Everything You Need to Know About Your Garage Door’s WindCode Rating
Florida has a lot to offer — lovely weather, warm temperatures, beautiful beaches and a low cost of living. It also has a few unpleasant things, like hurricanes. Some of the more catastrophic storms that have struck Florida over the years include Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Fortunately, things have come a long way since Hurricane Andrew. Andrew destroyed almost 63,000 homes in Florida and damaged an additional 100,000. It wasn’t that Florida didn’t have building codes — it’s just that they were seldom enforced. Andrew changed all that. New codes were introduced, and enforcement became more stringent.
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Among the new codes introduced over the years was the wind code. It’s a measurement designed to determine a structure’s ability to resist wind. Garage doors now must meet certain standards when it comes to wind resistance. All installed garage doors in South Florida need to comply with the regulations and standards concerning hurricane resistance.
In the past, wind-resistant garage doors needed to be built in a way that required you to install beams and supports every time a hurricane or tropical storm occurred and then remove them to use the door again. New garage doors have adequate support structures designed into the door which can resist both positive and negative pressures created by a hurricane or other wind-related events.
Positive pressure occurs when the wind is blowing against your door, and negative pressure is when the wind acts in such a way as to pull or suck your door outwards.
While the damage from Katrina and Irma was heavy, it would have been much worse without the newer South Florida building codes including the Florida WindCode for garage doors.
Table of Contents
- A Guide to Wind-Resistant Garage Doors
- What Is the WindCode Rating for Garage Doors?
- What Does It Mean If a Garage Door Has a High WindCode Rating?
- Am I Required to Have a Wind-Resistant Garage Door?
- What Is Wind-Borne Debris?
- What Is a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone?
- What Areas of Florida Are Typically Hit Hardest During Hurricanes?
- Why Is It Important to Follow WindCode Rating Regulations in Florida?
- What’s the Difference Between Wind-Resistant Doors and Other Hurricane-Proofing Strategies?
- Can I “Hurricane-Proof” My Existing Door?
- Tips for Finding a WindCode-Rated Garage Door in Florida
- What Garage Door Styles Are Most Popular for Florida Homes?
- Where Can I Get Pricing for WindCode-Rated Garage Doors?
A Guide to Wind-Resistant Garage Doors
Garage doors perform the crucial job of protecting your home, especially if you live in a hurricane-prone or high-wind region such as South Florida. It might be easy to assume any garage door will do the job, but that’s not the case. High winds can cause garage doors to fail, allowing hurricane-force winds to enter your home. This can allow an unstable buildup of pressure, causing windows to blow out and the roof to blow off.
To prepare for hurricane season, you need to install wind-resistant garage doors. You may also hear them referred to as hurricane-resistant garage doors or impact-resistant garage doors. These doors are the best way to help protect your home from this type of damage.
Whatever the name, these doors have the same purpose — to endure high winds and protect your home. Some hurricane-rated garage doors can withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour, which is more than a Category 5 hurricane.
Many customers have questions about what wind-resistant garage doors are, how they work and how to select the right garage doors for your location. We’ve created this guide to answer some of the most commonly asked questions about wind-rated garage doors.
What Is the WindCode Rating for Garage Doors?
When you want to buy a garage door for your home, it’s essential that you know its WindCode rating since all garage doors in South Florida need to be hurricane-rated.
WindCodes have a range, from a W-1 for a one-or two-story structure that can withstand winds up to 90 mph, a design pressure minimum of 12 pounds per square foot (PSF) and a test pressure of 19 PSF to a W-9 for a two-story structure that can withstand winds at 150 mph winds, a design pressure of 54 PSF and a test pressure of 81 PSF.
Test pressure is measured at 150 percent of the required design pressure.
1. How Much Wind Your Garage Door Can Withstand
Determine the minimum wind speed requirements in mph that your door needs to be able to resist based on your location in South Florida. You can find this out by visiting the Applied Technology Council’s page on wind speed, which shows the different minimum wind speeds your door needs to be able to withstand throughout Florida. Wind speeds are calculated in 3-second gusts in miles per hour at 33 feet or 10 meters above ground level. This is normally the height that is used at airports to determine wind speeds.
In Florida, garage doors should be able to withstand anywhere from 120 to 180 miles per hour.
2. Exposure Zone
You need to determine your home’s “exposure region.” South Florida has three categories of exposure regions:
- Exposure B: These are urban and suburban areas, wooded spaces and other terrain containing many closely spaced obstructions.
- Exposure C: This refers to open terrain with obstructions scattered about in flat open ground grasslands. This classification includes all of Broward and Miami–Dade County, except as may be indicated in Exposure D.
- Exposure D: This includes all structures that are within 600 feet of the ocean or any other large body of water that measures at least 5,000 feet across.
3. Home’s Structural Type & Orientation
Is your home one-story or two-story? Does it face North, South, East or West? The direction of the wind and the orientation of your house both affect whether your garage door experiences positive or negative wind load pressure. Wind load ratings are expressed in pounds per square foot. These ratings can be both positive and negative. That’s because most wind events generate both types of pressure. The direction of the wind and the orientation of your house both affect whether your garage door experiences positive or negative wind load pressure.
- Positive wind pressure: Wind loads that try to push the garage door into the house
- Negative wind pressure: Wind loads that try to pull the garage door away from the house
Wind-resistant garage doors can be built to withstand more than 50 pounds per square inch of positive or negative pressure. This level of pressure is usually associated with large hurricanes, and it may be more than your jurisdiction requires.
4. Your Garage Door WindCode Rating
Using these elements – wind speed, structural type and exposure classification – you can determine your applicable WindCode “W” rating and design pressure. Garage door design pressure is measured in PSF and needs to exceed the pressure of the opening where the garage door will be installed.
An easier way to find out about the WindCode rating for your area is by using the Clopay WindCode Calculator. Put in the values you discovered and click on the calculate button to get a good idea about your WindCode rating. It’s only an approximation. So it’s always a good idea to contact the building code official in your area who has the final say on what your garage door’s WindCode rating needs to be.
What Does It Mean If a Garage Door Has a High WindCode Rating?
Your WindCode will be lower or higher (from W-1 to W-9) based on where you live in Florida and the type of structure that you live in. If you have a one-story house in the north of Florida, your garage door will not need a WindCode rating as high as a two-story home in the Miami-Dade County area of Florida.
Am I Required to Have a Wind-Resistant Garage Door?
How wind-resistant your garage door needs to be depends on where you live. The best way to find out is to contact your local building department to ask about building codes governing garage doors. Many locations have special building codes requiring wind-resistant garage doors that can withstand minimum amounts of wind.
Cities and states across the U.S. have adopted the International Building Code (IBC), which requires homebuilders to design and build homes to withstand minimum wind loads in their area. The IBC also applies to replacement garage doors.
The following states have special requirements for how much wind a garage door can withstand:
- California
- Florida
- Kansas
- Missouri
- Nevada
- Utah
The states listed above have higher requirements because they have both terrain and weather that contributes to more frequent and stronger sustained gusts of wind. Windborne debris is also of great concern in Florida so garage doors need to be Impact-Rated as well as Wind-Rated.
What Is Wind-Borne Debris?
Wind-borne debris is anything blown about by the wind. This could be as small as a leaf or as large as a tree depending on the strength of the wind.
To protect against wind-borne debris, some areas of Florida also require large missile impact-rated windows in a garage door. The farther south you live in Florida and the closer you live to the shore, the more likely that your home will be located in the wind-borne debris region.
An impact rating means that a garage door has been tested to see how it stands up against large missile impacts. To determine these ratings, a 2-by-4 piece of wood is shot out of a cannon at a test garage door three times. To gain the rating, the door cannot have any holes larger than 3 feet in diameter after the impacts and must still be operable. It was originally only required in Dade County but is now used more frequently throughout Florida.
What Is a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone?
The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) standards are part of the Florida building codes. The HVHZ specifically covers Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. All garage doors in these counties need to meet the large missile impact rating even if the garage door does not contain any windows. You cannot get standard garage door windows at all in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
What Areas of Florida Are Typically Hit Hardest During Hurricanes?
The areas of Florida determined to be hardest by hurricanes in order are:
- The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area in Southeast Florida
- The Florida Keys and Key West
- The Fort Miles-Naples area in Southwest Florida
- The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater-Sarasota area of West Florida
- The Melbourne-Cocoa Beach area of Central Florida Atlantic coast
- The Pensacola-Panama City area for the Florida Panhandle
Why Is It Important to Follow WindCode Rating Regulations in Florida?
When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, it was one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. Shockingly, analysts attributed more than 80 percent of the damage caused by the storm to the failure of garage doors.
1. Security and Safety
One of the first questions homeowners ask is why wind-resistant garage doors are important. Garage doors that are wind-resistant, impact-resistant or hurricane-proof protect against heavy winds. They’re a storm-ready solution that prevents the wind from entering your home.
Standard garage doors are a weak point in the exterior of the house. Older wood or vinyl doors can buckle easily in high winds. Also in high winds, nearby objects like tree branches, patio furniture or loose siding can impact or puncture garage doors.
Once a garage door is damaged, the entire house is susceptible to wind pressure. Windows and doors are often blown out by gusts of wind, and wind pressure can weaken roofs and walls, causing significant structural damage.
The most effective strategy for preventing wind damage to your home is to install a wind-resistant garage door.
Wind-resistant garage doors are constructed with at least one layer of steel. The type and thickness of this layer affect the maximum wind speed the door can withstand. Many doors include layers of insulation, aluminum or wood paneling as well.
How can you tell if your garage door is hurricane-proof? Impact-resistant garage doors also have heavier-gauge track than standard garage doors. Many wind-resistant garage doors feature the newly patented tapered strut, or “T-strut,” design. This is a pleasing minimalist garage door reinforcement strut with the same wind-resistant power as our previous reinforcement strut.
2. Insurance
You pay higher insurance costs to live in hurricane areas of the country like Florida. So it’s nice to be able to do something to reduce those costs. Insurance companies will frequently offer lower rates for WindCode-rated garage doors, especially if the doors meet wind-borne debris requirements even if not required in your area. Installing a new WindCode-related garage door that includes meeting large missile impact codes could very well reduce your insurance premiums. Check with your home’s insurance agent for more details about the effect that Windcode-related doors can have on your home insurance costs.
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What’s the Difference Between Impact-Rated Garage Doors and Other Hurricane-Proofing Strategies?
Wind-resistant doors are the most convenient way to storm-proof your garage door. Once installed, they require no additional setup from you — the homeowner — during a storm. Because they’re always in place, you won’t need to waste time setting up panels before storms.
We consider wind-rated storm doors a “storm-ready” solution. By contrast, “add-on” solutions require a homeowner to install something before each storm strikes.
Wind-resistant garage doors have two big advantages over add-on strategies for hurricane-proofing:
- Durability: These doors are designed using steel panels and heavy-duty hardware, making hurricane code doors significantly more durable. By contrast, garage door braces rely on the integrity of your old existing lightweight door to function properly.
- Convenience: Once installed, wind-resistant garage doors require no further setup. You’ll save time and money by not having to install panels before a storm and then having to remove them later.
Storm-ready solutions like wind-resistant garage doors are a particularly good choice if you own a rental or vacation home as well. You’ll have the peace of mind that your home or investment is protected — even if you’re not there.
How to “Hurricane-Proof” My Garage Door
Many people ask how they can “hurricane-proof” their existing garage door. Most garage door hurricane-proofing solutions are add-on strategies that are less effective against storms. They also tend to be more labor-intensive and less aesthetically appealing. Although these strategies can help, they are not an effective way to protect the things you value most — your home and family — and what’s more, insurance companies will not offer home insurance premium discounts for these types of upgrades either.
In general, there are two alternatives to wind barrier doors:
Braces
One of the most common short-term strategies for hurricane-proofing is adding braces to your existing garage door. These braces are installed vertically or horizontally behind the garage door and locked in place before a storm. Most braces are made of aluminum or steel, and they are placed into brackets on the floor, above the lintel, or on the sides of the garage door.
Hurricane Panels
The other option is to install hurricane panels over your existing door. These panels are similar to what’s usually installed on residential doors and windows. They’re most commonly made of steel, aluminum or polycarbonate.
Like other hurricane panels, the homeowner installs these garage door panels before a storm and removes them after the storm. They’re installed via tracks on the side of the garage door and anchored in place. Unlike braces, storm panels are installed on the outside of the garage door.
It’s important to note that not all these options are available in all areas. Other states and regions have less stringent wind rating standards because the likelihood of being exposed to hurricane-force winds is not as great.
In Florida, however, the standards are extremely high. Garage doors are regularly exposed to much stronger winds and flying debris. Because of this, the Florida Building Commission requires all garage doors sold in Florida to meet appropriate WindCode ratings.
Tips for Finding a Hurricane-Rated Garage Door in South Florida
A little research can help you find the best WindCode rated garage door for your home:
- Looking into the wind load requirements for your area and check to see if your garage door meets the requirements. Local building code officials can provide updated information, or a technician from The Doorman can do an on-site inspection.
- You should check your garage door, especially if you didn’t buy it. If you have recently moved into your home and you did not buy your garage door or have it installed, have a garage door technician check it to see if it is the right code for your area.
- Adding new hardware to an old door will not provide the support needed to meet local building codes.
- Understand the difference between add-on reinforcement and “Storm Ready.” As we noted above, add-on doors require you to place posts in the floor and the ceiling to reinforce the door during a windstorm and then remove them afterward to operate the garage. A storm-ready door from Clopay requires you to do nothing in advance. Your door is already reinforced, and all you need to do before a storm is lock it. This is especially helpful to owners of vacation homes and rental properties because they know that their home is protected and the garage door is secure the moment it’s locked.
What Garage Door Styles Are Most Popular for Florida Homes?
We think curb appeal is important. It’s one of the reasons we offer entry doors that coordinate with our garage doors. We have a wide selection of modern and contemporary garage door collections that are Windcode-rated for your area of South Florida.
Our wind-rated garage doors are available in several different styles:
- MODERN STEEL™ Collection: If you have a contemporary home, you may want to consider the steel doors in our Modern Steel Collection™. These garage doors are ideal for contemporary as well as older modern homes. They feature either a flush or a grooved steel panel design. It’s a solid door that holds up well against the sometimes harsh weather of South Florida.
- Reserve Wood Collection LIMITED EDITION: These doors feature a handcrafted four- or five-layer construction that includes energy-efficient insulation and offers a warm look exemplified by natural wood.
Canyon Ridge Modern Series
These doors feature four-layer steel and composite construction faux wood overlays. It is for buyers who like the look of wood but want to avoid the warping or rotting that can result from the humidity in South Florida. Models in the series include:
- CANYON RIDGE® collection ULTRA-GRAIN® series: Many wind-rated doors include overlays of wood or faux wood. We also offer steel doors with an Ultra-Grain® finish, which is a durable, natural-looking wood-grain finish. Just like other garage doors, wind-rated doors can be painted with a variety of stains and finishes.
- CANYON RIDGE® collection LIMITED EDITION series: These unique carriage house doors are not only beautiful but are made with an Intellicore Insulated steel base with a faux wood exterior of composite cladding and overlays. The doors in this series are attractive and energy efficient.
- CANYON RIDGE® collection MODERN series: These modern doors are made of a durable composite material that is low-maintenance and won’t rot or crack in the humid Florida weather. They also a beautiful faux wood finish.
We also offer a variety of carriage house-style garage doors and classic doors.
Wind-resistant doors can also feature a variety of designer hardware to fit your home’s architecture. Just like standard doors, panels on wind-rated garage doors can be copied or embossed.
Where Can I Get Pricing for WindCode-Rated Garage Doors?
Are you looking to install a new garage door? Are you concerned about finding a door that meets the appropriate WindCode rating? If you live in Florida and are wondering where you can find a door to meet your needs, look no further than The Doorman. All our doors are WindCode-rated in accordance with local regulations and standards for hurricane resistance.
Here at The Doorman, we not only sell garage doors, but we also offer installation so you can be sure the work is being done correctly the first time around. We pride ourselves on offering fast, friendly and reliable service, so you can get what you need when you need it.
To see for yourself, stop by our showroom in Boca Raton during our regular business hours, Monday through Saturday between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Contact The Doorman today or call us at 561.600.9606. We’re happy to answer any and all of your questions about our WindCode doors or to give you an estimate for an upcoming project.
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Updated: 04/25/2019
