If You Are Phasing Your Project, Order Matters
Full perimeter protection — every window and every door impact-rated — is the goal. But for many homeowners, the project happens in phases. If that is your situation, the order you tackle things matters for insurance savings, storm safety, and budget.
Why Doors Are Often the Right Starting Point
Your entry doors, sliding glass doors, and French doors are typically your largest and most vulnerable openings. They represent the most surface area for wind pressure to act on, and a door failure during a hurricane allows pressure into the home that can take off the roof.
From an insurance standpoint, opening protection is evaluated as a whole. But inspectors and underwriters look closely at large openings — and getting your primary entry and sliding doors done first often delivers a meaningful improvement in your wind mitigation score.
The Case for Windows First
If your home has a large number of single-pane windows that are older or in poor condition, starting with windows may make more sense — particularly if you have several that are borderline on structural integrity.
For homes in the HVHZ where every opening must be upgraded anyway, the sequencing matters less than getting started.
What We Recommend in Most Cases
Start with your largest and most exposed openings — typically your front entry door, rear sliding glass doors, and any large picture or impact-adjacent windows facing prevailing storm exposure. Then work through the remaining windows.
This approach maximizes your early insurance benefit and addresses your highest-risk openings first.
The My Safe Florida Home Program: Budget Both Together
If you are considering phasing your project, consider this first: the My Safe Florida Home program offers matching grants of up to $10,000 for hurricane mitigation improvements — and both impact windows and impact doors qualify.
Completing both in a single project may allow you to maximize your grant benefit, simplify the permit process, and get to full opening protection — and the maximum wind mitigation discount — in one step rather than two.
Ask us about MSFH eligibility when you contact us for a free quote.