Service // the whole-home project

Hurricane window replacement in Brevard County

The median Brevard County home was built in 1988 (US Census ACS), and a 1988 aluminum frame was never asked to stop a piece of flying lumber. Replacing that era's glass with impact-rated units is the single largest wind mitigation move most Space Coast homeowners will ever make, and it touches code, insurance, and two state programs at once. This page walks the whole project, and we connect you with an independent Florida-licensed local installer to price it, free.

Why replacement is the Brevard project

About 70 percent of the county's housing units predate 2000 (US Census ACS), which means most Brevard homes were glazed before the modern Florida Building Code existed. New construction already ships with compliant openings; the county's wind mitigation work therefore happens one replacement project at a time, across tens of thousands of 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s houses. The storm record explains the motivation without any dramatics: Brevard's pattern is repeated close passes rather than a modern direct major landfall. Matthew in 2016 ran about 25 miles east of Cape Canaveral as a Category 3 and still produced a 107 mph gust at the Cape, and Irma in 2017 damaged more than 7,000 Brevard homes (NHC and NWS reports). Close passes are a reason to plan a project on your own schedule, not a reason to sign the first quote in front of you.

What replacement changes under the code

Existing windows are allowed to stay as they are; the code engages the moment you replace them. At addresses in the wind-borne debris region, replacement openings must meet the current opening protection requirement, which means impact-rated products or code-approved shutters over non-impact glass. The region covers areas where the ultimate design wind speed reaches 140 mph, or 130 mph within one mile of the coastal mean high-water line, and the county's official wind speed maps govern by address. Verify your address before you buy: the full sequence from map to permit to credit is in the Brevard wind mitigation guide. Every replacement unit needs a Florida product approval or Miami-Dade NOA number stating what it was tested and approved to resist, and the permit rides on that paperwork.

The whole-home math

Industry cost guides put installed impact windows at $400 to $1,800 each, with most falling between $800 and $1,400, so a whole home of 15 to 20 windows typically lands at $12,000 to $25,000 or more. Three forces favor doing the house in one pass. Per-window pricing improves with volume, since the crew, the permit, and the trip charges spread across more openings. The opening-protection insurance credit generally requires all openings protected, so a half-done house earns nothing. And a single permit with a single final inspection produces one clean paper trail for the insurance and refund steps that follow. The Melbourne cost guide breaks the published ranges down by frame material and size. For the product itself, what impact-rated means and how approvals work, start with the impact windows page.

The insurance credit path

Florida Statute 627.0629 requires residential insurers to offer premium credits for construction features that reduce windstorm loss, and opening protection is one of the listed features. The credit does not apply itself: after the final building inspection, a qualified inspector documents the new openings on form OIR-B1-1802 and you submit that form to your insurer. What the credit is worth depends on your insurer's filed rates and your policy, so no honest source can promise a figure. The mechanics are on the wind mitigation inspection page. The order matters: permit, install, final inspection, then the 1802.

The up-to-$500 refund, and the expired program people still quote

Florida's old sales tax exemption on impact windows expired June 30, 2024; the expired exemption is gone, and the current program is a refund. Under HB 7031 (2026), qualifying impact-resistant window, exterior door, and garage door purchases made from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029 can earn a refund of up to $500 per homestead. Eligibility requires a homestead exemption and a just value of $700,000 or less, and the application goes to the Florida Department of Revenue between July 1, 2026 and September 30, 2029. The DOR then has 30 days to assess the claim and 30 days to pay. On a five-figure replacement project the refund is a modest offset, not a windfall, but it is real money that only requires keeping receipts. Any pitch built on the old exemption is describing a program that no longer exists.

What a well-run project looks like

The paperwork tells you more about an installer than the showroom does. A serious replacement quote itemizes every opening with the product approval number, size, and configuration on its own line, so two bids can be compared product against product instead of total against total. The permit gets filed under the installer's license before any glass is ordered against a hard date, and the final inspection gets scheduled by the installer, not left as homework. Your side of the project is verification: check the license in the DBPR lookup, confirm the permit exists before work starts, and keep the approval numbers, the permit record, and every receipt in one folder. That folder is the raw material for the wind mitigation form, the insurance credit, and the refund claim, and assembling it as you go costs nothing.

Where replacement demand runs strongest

The oldest housing stock concentrates along the county's original corridors. Titusville and Cocoa and Rockledge carry large stretches of pre-1990 homes still holding original glass, and Palm Bay, which boomed through the 1980s, is the county's single largest pool of exactly-1988-vintage houses. Each city page covers the local permitting path and housing context. Wherever you are in Brevard, the first step is the same: look up your address on the county map, then get itemized quotes with the product approval number on every line.