Impact Windows in Melbourne, FL

Impact windows for Melbourne homes do one job that ordinary glass cannot: they keep the opening closed when wind throws debris at the house. That matters on the Space Coast. When Hurricane Jeanne came ashore near Stuart on September 26, 2004, the strongest sustained wind measured anywhere in Florida, 91 mph, was recorded at the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, and about 120 people in the city had to move twice after the shelters they were in lost their roofs. Three weeks earlier Hurricane Frances had stripped 820 large metal panels off the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, just up the coast.

Many people here call them hurricane windows. The idea is the same. Each unit has two layers of glass bonded to a tough plastic interlayer, set in a heavy frame that is fastened into the wall. If something hits the glass, it can crack, but the interlayer holds the pieces and the opening stays closed. Keeping wind out of the house matters because once a window or door fails, air pressure inside the home rises and pushes up on the roof from below.

Why storms keep the question alive

The storms did not stop in 2004. During Hurricane Milton in October 2024, the National Weather Service reported gusts of 50 to 70 mph across Brevard County and as high as 80 mph closer to the coast. A wind tower at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral logged a gust of 76 knots, about 87 mph. A preliminary county assessment counted 405 structures affected, 33 of them with major damage. Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and on the Space Coast the storms that matter can come from either side of the state.

Impact glass or hurricane shutters

There are two ways to protect an opening. Impact windows and doors protect themselves, all year, with nothing to put up. Hurricane shutters protect the glass you already have, but someone has to close them before a storm. Shutters cost less per opening. Impact glass also cuts outside noise, blocks most UV and makes a forced break-in harder. Plenty of homes end up with a mix: impact windows on the main rooms, accordion shutters across a wide sliding door, and an impact-rated garage door.

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What the code asks for

Florida's statewide building code, now in its 8th edition, which took effect on December 31, 2023, sets the wind and impact rules. The strictest zone, the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, covers only Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Brevard falls under the standard Florida rules, where products carry a Florida Product Approval and are tested to ASTM E1886 and E1996, or to the Miami-Dade TAS tests. Inside the code's wind-borne debris region, openings up to 30 feet above grade need protection rated for large-missile impact. Whether a particular address falls inside that region depends on its mapped design wind speed and how close it is to the coast, so we confirm it for your lot before we pick products.

Permits in Melbourne and Brevard County

The City of Melbourne lists window replacement, door replacement and garage door replacement among the jobs that need a building permit, filed through its online EnerGov portal. Brevard County requires a permit for exterior doors, windows, garage doors and hurricane shutters on one and two family homes in unincorporated areas, with the Florida Product Approval and the maker's installation instructions for each product, plus a floor plan marking where each one goes. The county also wants a recorded Notice of Commencement when the job is over $5,000. Each other city we work in, from Palm Bay to Titusville, runs its own building department, and we file with whichever one covers your address.

Insurance and grants

Florida insurers give credits for documented wind-resistant features, and a wind mitigation inspection is how opening protection gets recorded. After the job, we give you the permit, product approvals and final inspection record so your inspector has what they need. The state's My Safe Florida Home program has offered free wind mitigation inspections and grants of up to $10,000 that can go toward impact windows and doors and garage door reinforcement. Funding rounds open and close, so check the program's site for its current status before you plan around it.

What a quote from us includes

Every estimate lists each opening by room, the size, the product line, frame color, glass type, the approval number and the price. Removal of old units, stucco and trim patching around the new frames, and permit fees are shown as their own lines, so you can compare our number with anyone else's line by line.

We install across mainland and beachside Brevard County: Melbourne, West Melbourne, Palm Bay, Viera, Rockledge, Merritt Island and Titusville on the mainland, and Melbourne Beach, Indialantic, Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach on the barrier island, plus Sebastian just over the line in Indian River County.

The homes change as you move around. Beachside, houses sit close to the open Atlantic with steady salt air, so we steer toward frames, hardware and shutter tracks that hold up near the ocean. Older ranch homes along the river in Melbourne, Rockledge and Merritt Island often have original aluminum single-pane windows and odd-size openings. Palm Bay, West Melbourne and Viera have many newer block homes with standard openings, and some neighborhoods have HOA rules about frame color and shutter style. Paperwork changes too: each city has its own building department, unincorporated areas go through Brevard County, and Sebastian's window and door handout calls for impact protection when more than 25% of a home's glazed openings are replaced within 12 months.