lgn2904

Eye witness reports from Florida’s worst hurricane season ever

Julie Heinsman Vice president of marketing PGT Industries

LGN note: PGT Industries, based in Venice, Florida, is the State’s leading manufacturers of custom-built windows and doors for the residential community. The company’s WinGuard® Impact Resistant Windows and Doors comprise heavy-duty aluminium frames and impact-resistant laminated glass containing DuPont™ Butacite® PVB interlayer. Meanwhile, PGT’s Multi-Story Series 800 Windows and Doors rely on impact-resistant laminated glass containing
DuPont™ SentryGlas® Plus structural interlayer.

The 2004 Florida hurricane season was the worst in living memory. The shock to the community was huge. Many people inside Florida and around the world, who saw the devastation on TV now want to learn more about ways of protecting themselves from hurricanes and other extreme weather conditions like typhoons or tornadoes via impact-resistant laminated glass windows and doors.

Shutters ‘beat to death’
The eye of Hurricane Charley hit very close to the Punta Gorda Isles, Florida, home of Alice and Nelson Leidel. The Leidels had recently replaced most of the windows and doors in their home with impact-resistant laminated glass windows and doors. They had just one sliding glass door that was not made with laminated glass and they tried to protect it with shutters during the storm. The Leidels reported that these shutters were “beat to death” by the hurricane, and the metal frame of the glass door they had bowed under the pressure of the storm. By contrast, a sliding glass door in the Nelsons’ house made of WinGuard® impact-resistant laminated glass displayed no damage whatsoever after the hurricane and still performed excellently – as did all the other WinGuard® impact-resistant windows and doors in their home.

‘Worth every penny’
The Watsons, also of Punta Gorda, called our company after the hurricanes to praise the WinGuard® impact-resistant laminated glass windows and doors in their home stating: “They are worth every penny we paid for them. Not one window or door was scratched, broken or damaged whatsoever by the hurricane.” Mr Watson is a structural engineer and therefore made the educated choice of an industry ‘insider’ when selecting a laminated glass system to protect his home and family. The couple said they literally watched their house shake through 140 mph winds with gusts up to 170 mph. The Watsons count themselves fortunate in the sense that many of their neighbors’ homes suffered major damage during the hurricanes.

Other benefits
In addition to hurricane protection, laminated glass windows and doors provide a host of other benefits to homeowners including significant sound attenuation (I had laminated glass installed my own home installed for this very reason!) and security protection against break-in by human intruders.

New products for hurricane protection
A continuing partnership with DuPont means that PGT is able to continue to introduce newer and better impact-resistant window and doors for hurricane protection. For example, in 2002 we launched Multi-Story Series 800 Windows and Doors, which rely on laminated glass with DuPont™ SentryGlas® Plus structural interlayer for their outstanding structural strength. Multi-Story products successfully test up to pressures of 140-150 psf, making them ideal for buildings over three stories high such as condominiums and apartments, office buildings and hotel and retail buildings. Again, these products pass Miami-Dade building codes – the tightest in the USA when it comes to protecting people and property from wind-borne debris in hurricanes.

AIA seminars for architects
PGT and DuPont have worked together for many years to educate contractors, architects, building officials and consumers about the benefits of laminated glass and impact-resistant windows and doors. The two companies have also partnered with the Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to offer continuing education units (CEUs), and have trained thousands of architects on this specific topic. Additionally, PGT has worked with the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board to extend the free-of-charge CEU programs to contractors, remodelers and building officials throughout the state. DuPont and PGT are now working to share information on hurricane protection via impact-resistant laminated glass to architects and contractors in other states where the International Building Code is being adopted. Interested architects should contact Valerie Block at DuPont (Valerie.l.block@usa.dupont.com) or visit the PGT University education section of www.pgtindustries.com