I have not done this, but I am somewhat familiar with Anderson products. I don't see where it would be a problem if you make certain that the screws do not hit the glass and are not so long as to go through to the outside. If I remember correctly the doors are about 1 3/4" thick, which gives you plenty of meat. Because these are expensive doors, and because you're a bit nervous about this application; perhaps you might consider using one of the many custom blind shops that exist all over Florida. It might cost you a bit more, but if they ruin the door, you will have some recourse. Just be certain to tell them your fears and ask them for some assurances. I'm sure they've done this before.

WB Marta, First a clarification - 5/16 and 7/16 refer to laminated glass which is two lites bonded either side of a plastic interlayer, those thicknesses are not the actual thickness of individual glass lites. 5/16" laminated glass consists of two 1/8" lites and 7/16" laminated has two 3/16" lites so that the 1/8" difference is really 1/16" x 2. Different glass thickness does not mean different frame thickness, it doesn't even affect the width of the reglet or glazing channel in the sash. Because the vast majority of glass that goes into the sash is going to be a dual pane package that will be the same width (or depth depending who you are talking to), even when different glass thicknesses are used by changing the width of the spacer between the two lites, the overall IG width doesn't change. In other words, if window company xyz has an overall glazing channel of 1" for their dual pane units, then that's what the IG unit has to fill. Depending on the window company the tolerance for the IGU width might be as little as 1/64". Available options might be two 1/8" lites with 3/4" space between, or could be one 1/18" plus one 1/4" with a 5/8" width spacer/airspace. Or if they were manufacturing an impact window with 5/16" laminated and 1/8" mono glass then they would use a 9/16" spacer to once again come out at 1", and so on. In your case Marta, you are being told 5/16 and 7/16 but are they selling a single laminated lite in a frame or are they going to be IG (dual pane) units? Either option is available in Florida, but IG is more common. This part is a bit more complicated..... The advantage of thicker laminated glass in an impact window has to do with wind resistance and potentially the DP rating. Simply thicker glass generally has higher load tolerance (wind and otherwise) than thinner glass, but thinner glass that has been heat strengthened or tempered has a higher wind loading tolerance than does non-heat treated (annealed) glass even when the annealed glass is thicker than the heat treated glass. Need to raise the DP of a given window? Temper the glass and it immediately goes up. What all that means is that if the 1/8" glass in the 5/16" laminated has been heat treated and the 3/16" glass in the 7/16" has not, then the thinner 5/16" heat treated laminated glass has substantially higher resistance to wind pressure and low level impacts than the non-heat treated 7/16" laminated product. However note low level impact resistance. There is no appreciable difference between 5/16 and 71/6 laminated glass when subjected to the 2x4 hurricane impact test requirement. Heat treating glass might protect from an errant baseball but the 2x4 doesn't even notice the difference, heat treated or not. The downside to heat treating is that it can introduce distortion in the glass, distortion that may even be unnoticeable in a single lite of glass can become quite noticeable when two lites are laminated together. I am not saying it WILL be distorted, far from it, just saying that the possibility is potentially greater. And most (but not all) distortion when it does occur is very mild and only visible at acute angles to the glass, often even affected by lighting conditions to see it. Marta as you move forward the first things that you need to find out are, a) monolithic lami or IG unit in the windows b) is the glass heat treated, either heat strengthened or tempered c) if an IG or dual pane, is the non-laminated (also called sacrificial) lite heat treated d) if monolithic lami what LowE coatings, if any, are used in the construction And all else being equal, monolithic can be okay and IG can be okay. Depending on location and application eat treated can be a good option, but non-heat treated might be just as effective. Coatings are a necessity, mono or IG, that one isn't negotiable.

Hi oberon! I hope that you realize that part of my exasperation at this point was that Guardian showed us what was possible, and now we are just trying to achieve that goal. But on to your questions... Guardian was the supplier to Benor well before we entered the process. When we went looking for windows and found Benor, and when our architect realized that the Guardian Architectural Division was willing to participate (there are some personal relationships involved here that made this happen), we started to get a tremendous amount of involvement by a couple of their engineers. The Guardian folks were very helpful in explaining to me and my wife ALL the sources which would degrade both the VT and CRI, and then discussed all that they could do to reduce their impacts. One of the larger impacts on VT that could be mitigated was the interlayer index of refraction mismatch by supercritical choice of the laminate interlayer (including the batch number). They spent hours showing us more than two dozen samples, taught me the laser trick, and then explained why we would want to use their ultra-white glass with Saflex rather than some of the other PVB products available, and why the PET interlayer while it delivered better impact performance was not the right one for us. That decision alone they explained would improve our VT dramatically. They then introduced us to the Munsen Color chart as a way to assess color neutrality, and a myriad of other details that would appeal to the artist in my wife. As we went through this process, they kept plugging the various lite selections into a program ("Windows 5.2") that predicted the performance of the whole glass assembly. Here is where I received the real education. What appeared to be relatively small changes in the components of the glass assembly (such as using the the ultra-white glass with Saflex) were responsible for increasing the VT by 5% (which I have come to find out is HUGE!) The spacer that they suggested was a specialty, "two polymer, warm-edge" system that separated a dual pane glass system. The gap was was about 0.267" and filled with krypton. No window glass on our house was wider than 32" (based on the advice of Guardian engineers). After Guardian designed the complete glass assembly, Benor used that data to estimate "whole window" performance (including frames) and based on these data Benor suggested that they use a "fully foam insulated" vinyl sash and frame for our windows. After this good experience, I had been very disappointed speaking with nearly all of the "established" window brands. Since then however, we have found a couple of specialty window makers that appear to be willing to work with us. The glass samples that they have sent us for inspection appear to be quite good and I am hoping that we end up with a positive outcome. If anything, I think I am the product of "raised expectations" that were the result of a specialty window manufacturer who had tremendous pride in his work and a glass supplier who (for whatever reason) decided to show us the "bleeding edge" "art of the possible" for our house.

Impact Windows typically are double the price of regular windows. Black add 50 to 100% yet again. Add in the fact that Miami Dade windows plus adding in the black finish both of which are not made by everyone and you have the perfect storm.