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 method next-door neighbors track tropical waves, the pre-storm rush to stock up, and the routine of hauling ladders to mount panels. After 20 years specifying, installing, and repairing building envelopes from Key Largo to Palm Beach, I have actually seen what holds up and what doesn't. When the goal is real protection with year-round comfort, Miami-Dade authorized, energy‑efficient impact windows outperform shutters in ways that surpass storm day. They change how a house feels in August, how quiet your living room stays on a Saturday night, and how positive you are when a storm line spins up faster than predicted.
This is a useful take a look at why numerous South Florida house owners are moving from shutters to cyclone impact-resistant windows, how to check out the standards behind "Miami-Dade authorized," what products matter, and how to get the installation right the first time.
Miami-Dade County's Item Control Division sets one of the hardest criteria in the country for constructing components exposed to windborne particles. Approval is not a marketing sticker label. It is made through particular lab tests that mimic real typhoon conditions.
First comes big missile impact. A 9-pound 2x4 is contended the glass at roughly 34 miles per hour. That simulates roofing tiles, branches, or pieces of fencing that fly in the eyewall. After the impact, the exact same system faces cyclic pressure loading, thousands of pressurization and depressurization cycles that mimic fast wind gusts over hours. If the glass remains in the frame without letting the envelope breach, it passes. The distinction in between "satisfies Florida building regulations windows" and "Miami-Dade approved windows" typically lives in these test thresholds. Miami-Dade is merely stiffer, particularly in High Speed Hurricane Zone requirements, that include Miami-Dade and Broward.
Wind rankings vary by opening size and style pressures, represented as PSF values. On ocean-facing homes or high-rises, I frequently specify systems ranked at +60/ -80 PSF or greater. Inland or in more secured direct exposures, rankings in the +45/ -60 PSF range can suffice, but you size and specification based on the website's wind map, constructing height, and surrounding structures. A professional understands that a corner exposure at the second story needs various reinforcement than a protected window under a deep porch.
Hurricane shutters vs effect windows is not a one-to-one contrast. Shutters can fulfill code, and they're much better than nothing. However 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 live in location. You get continuous security, even if a pop-up storm surprises you while you're stuck on United States 1. You likewise get advantages every day of the year.
Noise control is the most underappreciated advantage. Laminated impact glass is basically a sandwich: two panes of glass bonded by a durable interlayer, generally PVB interlayer glass or SentryGlas. That interlayer damps sound. On tasks along hectic corridors like Biscayne Boulevard or near flight paths, I have actually determined interior noise drops in the 5 to 10 decibel range, sometimes more when coupled with insulated glass units.
Security enhances due to the fact that laminated glass withstands forced entry. A robber can shatter the outer lite with a hammer, but the interlayer holds the fragments. They fulfill a sticky, persistent membrane instead of a fast path inside. Insurance underwriters understand this, which is why policies frequently offer credits for impact doors and windows. In my jobs, premiums generally drop 10 to 25 percent, depending upon the provider and how many openings are protected.
Energy performance is the third pillar. Energy-efficient impact windows with contemporary low-E impact glass and warm-edge spacers can cut solar heat gain while maintaining visible light. That suggests less a/c demand, specifically on west and south exposures where the afternoon sun penalizes interiors. In one Coral Gables retrofit, we replaced 1980s single-pane sliders with laminated low-E impact systems. Summer season afternoon peak load visited approximately a lots of cooling, and the home's annual electrical power use fell between 12 and 18 percent. Results vary with shading, attic insulation, and HVAC performance, but the instructions is consistent.
Laminated impact glass is the heart of the system, but not all laminated items are equal.
Most property hurricane windows use a PVB interlayer glass stack, frequently 0.030 to 0.090 inches thick in single or several plies. Thicker interlayers improve impact resistance and sound control, but they add weight and cost. impact window ratings For oceanfront or high openings, you may see SGP (ionoplast) interlayers, which are stiffer and more powerful than PVB, enabling thinner sections to attain higher style pressures. For noise-sensitive websites, acoustic PVB formulations tweak the polymer to much better soak up sound in the 1,000 to 3,000 Hz range, where traffic and voices sit.
Tempered glass windows show up typically in discussions because tempered glass is more powerful in flexing than annealed glass. That holds true, and tempered lites are typically used as the outer or inner ply in an effect system. However tempered alone is not impact-resistant in the hurricane sense. When it stops working, it explodes into small cubes and falls out of the frame, which leaves the opening vulnerable. The effect performance originates from laminated building and construction, not tempering by itself. Many systems utilize a tempered external lite laminated to an annealed inner lite, or both tempered, but always bonded through a PVB or ionoplast interlayer.
Low-E coverings 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 greater. Go too low on SHGC and the glass can look gray or green, especially in larger openings. The sweet spot depends upon your exterior orientation and shading. On east and west elevations, I often tighten up SHGC and accept a minor tint to handle early morning and afternoon blasts. On north elevations, I favor greater visible transmittance for daylighting.
Frames are the other half of the story. Aluminum frames dominate here since they deal with large openings and won't swell. Thermal breaks and improved glazing gaskets have actually narrowed the energy space with vinyl. Top quality vinyl effect frames, when reinforced properly, can carry out well for standard-sized openings and have better insulating worths, however I avoid them for really broad sliders or high storefront-style windows in high-wind zones. Wood-clad systems look lovely in older Mediterranean Revival homes, but they demand cautious maintenance and wise flashing. The Florida sun ruins cheap vinyl and chalks low-grade aluminum finishes rapidly. Look for powder-coated finishes ranked for seaside exposure, and request composed guarantee information in salt-air environments.
Window installation can make or break efficiency. A costly unit set up like a handyman swap-out will not pass a storm's stress test. The load path is the crux. Effect forces need 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 solid product. Hollow cells must be grouted or you require 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 alignment matter so the locks engage cleanly and the weatherstripping compresses evenly.
The sealant joint is not simply aesthetic. An appropriately sized backer rod and premium polyurethane or silyl-modified polymer sealant produce a resilient, flexible seal that deals with thermal expansion. Too little a bead and it tears under motion. Too big and it cures inadequately. On coastal jobs, I never match different metals without a barrier, and I constantly define corrosion-resistant fasteners. 10 years later on, 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 vital. If you rely on sealant alone, water will find its method. That wetness may disappoint up as a drip. It might rot a sill plate gradually, then betray itself as a buckling flooring or a moldy smell two hurricane 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 stored carefully can safeguard homes efficiently. They also help in certain cases.

Second homes or seasonal leasings where budget plan is tight in some cases lean on shutters to meet the Florida building code windows requirement for protected openings. On specialized openings like a lanai that is hardly ever utilized in summertime, a tidy motorized roll-down can be sensible, particularly if pairing with effect windows and doors elsewhere stresses the spending plan. For house owners who prepare to move within a year, shutters can be a short bridge to compliance before a sale.
But shutters bring trade-offs. They darken the house when deployed, and they require action at precisely the time you are managing insurance coverage documents, gas cans, and household logistics. During Cyclone Irma, I saw a neighbor try to install steel panels hours before landfall. The ladder sank in saturated soil, a panel slipped, and we spent the next hour in the immediate care waiting space. He survived with stitches. His living room window did not. Shutters likewise rattle and can vibrate under continual winds, in some cases loosening fasteners gradually if not maintained.
For long-term owners who wish to set it and forget it, impact windows offer cyclone proof windows protection while protecting daytime and view. The benefit grows valuable once you have actually experienced one storm season with zero preparation beyond locking the sash.
South Florida homes battle two fights: latent load from humidity and sensible load from direct solar heat gain. Effect glass upgrades can help both if specified intelligently.
Low-E effect glass utilizes microscopically thin metal layers to show infrared energy while letting noticeable light through. With the ideal covering stacks, you can block a large portion of convected heat and UV. UV obstruction in laminated systems comes mostly from the interlayer itself, which generally filters 95 to 99 percent of UV, decreasing fading of materials and flooring. Include the low-E, and you suppress the solar heat that drives your AC crazy midafternoon.
I assess glass specifications with three numbers: U-factor, SHGC, and VT. While U-factor matters more up north, it still assists here by reducing nighttime heat flow and keeping the interior glass temperature level closer to room temperature, which decreases condensation risk. SHGC drives how much solar heat goes into. VT influences how intense the interior feels. Balance is essential. Some property owners want the crisp, clear appearance of greater VT, even if it suggests accepting a couple of degrees more heat in late afternoon, since their landscaping and roof overhangs already do some shading. Others choose a stronger tint for glare control on waterfront lots that show severe light.
In useful terms, going from clear single-pane sliders to modern low-E laminated double-glazed units can minimize peak solar gains by 30 to 50 percent on the most exposed sides. Couple that with tuned overhangs, light-colored exterior surfaces, and an appropriately sized variable-speed a/c, and you start to construct strength. If the grid goes down and you change to a generator, a lower cooling load indicates a smaller sized generator and less gallons of fuel.
Miami-Dade Notification of Approval, or NOA, is the document you request. It information the approved setups, sizes, anchors, and pressures evaluated. It is not enough to hear "these are Miami-Dade authorized windows" in a display room. Validate the NOA matches the exact model and options you are purchasing, including the glazing makeup and hardware. If you are in Broward or Miami-Dade, your allowing office will desire this paper trail.
Statewide, the Florida Item Approval system supplies FL numbers that show code compliance. In the remainder of the state outside the High Velocity Cyclone Zone, Florida building code windows can depend on Florida Product Approval without Miami-Dade particular NOAs. Numerous leading producers carry both. Where budget plans permit, I prefer NOA items even outside the zone due to the fact that the screening is stiffer.
NFRC labels deal with energy metrics. They won't inform you impact efficiency, but they reveal U-factor, SHGC, VT, and air leakage. Aim for air leak at or listed below 0.3 cfm/ft TWO. Tighter is better for humidity control, but make certain your home still has actually balanced ventilation. Sealing the envelope and ignoring fresh air is a recipe for indoor air quality complaints.
Impact windows cost more in advance than shutters. There's no spin around that. Installed expenses differ with size, shape, surface, and gain access to. On uncomplicated single-family homes, per-opening expenses often land between 1,200 and 3,000 dollars for basic sizes. Big multi-panel sliders, custom arches, and coastal-grade finishes raise the numbers quickly.
Where you recoup worth:
If you plan to own the residential or commercial property for five years or more, the math 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 show compliance quickly, shutters may 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 housings move smoother and last longer on sandy patio areas. Look at the sill design on moving 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 style. Reflective movies can run afoul of neighborhood associations or produce mirror-like glare towards neighboring residential or commercial properties. In seaside communities, highly reflective glass can confuse birds or sea turtles in some jurisdictions. Local pros understand which finishes balance efficiency with compliance.
Color stability is a huge offer. Dark bronze or black frames look wonderful on modern-day homes, however in Florida sun low-cost finishes chalk and fade. AAMA 2605-rated coverings supply the best color retention and chalk resistance. I specify them for coastal exposures whenever budget plans allow.

Historic districts often require profiles that mimic old wood sash sightlines. low-E tempered glass There are impact-rated windows that fit these requirements, however lead times extend and costs climb. Anticipate additional review by architectural boards, and line up a contractor acquainted with these submissions.
Condos have another layer of governance. Associations in some cases define a narrow list of authorized items for harmony. They likewise care about sound control between systems. If your building sits straight on Collins Avenue or deals with a hectic beach boardwalk, push for acoustic laminated choices. Work with structure management on staging and lift access. Weekend work windows and minimal parking can include days and dollars.
Large openings, like a 16-foot-wide slider, need special attention in style pressure, deflection, and running hardware. Not every unit that looks strong in a showroom fulfills the wind loads on a ninth-floor balcony. Do not count on catalog optimum sizes. Use the NOA tables that correspond to your website's zone, positive and negative pressures, and mullion mixes if any.
The finest jobs begin with a determined study and exposure analysis. You map each opening, note the substrate, and recognize any framing abnormalities or settlement cracks. Throughout proposition, the contractor shows you the NOA and the Florida Product Approval, lists anchor types, and explains how each opening will be flashed and sealed. They prepare for stucco or drywall repair work, not pretend no damage will occur.
On install day, they eliminate one opening at a time to keep your house safe. They secure floorings, pull back window treatments, and cap sprinklers. Old frames bring out care to protect interior surfaces. New units get dry-fit, shimmed, and anchored per the schedule. The team checks squareness and diagonals before setting sealant. They photograph anchors for the license file, particularly if they will be hidden. After glazing, they water-test with a controlled spray to verify drain paths and seals. The inspector sees a neat jobsite, clear labels, and documents in order.
Six months later, your windows still close with two fingers, locks bite smoothly, and there is no secret rattle throughout thunderstorms. You did not have to require a roller change after the first week. That is the standard.
Impact rating does not equivalent breakproof. Laminated glass can crack under extreme impacts, but it must stay in the frame and hold together. After a storm that sends particles 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 transform non-impact windows into typhoon impact-resistant windows. They can include shatter resistance, but they do not replacement for an evaluated, anchored system. Your insurer and building department will not count movies as safeguarded openings.
Interior humidity matters. Tight, energy-efficient impact windows lower air leak. That's excellent, however it increases the significance of an appropriately sized a/c with excellent dehumidification. If your system is large, the thermostat pleases quickly and stops working to pull enough moisture from the air. Ask your a/c pro to examine reasonable heat ratio, airflow, and run time. You desire constant, longer cycles, not short bursts.
Maintenance is uncomplicated but not optional. Clean weep holes on sliders, wash salt spray from frames, and oil hardware yearly with a silicone-based product that will not gum up in heat. Little routines extend lifespan.
There are legitimate factors to blend services. A pair of hardly ever utilized garage windows can keep removable panels to shave spending plan. A deep-set porch with very little sun exposure might 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 also safeguard outside kitchens or cabana openings where grease and smoke would age expensive hardware prematurely.
If you select shutters, buy quality. Stainless fasteners, smooth tracks, and motors with manual overrides for roll-downs make a distinction. Assign responsibility for implementation and practice as soon as outside of a storm watch. Inventory your hardware. The day you need 32 wing nuts is not the early morning you wish to find you have 29.
Impact windows are not only about surviving the huge one. They improve daily living. The living room stays cooler and quieter. The air conditioning cycles calmly instead of racing at 4 p.m. You sleep without freight trains of wind noise when a squall line passes at 2 a.m. When a typhoon threatens, your preparation list gets shorter. You lock the sashes, set storm mode on the alarm, and concentrate on individuals instead of panels.
For a number of my customers, that intangible is the deciding aspect. They know storms will come. They also understand life in South Florida is too great to live inside a fortress that only wakes 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 way in September.
If you are weighing the choice, start with a site-specific evaluation. Match your exposures to develop pressures, choose 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 deliver what shutters can not: protection that never asks for a ladder and a better home every day of the year.