Hurricanes come with dangerous winds that can do everything from down trees to tear the roofs off homes, depending on their category. They also can uproot objects and send them hurtling through the air. If those airborne objects are in the vicinity of your home, impact resistant windows and doors become an invaluable line of defense.
While fortifying your home during extreme weather events may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about impact resistant windows and doors, this is far from the only reason to upgrade. In fact, they have many lesser-known but equally significant benefits.
Read on for a roundup of six additional ways impact resistant windows and doors add value for homeowners.
1. Increased Security
Impact resistant windows and doors don’t just protect your home from high winds, driving rain, and other weather conditions. They also defend against a different kind of threat—the human one.
With more than a million home burglaries taking place annually, property crimes are the most common type of crime in the United States. In 2021 alone, a staggering $737 billion of property was stolen from homes. And that’s just the material cost.
Many crimes are crimes of opportunity, with intruders seeking out the easiest points of entry. Alongside home security systems and automatic lighting, impact windows and doors—which are made with laminated or laminated insulating glass—can be a powerful deterrent. They’re also aesthetically preferable to window bars.
2. Noise Reduction
Quiet homes are comfortable homes. From revving motors, honking horns, construction, and other traffic sounds to barking dogs and loud neighbors prone to mowing their lawns at 8AM on Sunday mornings, unwanted sounds can interfere with the tranquility of our living spaces.
While regular windows may mute these sounds to some degree, it’s rarely enough to block them out completely. On the other hand, the thick glass and solid, sturdy framing materials of impact windows diminish noise pollution and create quieter and more comfortable environments for working, relaxing, and sleeping.
3. Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is one of the foremost considerations for homeowners today. When it comes to heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter, windows and doors are primary culprits.
In fact, heat gain and heat loss with inefficient windows are linked with up to 30 percent of residential heating and cooling energy use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The takeaway? Whether you’re building a new home or remodeling an existing home, energy efficient windows and doors are an excellent way to boost your home’s energy efficiency.
In addition to helping you trim your utility bills, you’ll also be doing your part for the planet when you select hurricane windows and doors.
4. Curb Appeal
Impact resistant windows and doors are available in a breadth and depth of shapes, sizes, and designs. As such, they can be configured to compliment your home’s aesthetic and add elegant curb appeal.
While improving your home’s look has intrinsic value for you as the homeowner, this value also translates to dollars and cents when you factor in the return rates. According to Remodeling magazine’s 2023 Cost vs. Value Report, window replacements are one of the top 10 projects in terms of returns.
5. Ease of Use and Peace of Mind
If you’ve ever frantically tried to put up hurricane shutters or board up your windows with a storm bearing down, you know how stressful it can be.
Not only do impact windows and doors offer continuous and superior protection from hurricanes and other extreme weather events, but they only require a one-time installation—with no subsequent storm preparation necessary.
In fact, impact windows are such effective windstorm protective systems that many insurance companies offer premium discounts.
Cleaning and maintaining impact windows is also a breeze.
6. UV Protection
Sunshine streaming through your windows on a beautiful day looks and feels beautiful. However, it can also expose you and your belongings to harmful ultraviolet (UV) light.
In addition to sunburns, this repeated exposure to direct sunlight can lead to the fading and discoloration of furniture, fabrics, photographs, paint, artwork, and more—unless your windows are made with UV-protected impact glass, that is.
Your home is one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your lifetime. At the end of the day, impact windows and doors are one of the best ways to safeguard that investment—and not just in terms of storm protection. Amplified across all of these other benefits, impact windows and doors really shine for homeowners as a smart choice for new construction and renovation projects alike.
