When it comes to your home, you want to have maximum security against the outside forces. This way, you can rest easy knowing that it will stay firm in the face of all kinds of severe circumstances. As you survey the current state of your house, you may find that your windows and sliding doors are weak points in its defenses. These structures may separate your rooms with glass, but this can easily leak or shatter, effectively making them wide openings that leave your home vulnerable. Since Florida is known to experience hurricanes, you need to invest in impact-resistant windows and sliding doors that will be able to protect you from the harshest of storms. The special glass that they’re composed of will allow them to shield your home’s interior from other factors that normal windows can’t stand up to. We’ll look at the differences between traditional and impact-resistant glass to show you how the latter is far superior.
Impact-Resistant Glass Is Laminated and Strong
To understand how impact-resistant glass can attain its many impressive characteristics, you need to know about how its structure is distinct from other run-of-the-mill alternatives. Impact-resistant glass is made up of multiple layers of glass. Between the layers, there is a plastic-like film that is also known as a laminate. The laminate layer holds the impact glass together when large forces hit the window or door. While the outer layer of glass may shatter from a heavy impact, the laminate layer and the other layer of glass remain intact. Certain impact-resistant glass varieties, such as our burglar-proof glass, may also undergo tempering. Manufacturers can heat glass to make it more compressed or tempered. This process increases the durability of the glass layers themselves around five to ten times over what they were before. If they do shatter, the resulting pieces are smaller and less jagged than those that normal glass breaks into.
Impact-Resistant Glass Can Flex
Another cool feature of impact-resistant glass windows is that is absent in traditional glass is its ability to flex under pressure. Normal glass is more prone to shattering when strained because it is so rigid that it breaks far before it bends. In contrast, impact-resistant glass will move up to several inches when wind and air pressure vacillate drastically. This impressive amount of give helps the glass gain even greater endurance when bad weather come around. Having such a feature is crucial for preserving the integrity of your home because open windows can make way for changes in air pressure during fierce storms to tear off the roof entirely.
Impact-Resistant Glass Is Energy-Efficient
Normal glass can allow a great deal of heat transfer to occur between your home’s interior spaces and the outdoors. Glass accepts heat from air as it moves across it on one side, then this heat naturally migrates to the opposite side where there is cooler air. When sunlight strikes a window or sliding glass door, the heat from the rays can enter your home. You don’t want this because it can force your HVAC system to work harder as it tries to offset unwanted heat gains in the summer and heat losses in the winter. Not only does a lot of heat transfer strain the system, but it also leads to energy waste and increases your utility bills. In light of this, the benefit of having impact-resistant glass is that it is energy-efficient. Because of its material composition and multilayered design, it is much better at insulating your home than regular glass. You also have the option of tinting impact-resistant glass so that you can diminish the warming effects of sunlight to a negligible degree.
Durable Frames Reinforce Impact-Resistant Glass
Since traditional glass does not call for special attention itself, you can likewise expect that the frames that accompany it will not be the most impenetrable. Often, small gaps exist around them that allow air to flow through even when they’re closed, further exacerbating the flaws that the glass already has. You may find that water gets inside your home via the windows and sliding doors when it rains and that heat transfers across them rapidly. A poorly designed frame may also be more likely to break when it faces the forces of weather and flying objects. Conversely, impact-resistant glass goes hand-in-hand with durable frames. These frames have reinforced structures that form tight seals when shut and that match the strength of impact-resistant glass.
Burglars Can’t Break Through Impact-Resistant Glass
Tempests aren’t the only things that can shatter regular glass windows and sliding doors—burglars can also break them with relative ease. Often, it’s difficult to get past a locked doorway, so criminals may tend to target windows and sliding doors when they want to gain entry into your home. If you want to shield your belongings from thieves and maintain the personal safety of yourself and your family, impact-resistant glass is a far better option than traditional glass. A person armed with a hard weapon, such as a hammer or bat, won’t be able to strike through impact-resistant glass because the laminate layer and backing layer of glass won’t fall apart. Before the burglar can do much more, you’ll be able to respond to the sound of their attempt.
Impact-Resistant Glass Is Valuable for Homeowners
Some differences between traditional and impact-resistant glass relate to more incorporeal, yet still highly important factors for you as a homeowner. For one, the Florida Building Code, or FBC, mandates that all homes that sit at a distance of one mile or less from the shore must have hurricane-proof windows. It also makes strong recommendations for homeowners whose properties are farther from the water to obtain impact-resistant windows because of the frequency of unforgiving weather across the state. Should you follow this and install impact-resistant glass for your windows and sliding doors, you could potentially see lowered premiums in your insurance policy. Moreover, an advantage that applies to all homeowners is the fact that having impact-resistant glass will increase property value. Regular glass will not meet FBC regulations nor give you any of these benefits.
So, after learning about the differences between traditional and impact-resistant glass, don’t wait any longer and call Florida Window & Door Solutions now to get impact-resistant windows in Orlando. We also offer impact doors made of the same glass.
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