Amarr Garage Doors introduces garage doors with impact glass. Impact glass does not shatter and offers much better protection from high-wind debris damage.
Amarr’s impact glass garage doors meet the stringent wind load requirements for homes in Miami-Dade County, Fla. Amarr is one of only four garage door manufacturers to meet this high level of wind load impact requirements.
“Impact glass is constructed from layers of glass that are laminated together,” Loren Mock, Amarr’s manager of product development engineering, says. “The crucial piece of hardware is the highly specialized internal steel frame that securely holds the impact glass in place. Amarr has conducted stringent testing in high wind simulation conditions to prove the performance of both the impact glass and frame.”
“Our impact glass has to withstand the force of a two-by-four being shot from a cannon at 35 miles-per-hour to simulate the impact of debris in hurricane conditions,” Mock adds. “If you’ve ever seen video of debris crashing into glass from hurricane-force winds, you know the crucial importance of having impact glass garage doors in homes along coastline areas.”
Although the impact glass and frame are made for extreme conditions, they look very much like any other garage door with glass. “If you didn’t know it’s impact glass, I doubt you would notice the difference,” Mock says. “The window looks great and has a sleek, low profile design.”
The State of Florida is offering rebates to homeowners up to $5,000 (up to half the total cost) for upgrading their homes with wind load garage rated doors, impact rated garage doors, windows and roofing materials. For more information about the rebate program, please visit www.mysafefloridahome.com or call 1-866-513-MSFH (6734).
Amarr is initially offering impact glass only in its short panel steel garage doors.
Offering impact glass is another component of Amarr’s public awareness campaign called Red Flag Ready, a joint effort of Amarr and The Weather Channel to prepare homeowners for high-wind conditions by installing reinforced garage doors. Although the strength of garage doors is a significant concern in high-wind conditions, Mock said many people simply are not aware of the need for reinforced garage doors.
Research indicates that only 25 to 33 percent of homes in hurricane prone areas have an adequate wind load reinforcement system in place to protect garage doors. In addition, only 40 percent of consumers in hurricane prone areas know that their garage doors are required to meet building code criteria for wind pressures.