How would you get out of the house with a shutter over the door?

"Masonite Vistagrande, ThermaTru Smooth-Star, and PlastPro Nova90 or Nova45?"

In my opinion and in order. Poor, Meh, Poor, Poor. If you are going but any of them from a box store (HD Or Lowes) I would rate them all less than poor.

And as mentioned above you cannot use shutters on doors for impact requirements.

@millworkman - Have been shopping at millwork and lumber supply houses and door stores; not HD or Lowes.

Can you make a suggestion for a budget conscious purchase of a good or good enough door line? keep in mind, this is for an ADU and not the main house, so will not be fancy. Looking for 1 panel/1 lite, 1/2 or 3/4 being window. Doors are 2'8x8'0, 3'0x8'0, and 2'8x6'8. I prefer direct glazed doors with larger window size when possible. And the doors need to be fiberglass as they will be exposed to the weather some.

FYI, the DoorShield shutter system allows you to open/close both in-swing and out-swing doors. It's a U channel that slides over the top and bottom of the door and the panels then screw onto a channel on the U channel. https://www.hurricaneshutterswholesale.com/front-door-shield/

OK, I was not familiar with that type of product or application for the door, but I suppose I should have figured they had something like that. Budget wise than I would honestly go absolutely no lower on the food chain then the ThermaTru. I would probably use the multi-point lock and definitely a solid jamb (no finger joint).

Of course you can put hurricane shutters over exterior doors, the kind that can be raised lowered with a crank. My parents have always had them. Your main exit is through the garage, which will have hurricane rated garage doors. Some people put up all the protection for the whole hurricane season and live "boarded up" for months, which is why the clear shutters became so popular. Much lighter to handle and allow light to still come through.

My parents also had roll down shutters covering all their sliders. Now they have impact rated sliders, but still installed the newer style hurricane screens so they don't have to move the patio furniture when a storm comes. When the house is all boarded up you go in/out through the garage!

Is your parent's home built with today's codes? It is possible that configuration isn't allowed anymore? My first thought is fire and power outage. I have to think that would be a concern to a code book.

Given the predictability of hurricanes, living boarded up for months would seem to be something that pretty frail/old folks would do. The hurricane season of course is 5 months long (or is it 6?).

During a Cat4, I would not want only one way out of a house. I can’t imagine being trapped by debris and unable to reach an exit. In addition, the shutters over the doors signal an unoccupied dwelling to EMS. This scares me. Penny wise and pound foolish. Have you done the math of door plus shutters? Usually, the cost of a good impact door will be less than a non-impact door and a hurricane shutter. Do you have any hurricane experience? Have you seen the devastation and been involved with recovery? Fire in a house is always a possibility and the risks are multiplied during a hurricane. How would anyone get out? How much is a life worth?

I guess the people that put up Lexan hurricane shutter for the whole season are the same people that never open their blinds! My parents have lived in FL for 20 years, in three different areas, all new built house when purchased, last one less than 2 years ago. People respond/react differently to risk, so you see the whole range of hurricane preparation, from having shutters all season long, to doing nothing and staying put when a hurricane actually hits the area!

@millworkman - Thank you for your "no lower than ThermaTru', solid jambs and multi-point lock" recommendation. That is concrete info I can work with:). I have only looked at these 3 manufacturers to date, as those were the names I've seen on new construction near me. If you have other mfgrs you think I should look into, I'm willing to do that. Just looking for a door that looks like this (but in 3'0x8'0) that can handle getting rained on (doors will have only about a 4' roof over them. My 'pre-Covid' budget was $1000 per door, and could go to $1700, but probably isn't going beyond without really good reasons.

@chispa, @remodeling1840, and @David Cary -- I have no intention of being boarded up in a house with shutters locking me in. I'm claustrophobic as it is without adding that to the mix, haha.

As said above, the shutters are merely to take a structural door and to protect the glass from breakage. They slide on over the top of the door and under the bottom of the door. You can go in and out of the house at will. In addition, our windows will all have impact windows and are all 3'x6', so we will have 9 windows and 2 doors as possible exits during a hurricane.

I mis-stated my initial question above as saying that I AM required to have Miami-Dade protection. Correction...my area DOES NOT require Miami-Dade HVHZ approval; we are only rated for wind-borne debris protection. For "Wind Borne Debris protection, only the glazing/windows are required to be impact rated or protected (i.e shutters).

The way I've seen it documented:

- A structural door (FL building code approved) without windows does not need wind borne debris protection in my area.

- A structural door (FL building code approved) + shutters over glass==> wind-borne protection.

- An impact door + impact glass = Miami Dade/HVHZ protection

The shutter cost is $199-300 per door. DH said that if I can find impact rated doors for $500 or less more than non-impact doors, to get them. If more than that, we'll use shutters.

Does anyone know of a weather resistant door that is available in 3'x8 and 2'8x8 that comes in the flat shaker panel (or raised if I can't find flat panel), has flush glazed windows (not inserts) and is 1 panel with 1/2 glass? I'm hoping for a door with a glass panel that is 26" wide (on 3' door) in order to make the tall door not look as skinny as it would in all glass or 3/4 glass. Budget is $1700 or less. See inspiration photo above. Thanks!

Until you personally know two people who have died in a hurricane, have friends trapped during a hurricane, watch house to house searches for survivors, you cannot imagine the life-changing assessment of risk we survivors experience. Hurricanes kill. You need a plan of survival. The building codes in Florida were a direct result of Hurricane Andrew. The codes are enforced to prevent death and destruction of property. Buy and install a hurricane impact door.

Not being involved in residential much these days I am not that familiar with the styles available. Personally anything other than Therma Tru I would recommend would be Provia, HMI, Homeguard and possibly Albany.

@Millworkman - Thanks ! Will check them out.

I just got pricing for a 3'x8' hurricane rated door with glass and it came in at $3,900. What you want is available, just not sure that right now you will find it in your desired budget. Availability is the other problem. And this is a door from laundry to outside, so not even a main door.

@chispa- ouch! Thanks for the wake up call. 😕

@Karen, double ouch, because the first door that was ordered turned out to be just ugly. The window/door sales guy said my DH had said he wanted that material or whatever, which I know my DH never said. I just told them not to install that door and order another one, just not worth trying to blame it on the window/door guy and he did correct some other mistakes that they made without hesitation.

@chispa - which company delivered the “butt ugly” door? heehee.

@chispa - Haha. That was a typo. Sorry about the comment. Not intentional.