A quality impact window can be installed badly, and a careful installation can be wasted on the wrong product. Homeowners are handed a label and a smooth sash and asked to believe the rest. You do not have to be a glazier to see the difference. You do have to look at the anchors, the water path, and the paperwork, not only the glass.
Florida Impact Windows & Doors installs to the product approval. In Miami-Dade and Broward that approval is a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance for the configuration in the opening. The NOA is not a vibe. It names fasteners, spacing, substrates, and sometimes a specific buck or anchor clip. A crew that "has always done it this way" with a different screw is not installing the product you bought. The contractor checklist helps you pick who shows up. This is what to look at once they do. The printable contractor checklist is the longer version of those questions.
The label has to match the opening
Every unit should carry a permanent label or etching you can tie to the approval on the permit. Our guide to reading the sticker covers the fields. On install day, the series on the label should be the series on your contract, and the size should be the opening that was measured, not a smaller unit buried in foam and caulk. Design pressure on the label has to meet what the permit asked for at that location. A legal impact window with too low a pressure is still the wrong window.
Operable sashes should lock without forcing the frame. Reveals, the sightline around the sash, should look even. A sash that only closes if someone lifts one corner is a frame out of square or a rough opening that was never corrected. Impact glass is heavy. Rollers and hinges that were adjusted on day one should still be adjusted, not painted shut with sealant.
Water is a flashing problem before it is a glass problem
South Florida leaks show up at the joint between the frame and the wall more often than through the laminated glass. A proper opening has a sill pan or an equivalent back-dam, flashing that laps the right direction, and a sealant joint that is a joint, not a smear that bridges from stucco onto the weep holes. Weep holes and drainage slots have to stay open. Burying them in stucco or caulk is one of the clearest signs of a rushed finish. If you can see foam stuffed in the gap and then painted, ask how the water that gets past the exterior seal is supposed to leave.
On block-and-stucco houses, the stucco should be cut back far enough to anchor and flash, then patched to a clean line. A bead of caulk over the old fin, with the new window set in the same failed opening, is not a replacement. It is a cover-up. Interior wood returns or drywall should not be closed up until the exterior of that opening is dried in. Our installation-day overview is the sequence. If the sequence on your job is "set all the glass, caulk everything Friday," ask where the pan and the flashing happened.
Fasteners, substrate, and the inspection
You will not count every anchor, and you should not have to. You can ask the lead installer to show you the anchor pattern on one opening before it is covered, and you can ask which page of the NOA that pattern comes from. Wood bucks in an old opening need to be sound. Anchoring into punky wood or into a thin stucco skin, instead of into the masonry or the structural substrate the approval names, is a fail even if the glass is excellent. Corrosion-resistant fasteners belong near the coast. A bright screw that is already streaking on a Hollywood or Fort Lauderdale beach job is the wrong fastener.
The building inspector is the formal check, not a substitute for watching the work. Be there if you can, or have someone there, for the final. The inspector is comparing the installed products to the permit set. A passed final is what you want in the file next to the approvals, both for your own records and for a later wind-mitigation visit. A job that never pulled a permit cannot pass a final. That missing paper shows up when you sell or when you file the 1802.
After the crew leaves
Walk every opening the same day. Locks, screens if they were included, and the operation of sliders and casements. Look outside at the sealant lines in daylight, not only at the glass from the sofa. A few scuffs happen. An open weep, a missing anchor cover, or a sash that hits the frame is a punch-list item, and it is easier before the crew is on the next street. Window replacement is not finished when the old glass is in the truck. It is finished when the inspection is closed and the opening sheds water.
If you are mid-project with another company and something looks wrong, you can still ask for the approval sheet and a photo of the anchors before the stucco closes. You do not have to accuse anyone. You only have to compare what is in the wall with what the approval drawing shows. A crew that will not show you that page is telling you something. A crew that will is usually the one that followed it.
If you want that standard on your house, request a free estimate or call (754) 600-4876.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Miami-Dade NOA sticker mean the window was installed correctly?
No. The sticker identifies the product. The installation is the anchors, flashing, and substrate named in that approval. A passed final inspection is the check that the two matched.
What is the most common leak after a new impact window?
Water at the frame-to-wall joint, often from a buried weep, a missing sill pan, or sealant smeared over the drainage path. The laminated glass itself is rarely the leak.
Should I be home for the final inspection?
If you can, yes. The inspector is comparing labels and the installation to the permit. It is also when leftover punch-list items are easiest to point out.
Is extra caulk a sign of a careful installer?
Not by itself. A neat, correctly placed joint is good. Caulk piled over weep holes or used to hide an unflashed gap is a problem, not a bonus.