Houstonians know the ever-present risk of hurricanes or severe summer thunderstorms all too well. Fortunately, in addition to stockpiling emergency supplies and preparing your home, you can take the additional step of upgrading to hurricane-proof windows. This preventive measure will go a long way toward keeping your home, loved ones, and belongings safe.
Milestone’s hurricane impact windows are designed to stand up to high-speed impacts, high winds, and torrential rain. Houston homeowners can rest easy knowing it’s nearly impossible for these windows to break during a hurricane. But don’t jump to upgrading without a good understanding of how hurricane windows work and what else they can do for you! Let’s take a closer look.
Why Do You Need Hurricane-Proof Windows?
Hurricanes bring high winds and torrential downpours, both of which can cause severe damage to your home. The rain can prove especially problematic. If a window shatters or cracks and allows rain inside, the water can cause permanent damage to your belongings and the inside of your home. Worse, once the storm has cleared, broken windows are attractive targets for thieves. Don’t let your older windows put you in either bad situation! Hurricane windows are designed to withstand the risks of severe storms and keep your home’s interior safe and dry.
Even aside from hurricane protection, hurricane windows offer other advantages. Their durable laminate glass not only stands up to high winds or downed tree limbs during a storm, but can also endure break-in attempts and even help to reduce noise by a noticeable margin. Best of all, some home insurance providers will reward you with a discount for installing hurricane windows! Switching to a set of hurricane impact windows is an excellent choice on multiple fronts.
Pro Tip: Talk with your home insurance agent about a possible rate discount if you install hurricane impact windows.
Features of Hurricane Windows
Impact certified hurricane windows are modern, energy-efficient dual pane windows in which one pane is made of a special impact laminate glass. The laminate glass consists of two pieces of glass heat-bonded to either side of a tough vinyl material in the middle. Though this vinyl layer is completely transparent and thus invisible, it’s specially designed to avoid breaking even under extreme impacts from flying debris. This keeps wind and rain out of your house regardless of what damage the storm is doing outside. Meanwhile, the laminate glass also blocks over 99% of all UV rays and improves the noise reduction performance of a window or door.
In addition, to meet the windspeed and impact requirements, many products such as Alside’s vinyl impact windows and doors have steel-reinforced frames.
Safety Testing & Standards
Every window and door used in a designated TDI windstorm zone must pass Design Pressure (DP) tests to show they can withstand hurricane-level windspeeds and wind-driven rain without any structural failure or leaks. Certified impact windows using laminate glass must pass these same windspeed tests in addition to even tougher tests. These higher-level tests consist of firing 8-ft long 2×4 studs at 34 mph from an air cannon and ensuring the windows suffer no damage. If with 8-ft long 2×4 studs fired at 34 mph from an air cannon without failure to the structure or the glass breaking through! Only after passing both of these tests does an impact window receive the necessary certification.
Protect Your Houston, TX Home this Hurricane Season
It’s never too early to plan ahead and prepare your home for hurricane season. For Houston homeowners, having impact-resistant windows installed around the home is an excellent step in the right direction for safety during hurricane season and all year round.
Connect with us to learn more about protecting your home from storm damage.
