Thanks for the interest folks. The rep was at my house but would not give me an estimate even after I sat through his whole sales pitch. I informed him that I would not be paying for this purchase on my own, my two sisters would be helping out. My one sister was held up at work and could not attend this initial meeting with the rep. He now has rescheduled for a time when both of us can be there, hopefully there will be some numbers crunched then. (my other sister is out of state and will be depending on our advice). Anyway, the company is "Storm Tight" and the rep says they manufacture their own windows in Pennsylvania. The sales literature mentions "Regency Plus" windows. They do seem like a nice vinyl window, with all of the bells and whistles, however I am a might put off by this type of sales approach. Any opinions on "Regency Plus" brand windows? Hopefully will get a quote on the second meeting. Thanks for your interest janedos

I am not sure what the question is? That all being said, I think that impact rated windows are a great investment and are a more comprehensive solution that will cover the home in more instances (example: you are out of town and unable to close or activate the shutters).

DO NOT BUY PGT WINDOWS! SIX YEARS AGO WE BOUGHT OVER $47,000.00 WINDOWS AND SLIDERS (7 SLIDERS) - as of yesterday I just filed / called for replacement of our fourth sliding glass panel doors - these are the Miami Dade double insulated with all the extras - failing. The seals do not hold. The company we bought the window/sliders from does not like going thru all the trouble to replace and then reinstall....they can charge me whatever price they want for labor. PGT will replaced the windows - they will probably say "out of warranty" - it is very unclear just exaclty what their warranty is (!). Do NOT do business with PGT....I am at the point of just replacing every defective window with a different brand .....this is so unfair and unprofessional and poor business standards....

Evolution, For what it's worth, I happen to really like your product concept which leads to a quick story.... About 15 years ago (give or take a couple), a guy i was working with on a project asked me to help him out with an idea that he had about hurricane protection shutters. His thinking was that the major downside of shutters and plywood (pretty much 100% at the time) was that they covered the window making it impossible to see in or out. He had the idea of building shutters out of polycarbonate that wouldn't ever have to be removed from fixed windows, and when installed over any window wouldn't block the light or the view. My thinking was that he had a heck of a good idea and I offered encouragement and helped him with a few simple calculations and some minor proof of concept ideas. We lost contact not long after and I THINK he was contemplating moving to florida, but don't recall for certain. Anyway my point was that I had to wonder when I was looking at your website. Have to admit it made me wonder... To questions/comments.... 1) Nothing involving storm protection (or bullets, or bombs, etc) is proof. Resistant, yes, proof, no. Laminated glass is shatter-resistant, that's what it's for and there are required tests that exist to confirm. A dual pane impact window is with very few exceptions manufactured with one laminated lite and one non-laminated lite. As I mentioned previously, it's possible for the laminated lite to be mounted as interior or exterior, often depending on how the glass was glazed into the sash. If the laminated lite is inside and the window is broken by an impact then the loose (non laminated) broken glass WILL remain outside the building blocked by the laminated lite that isn't going to shatter. This is the make-up that I personally prefer and would generally recommend, and i have never been shy about telling people that here or real time. If the laminated lite is outside and it takes an impact that is powerful enough to break both windows, then breaking the inner non-laminated lite will result in broken glass inside the home. You have seen the hurricane impact on you tube, so have I, but I haven't seen a video of an impact that shows the glass shattering and flying into a room. In all seriousness I can't find one even though I looked for it. Can you drop a link, I am very curious to see it. I have personally performed, participated in, and/or witnessed impacts over 3000 times. I have also witnessed testing for impacts based on tornado level wind-speeds, but have never performed that test myself. The tornado test is a 12', 15#, 2x4 at 150fps. Interesting thing about the tornado testing was that over half of the impacts that I witnessed (and that was typical), the 2x4 shattered into kindling when it hit the glass and the glass was undamaged. I mentioned earlier that it is entirely possible to manufacture laminated glass that won't break when tested to TAS201 large missile and/or ASTM 1996, any level. I can think of three ways to do it as I type, and while I KNOW for a fact they all work because either I have personally been involved with manufacture and testing it or else coordinated with people who were, they aren't generally available outside of specialized applications. 2} There is no requirement for testing a window for water penetration after impact, primarily because they are two different test requirements from two different agencies. The impact test is all about the product's resistance to penetration by the 2x4. The glass can break, but penetration of the glass isn't allowed. If the interlayer isn't torn then water can't penetrate it, broken glass or not. 3) The requirement for water resistance testing is not related to or is part of the impact test protocol. As mentioned previously, windows are required to be tested for water penetration based on the DP level, and it makes zero difference whether the window is impact resistant or not, other than impact windows often have higher DP than non-impact windows. Although the requirement is based on the DP, this doesn't mean that's the maximum window performance. While I do know specific companies that do test higher than the DP requirement for their impact windows, I have no idea how many actually do so.