Impact garage doors in Bonita Springs, rated for your address

Is your door already rated?

• Check inside the door, on an end stile or the top section, for a sticker with the state's product approval number: FL, then digits, often with a decimal.
• The same sticker lists design pressures: a plus figure and a minus figure, in psf.
• Impact-rated doors also state that they passed the windborne debris test.
• Horizontal steel bracing on the back helps, but it isn't proof of a rating by itself.
• Glass in the door needs impact protection too; ask us if you can't tell.
• No sticker, or it's been painted over? A picture of the whole door, sent by text, lets us try to identify the model.

Wind in Bonita Springs

The city keeps its own wind map in its code (Sec. 10-20), drawn to line up with the Florida Building Code's map, and its permit application asks for the design wind speed, the risk category and the exposure category for your lot. For a sense of scale, Lee County's map reads about 160 mph inland and 170 near the coast. Homes facing open water, on the Gulf or the bay, usually land in a higher exposure category, so their doors need higher design pressures than a same-size door a few miles inland.

The strictest tier of Florida's hurricane code applies only in Miami-Dade and Broward; Bonita is well outside it. Here the permit asks for the door's state product approval, and Miami-Dade approval also qualifies, as an option rather than a requirement.

Wind-rated or impact-rated

A wind-rated door is tested to hold against pressure pushing and pulling on it. An impact-rated door also passes a test in which it's struck by a flying piece of lumber, the kind of debris a hurricane throws. Since the whole county is mapped for wind-borne debris, any glass in a garage door needs impact protection. Anyone can look up an approval number on the state's product approval site; the city's application asks for it, and the inspector checks the label at the final visit.

The steps from quote to inspection are on our new garage doors page, and our permit guide covers what the city needs.

After the water

In Bonita, the storms of recent years brought more water than wind. The National Hurricane Center's report on Ian puts that surge, on September 28, 2022, between 8 and 12 feet over the ground in Bonita Beach and Bonita Springs. In 2024, Helene and Milton brought another 3 to 6 feet of surge to the coast, reaching as far south as Bonita Beach. A wind-rated door is built for pressure, not for standing water, and under FEMA's rules a garage door only counts as a flood opening if vents are built into it (FEMA Technical Bulletin 1 explains the rule).

Salt water in the garage? Check these even if the door seems fine:

• The opener's wall control, the sensors and their wiring near the floor, which corrode first.
• The springs, cable drums and bearings, where dried salt starts rust that shortens their life.
• The bottom rollers, brackets and cables, which stood in the water the longest.
• The bottom seal and the lowest section, for rust working through from inside.

Rinse what you can reach with fresh water, keep the opener's plug out until everything has dried, and text us pictures of the lower corners and the springs. Storm repairs still need a City of Bonita Springs permit, whoever does the work and whatever the insurance status (restoration permit application).

Insurance and My Safe Florida Home

We don't read or interpret insurance policies; Florida law keeps contractors out of that (section 489.147), so questions about premiums or claims go to your agent. What we can hand you is what a wind mitigation inspector looks for: the approval number, the design pressures and pictures of the approval label. Your home may qualify for Florida's My Safe Florida Home program, which can help with a wind inspection and part of the cost of hardening work such as a stronger garage door.

Impact door questions