody wants to pay for protection they will never use.
So here is the honest version, from the people who sell these doors, order them, and install them. What impact actually means, what it really costs, where it genuinely falls short, and the handful of situations where non impact is still the right call.
By Bonnie Doughty (Owner and CEO), Mia (Sales Manager), Erica (VP of Operations), and Scott (Production Manager). Serving Southwest Florida since 1996.
In This Article
The short answer
Roughly 95% of our clients choose hurricane impact rated. On a full door replacement, the difference usually comes out to between $800 and $1,000 depending on the design you pick. For that, you stop handling shutters, you keep natural light during a storm, you gain real security the rest of the year, and your opening is protected whether you are home or not.
The reasons to choose non impact are real, but there are only two of them: you recently installed a good automatic roll down shutter system that was properly permitted, or your budget will not stretch. Both are legitimate, and we will still help you.
What “impact” actually means
Non impact glass comes in two forms, and impact glass is built on a completely different principle. The difference is in what happens the moment something hits it.
The three kinds of glass you will find in a door
Type
How it is made
What happens when it breaks
Annealed
Standard untreated glass, common in older homes
Breaks into large sharp pieces. Genuinely dangerous.
Tempered
Heat strengthened, like the side windows in your car
Hard to break, but shatters into a pile of small pieces and leaves the opening wide open.
Laminated impact
Two panes with an interlayer melted between them, like your windshield
Can crack, but holds together in the frame. Wind and debris stay outside.
The difference is impact has a more substantial frame around the glass that is part of the package, as well as the laminated glass. That is what physically stops debris from getting into the home through the glass.
Scott, Production Manager
The glass is proven with a missile test. A 2×4 is fired at the glass at a regulated speed, several times, to confirm it does not penetrate.
One detail worth knowing about our doors specifically: most of our glass is decorative, so you are rarely looking at a single pane. A standard unit is usually two pieces of glass, a thick laminated impact exterior pane insulated with a tempered safety pane on the inside. Our decorative units typically run three pieces, with the leaded or etched panel protected in between.
What makes a door impact rated, not just the glass
This is where people get surprised. An impact rating does not belong to the glass. It belongs to the whole assembly, tested together.
Florida product approvals list every part and piece, and the unit has to be tested as a complete system. The glass, the frame, the door slab, and the jambs all have to be rated. The fastener type and screw pattern are specified. Even the door hardware is called out by name, and it varies by door and by manufacturer.
When we install, we have to make sure all of those details match to be able to get our impact rating.
Erica, VP of Operations
Every door replacement gets permitted, impact or not. After we install, an inspector comes out and checks the work against the product approval: screw patterns, screw length, gaps between the jamb and the bucking, the swing, the spacing. We leave the stickers on the glass and the label on the slab until after the inspection, so there is no question about what was installed.
If you are adding a decorative glass insert to a door you already own, the impact rating applies to the insert itself, not to the full door unit, because the existing door was never tested as part of that assembly. We will always tell you which one you are getting.
What we actually see happen to non impact doors in a storm
A lot of it has to do with the way they are installed. In doors we were tearing out from 20 years ago, they were just using nails, or randomly throwing screws in without a system. The door may hold up, but it might push out of the whole wall.
Scott, Production Manager
Then there is the glass. Anything can break non impact glass, and once it breaks, debris comes in and the pressure inside your house changes. That is the part people underestimate. A large enough opening with the wind blowing the right direction changes the design pressures of the whole home, and roofs come off that way.
Erica remembers one job well. The clients had non impact doors, and the double doors were blown off their hinges during the storm. They came home to find the doors in pieces in their driveway and the house full of leaves. We replaced the entry with an impact pre hung unit, and they have had no issues since.
We should add that it is not only hurricanes. We get tornadoes here too, and those arrive without warning.
Outswing or inswing, and why it matters here
Most of our clients from up north are used to doors that swing in, likely because of snow. In Florida you see more outswing doors, and there is a reason for it.
When the wind pushes against an outswing door, it presses the door into the jamb and the weather stripping, creating a tighter seal. An inswing door does the opposite. The wind pushes it away from the jamb. An inswing door also relies on a door sweep at the bottom, which is a fin that fills the gap between the threshold and the slab, and it is not as tight against water, air, and Florida critters.
If you see a TV show, a police officer can kick a door in. But they cannot kick an outswing door into the home.
Scott, Production Manager
What the price difference really is
When it gets down to it, there is really only an $800 to $1,000 price difference, depending on the design the client chooses. When you break that down, it is really not that much more when you are investing in a whole new unit.
Mia, Sales Manager
Impact vs non impact
$800 to $1,000
Single impact door
From $6,000
Double impact door
From $12,000
Those numbers move with your material (fiberglass, aluminum, iron) and with whether your glass is a standard design or custom. The price includes the door, the glass, the hardware, the trim, the permitting, and installation by our own crew. The only thing left for you is paint.
Now weigh that against shutters. If the power is out, you cannot open a motorized shutter. If you are a snowbird and you are not here in August, you are calling someone to put your panels up while your neighbors are busy doing their own. After the storm, you cannot get outside without taking everything down or going out through the garage.
If you already have shutters and want to keep them as a second layer, keep them. Many clients do.
And with Ian, we were all watching the news thinking it was going to Tampa. It turned our way at the last minute. That is the part that does not show up on a quote sheet.
Security and sound, the benefits that show up on ordinary days
Impact glass is laminated, which makes it very difficult to get through. Not impossible, but difficult enough to matter.
Scott has a good example. A client locked himself out of his house and went at his own sidelight with a hammer. It took about 20 minutes to make a hole big enough to reach through and unlock the door, and it was 20 minutes of noise, shaking, and destruction. An intruder gives up long before that and looks for another way in.
The same laminated construction also cuts outside noise down noticeably. For snowbirds who leave a house empty for months at a time, that combination of security and quiet is often what seals the decision, not the storm protection.
Insurance and home value, honestly
We are not going to promise you numbers we cannot back up.
On insurance: we do not have documented savings figures. We have heard from clients over the years that they did see a reduction, but it depends entirely on your carrier and what they credit. Upgrading all of your doors and windows to impact rated gives you the best chance of recovering some of the cost over time.
On home value: we have heard figures in the range of 3% to 5% for a home with impact rated doors and windows versus one without, but that is not something we can verify for your specific property. What we can tell you from 30 years here is that most buyers in Southwest Florida now expect some form of impact protection, and shutters are the version nobody wants to inherit.
The honest trade offs
Every product has them. Here are ours.
It costs more
Between $800 and $1,000 more on a typical door.
The door is heavier
Impact glass is substantially thicker, so the whole unit carries more weight. Most people like how a heavier door feels, but weight can cause a door to shift over time. We get ahead of it by adding longer hinge screws to at least the top two hinges, and often all four, so the door stays square and does not start rubbing or catching. We also install stainless steel ball bearing hinges on every impact door. Stainless because zinc hinges rust fast in this climate, ball bearing because the door needs to swing smoothly at that weight.
It can still break
Laminated impact glass is actually a little easier to crack than tempered safety glass. It is uncommon, but it happens.
It is not a fortress, and we will not pretend it is
Clients hear about impact rated products and think the glass is bulletproof. As Erica puts it, impact glass is designed to break in the event of an event. It is not that it will not break. It is that it will keep you safe if it does.
Breakage is not a warranty item
This one catches people. If your impact glass breaks during a storm and holds together, it did exactly what it was built to do. That is a homeowner's insurance conversation, and then we replace it. It is not covered under the product warranty, and we would rather you hear that from us now than later.
It is meant to stay where we put it
Impact glass is set with a heavy duty sealant, which is part of why it performs. The flip side is that if you ever want to swap the design out for a reason other than breakage, it is very hard to remove the glass intact. It rarely comes up, but choose your design with that in mind.
Who should choose what
Most people here should choose impact, and most people do. These are the situations where the decision gets made for you:
Condos and multi unit buildings.
If you are touching a door with glass, impact is generally required, so you are not compromising the integrity of the units next to you.
You already have impact windows.
Putting a non impact door in the same house undermines them. As Mia tells clients, it voids your windows if something were to happen.
Your municipality, HOA, or design pressure zone requires it.
Some do. We check before you order, and sometimes we have to explain why a client's preference is not an option in their neighborhood.
There is also a version of this where your windows are non impact and will stay that way. We still recommend an impact door, because it is your way in and out and your source of light. When every window is shuttered, the house is dark and you cannot see what is happening outside. Clients tell us for years afterward how unsettling that was.
And if the budget only allows non impact right now, that is still a real option, and we will do that job properly.
One rule worth knowing either way: permit the work. A permit is your proof the door was tested, inspected, and brought to code. When you sell, buyers look at what was permitted. There is a long standing 20% rule where replacing fewer than 20% of your openings may not trigger a full code upgrade, but every municipality applies it differently, so treat it as a question for us rather than a given.
If you live near the water
Coastal properties often fall into what is called an HVHZ, a high velocity hurricane zone. That covers much of the waterfront in Cape Coral, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Naples, Sanibel, and Captiva, plus homes within a certain distance of the water.
HVHZ doors are rated for higher design pressures. They sometimes require different locking systems, such as flush bolts or a multi point lock, and certain glass options are not available at those pressures. We work this out with you before you choose a design, so you are not falling in love with something you cannot have.
Lead Times, Permits, And What We Handle
Choosing impact does not add time. Our lead time is the same either way, because we are pulling the permit and doing the installation regardless.
In practice, impact can actually be faster. Impact inserts are stocked more readily in the warehouses around here, where non impact is not common. We also keep some impact product in stock for quick installs on standard pre hung doors and door inserts.
Here Is What We Take Care Of Once You Order:
How to tell what you already have
Two quick ways.
Tap it. Rap on the glass with a fingernail. Non impact glass sounds hollow and thin. Impact glass sounds like a thud. Solid, muffled, dense. It is easiest if you have both to compare, but you can usually hear it.
Send us a photo. In most cases Mia and our design consultants can tell from a clear picture, based on the construction and the age of the door, whether you have impact and what would work in its place.
Common questions
Are impact doors worth the extra cost?
Does impact glass ever break?
Will impact doors lower my insurance?
Can I keep my shutters if I switch to impact?
Do impact doors take longer to get?
Can I put a non impact door in a house with impact windows?
Is an outswing door really better here?
Is there sales tax on the job?
What happens next
Send us a photo of your entry. That is the fastest way to find out what you have and what will work, and it costs you nothing.
If you want to see and feel the difference, come by the showroom in Fort Myers or Naples. The weight of an impact door is something you understand in about two seconds once your hand is on it.
Once you choose a design, Scott comes out and measures in the field before anything is ordered. We would rather catch a surprise at your house than on install day.
