Why a DIY or Handyman Install Can Void Your Impact Rating and Your Insurance Discount
“Can I just buy the door from you and have my guy install it?”
We hear some version of this every month in our Fort Myers and Naples showrooms. Sometimes it is a homeowner who is genuinely handy. Sometimes it is a retired contractor who wants a project. Most often it is someone in the middle of a remodel whose builder gave them one package price that already includes installation.
All of those are fair questions, and we are not going to pretend the answer is always no. There are places where doing it yourself makes complete sense, and we will tell you exactly where those are.
But an exterior door in Southwest Florida is not a weekend project. It is a permitted, inspected, engineered assembly, and almost everything that makes it impact rated happens in the opening, not in the door. Here is the honest version from the people who sell these doors, order them, and install them.
By Bonnie Doughty (Owner and CEO), Mia (Sales Manager), Erica (VP of Operations), and Scott (Production Manager).
In This Article
A door is not impact rated. An installation is.
This is the part almost nobody knows walking in.
A door passes testing as a complete assembly: the door, the glass, the hardware, the frame, and the specific way it is anchored into your wall. Buy the right door and fasten it wrong, and you do not have an impact rated opening. You have an expensive door.
Every impact product comes with a Florida Product Approval or a Miami Dade NOA, and the installation instructions attached to it typically run around 20 pages. Those pages tell us how long every screw has to be, how far apart the screws go, which fasteners are allowed, what glass is permitted, and which hardware is approved. There is a full spec sheet of allowed materials for that specific product, and all of it has to match.
Use drywall screws and two things happen. The permit fails inspection. And if something actually hits that door, it is not going to hold.
Scott tears out doors regularly that were held in place by two small screws or a couple of nails. The homeowner never knew, because it was all hidden behind the trim.
One important exception
When we add a decorative glass insert to a door you already own, we can provide documentation for the glass and frame we supplied, because that insert is impact rated. We cannot certify the whole door unit, because we did not build or install the door it went into. We say this up front on every insert job.
What the product approval actually requires
The approval governs more than screws. It covers anchors, fasteners, spacing, shims, bucking, and sealant. These are the steps a handyman skips most often, and what each one costs you later.
The step
What goes wrong when it is skipped
Correct fasteners and spacing
The approval names the screw length and how far apart they go. The wrong fastener fails inspection, and fails again in a storm when it matters.
Shimming within the limit
You cannot stack shims to make a door fit. Scott has pulled doors with an inch of shim on each side. If the opening is the wrong size, the opening gets retrofitted with new bucking, not more shims.
Sound bucking behind the frame
If there is rot or past water damage, we go back to the furthest solid point with new lumber and plywood and build forward. Anchoring into soft material is anchoring into nothing.
Sealing under the threshold
The single most skipped step we see. A handyman caulks the outside edges and calls it done. What is missing is construction adhesive under the threshold, which is the water barrier at the bottom of the door. You find out when it rains sideways.
Insulating behind the jambs
Almost no door we tear out has any insulation at all. We spray foam behind every frame. Clients notice immediately, because the house gets quieter. Same door, different install, completely different result for sound, air, and bugs.
Composite jambs and trim
Wood is cheaper and easier to work with in the field, and in this climate it eventually rots. We use composite on every job. It is harder to install and it lasts.
Permits, and what happens when nobody pulls one
Yes, replacing an exterior door requires a permit in Lee and Collier counties. We deal with roughly 20 permitting municipalities across our service area, including Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, City of Naples, Marco Island, and Punta Gorda, and every one of them has its own process and its own requirements.
We are a licensed contractor, so we pull the permit for you. Florida also allows an owner builder permit, so a homeowner legally can pull their own. What comes with it:
- Product approvals and wind load calculations
- The permit application and the Notice of Commencement
- Submitting everything through that municipality's portal
- Scheduling the inspections
- All the back and forth with the permitting agency
Can you do it? Sure. Erica does it all day long and would still tell you it is not worth the headache for the fee we charge.
If you skip the permit entirely, three things follow. You can be fined. Any licensed company that installs without one risks its license, which is why a contractor who does not mention permits is telling you something about themselves. And when you go to sell, a permitted and inspected door adds value, while an undocumented one works against you. It cannot be counted as an impact upgrade if there is no record that it exists.
What the inspector actually checks
We leave the trim off the screw holes so the inspector can get to them. They will:
- Back out a frame screw and measure it
- Pull a strike plate screw, which has to be longer than what comes in the box
- Check the hinge screws, at least one 2 inch screw per hinge, and we usually add more for weight
- Confirm the glass is laminated
- Operate the door and check light gaps and weather stripping
That last part matters. The inspector is not just protecting the code. They are protecting you, by confirming the door actually works.
In 30 years we have had inspections where a screw was missed or landed in the wrong spot, and we went back and fixed it. That is what the process is for.
Insurance and the wind mitigation discount
We will be straight with you: insurance carriers handle this differently. Some want written documentation. Some send someone out to look. We cannot tell you what your specific carrier will accept.
What we can tell you is what homeowners call us for. When they are going through the wind mitigation process, they call and ask for the product approvals for what we installed, and we send them. Sometimes the proposal stating the glass is hurricane impact is enough. Usually they want documentation.
Here is where a DIY or handyman install breaks down. If we did not install it, we cannot document it. We have no way to confirm it was put in to the approval, so we cannot certify anything. And if there is no permit, there is no inspection record either. You are asking an insurance company to give you credit for protection you cannot prove you have.
That is the honest mechanism behind the headline. It is not that someone revokes your discount. It is that you never had the paperwork to earn it.
Your warranty
Manufacturer warranties cover the product when it is installed to the manufacturer’s specifications. Install it some other way, and the warranty can be reduced or void entirely.
A real example that has nothing to do with impact ratings: doors need to be painted after installation. We have had clients choose not to paint, then come back two years later with the skin delaminating and a warranty claim. That is not covered, because the manufacturer's instructions were not followed.
We also warranty our own installations. Worth asking whoever you hire whether they warranty theirs, and who you call when the door needs an adjustment six months in.
What we actually find in the field
The one year old door in a brand new build
It passed inspection. It was still wrong. The door rubbed, and air and light were leaking through. When a frame is racked that badly, you cannot adjust your way out of it. We replaced the whole unit on a house that was barely finished. Track builders slap doors in, and we see the results constantly.
The sidelight installed backwards
A client bought an iron door from another company that told him they were pulling permits. They did not. They installed the sidelight backwards, the whole thing was flimsy, and his HOA refused to approve it because there was no permit. Mia is replacing it now with an iron door that will pass. He is paying for the same entry twice, and he told her he wishes he had come to us first.
The online iron door
A client found a cheaper iron door from an online retailer, had it shipped to the house, and hired a handyman to install it. The glass arrived broken. It was a retrofit door with mounting tabs, which the handyman drywalled over, so the inside wall was bumpy. The door itself was flimsy. We tore it out and installed a new one. It was beautiful when we finished, but he paid twice, lived through the project twice, and the second demolition was more destructive because it meant ripping out a brand new installation.
The holes nobody could see
We pulled a door with double sidelights and found that underneath the sidelights there was no concrete at all, just open voids about 10 inches deep. We filled them before setting the new unit. The homeowner had no idea, because it was sealed up behind trim.
On cost, here is what you are protecting.
$7,000 to $25,000
Full door replacement, supplied and installed
$8,000 to $28,000
Custom iron door, plus installation
Twice
What a failed install costs, because the second one includes tearing out the first
How to tell if your door was installed badly
You do not need tools for most of this.
You can hear outside noise you should not hear
Bugs or lizards are getting in around the frame
You can see daylight around the edges
The door swings open or closed on its own when you let go
You have to pull it closed to get the lock or thumb latch to engage
The door rubs the frame anywhere in its travel
Any of those usually means the frame is out of square, out of plumb, or racked.
Where DIY is genuinely fine
We are not going to tell you never to touch a door. Two places where it makes sense:
Interior doors
No permit required, and an interior door is not the primary protection for your home. You can still rack the frame and end up with a door that rubs, but the worst case is a functional annoyance, not a safety or code issue.
Hardware swaps
Most hardware goes in without drama. Two warnings. Handing matters, and it is easy to buy the wrong one or buy more than you need if you do not understand which piece is interior and which is exterior. And it takes longer than you think. Bonnie has tried this herself and been an hour in on something our crew does in 10 minutes.
Two practical things people underestimate on anything bigger. First, transporting glass. People show up to pick up an insert in a sedan with no plan for getting it home intact. Second, tools. We carry thousands of dollars of equipment made specifically for this work. A drill and good intentions is not the same thing.
And if you are doing an insert yourself, remember you are cutting into your own door. Measure three times.
If you are set on hiring your own installer, ask these
We would rather you do this well than not at all. Ask any installer, including us:
Are you licensed and insured?
Nobody should be working on your house without both.
Are you pulling the permit?
If they do not bring it up, that is your answer about whether they know or whether they care.
Walk me through your installation method.
Specifically: what fasteners, what spacing, are you sealing under the threshold, are you insulating behind the frame, what trim are you using.
What is included in this price?
A flat quote to install a door often is not.
What is your installation warranty, and who do I call if it fails inspection or needs an adjustment?
Check their reviews and the Better Business Bureau.
If something goes wrong after they have been paid, you want someone who answers the phone.
Who is responsible for the materials?
This one matters if you are buying from us and installing elsewhere. Once product leaves our warehouse, damage and loss are no longer ours. If we install, we stand behind it.
You can also simply ask us for the product approval on any door you are considering. The installation instructions are right there in it, and you can hold your installer to them. We will send it whether or not you buy from us.
Why our installers are our employees
Most companies in our market subcontract installation, and there is a clear financial reason. When they are busy they add subs, and when they are slow they do not pay them. It is cheaper than carrying a crew.
We carry the crew. In a slow stretch we find our guys internal work rather than letting them go, and that cost sits with us. We do it because it is the only way to promise in the showroom what actually shows up at your house.
Our installers sit in our team meetings and work from the same core values as everyone else. They are trained internally, new hires start as helpers and work up, and we track skills on a versatility matrix so the right people are on the right installs. The training covers what to do when things go right and what to do when they do not.
Here is what that buys you. We once had glass arrive that was not impact when it was supposed to be. The installer caught it on the spot and said something, and we made it right before it ever went in a wall. A subcontractor paid a flat rate per door has no reason to make that phone call. Piece rate pays for speed. Our crew is hourly and paid well, because sometimes doing it right means slowing down.
What our crew does that you never see
- Quality control inspection when product arrives, and an audit against the order
- A second check during loading
- A third check on site the morning of the install
- Floor and furniture protection, and full cleanup
- Following the permitted instructions to the letter
- On insert jobs, tweaking and adjusting your existing door and replacing worn weather stripping, so the door works better than it did when we arrived
- Leaving the permit packet behind for the inspector, and then with you
Your Design Consultant handles the front end of this, including providing your HOA with our certificate of insurance and contractor license before anything starts. Some HOAs here want to see the permit pulled before work begins, which we are happy to do.
