French & Double Doors

French & Double Doors in Fort Lauderdale, FL | Winslow Windows & Doors

French and double doors bring light, symmetry, and a clean connection between indoor and outdoor living, but in Fort Lauderdale they have to earn their place. Coastal wind loads, flying debris, and the HVHZ code don’t allow for decorative-only door openings. Winslow Windows & Doors supplies and installs paired impact-rated French doors with laminated glass in every lite, multi-point locking hardware, and design pressures matched to your specific wind zone. We install across PGT, CGI, CWS, ES Windows, ECO, and Mr-Glass lines. If you’re planning a patio opening, a balcony walkout, or a front entry in Fort Lauderdale, call (904) 747-8989 to start with a free on-site measurement.

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Product Overview - French & Double Doors

A French door system is two door panels hinged at opposite jambs that meet in the center. In Florida, the traditional divided-lite look gets a structural upgrade: every pane is laminated impact glass, and the frame is a heavy aluminum or vinyl profile engineered to resist racking under cyclic wind pressure. Both panels are operable in most configurations, which is exactly why the product is so popular for living rooms, dining rooms, and primary suites that open to a patio or balcony.

What separates an impact-rated pair from a standard interior French door starts at the edge of the glass. Impact glazing uses a PVB interlayer that holds shattered glass in the frame after a strike, and the sash is built to keep that lite from popping out of the channel under negative pressure. Multi-point locking hardware secures both the active and passive panel at the head, sill, and meeting stile, so the door behaves like one engineered unit rather than two independent leaves. The visual result is what matters to most Fort Lauderdale homeowners: the sightlines stay symmetrical, the daytime light comes through every lite, and the threshold is low enough for furniture and foot traffic to move naturally.

These are interior-to-exterior openings. In a coastal house, that means the system faces rain, salt air, UV exposure, and sideways wind on a regular basis. Aluminum is the strongest choice for wide spans and direct coastal exposure. Vinyl offers a warmer thermal feel and a different aesthetic at a lower weight. Whichever you choose, the hinge hardware, the astragal, and the perimeter anchoring are all part of the same tested assembly, not afterthought components.

Technical Specifications

The French & Double Doors profile is available in a deliberate range of materials and glazing packages. This is the spec set our Fort Lauderdale clients work from most often:

• Frame materials: Aluminum or Vinyl. Aluminum for coastal exposure and wider spans; vinyl for a warmer profile and lower thermal transfer.
• Maximum size: Up to 96 inches wide for a paired opening, with height matched to the rough opening and design pressure requirements.
• Glass options: Laminated Impact Glass (PVB interlayer), Low-E Insulated Glass, Tinted Glass, Clear Glass. Glazing choices can be mixed per project need.
• Finish options: White, Almond, Bronze, Black, Tan. These are factory-applied and matched to the frame material.
• Hardware: Multi-point locking at the meeting stile, with active and passive panel hardware.

Sizing is always confirmed against your specific wind zone and opening width. We do not push a door to its maximum width if the wind zone calculation does not support it.

Hurricane & Compliance Performance

Every product we sell for a Fort Lauderdale opening has to clear the same bar: it must be tested, approved, and installed as a system. Here’s how the French & Double Doors profile meets that bar.

Laminated Impact Glass - Every lite in the French door pair carries a PVB (polyvinyl butyral) interlayer. When debris strikes, the glass fractures but the interlayer holds the pieces in the frame. This is not tempered-only glass. It is laminated, and that is the difference between glass that breaks safely and glass that holds its opening during the storm.

Miami-Dade NOA / Florida Product Approval - Each configuration carries a Notice of Acceptance or Florida Product Approval number. These numbers are issued per configuration, meaning the exact glass type, frame finish, and size on your quote carries its own approval documentation. Ask us to include the approval number on your quote, and we will.

FBC/HVHZ Compliance - The system is engineered to Florida Building Code requirements for the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. That matters in Fort Lauderdale because the entire city sits inside the HVHZ boundary. A door that is not HVHZ-engineered can not be permitted for an exterior opening here.

TAS 201 / 202 / 203 Testing Context - These doors are tested under the TAS protocol family, which includes TAS 201 for large-missile impact, TAS 202 for cyclic wind-pressure loading, and TAS 203 for forced-entry resistance. This is the testing environment HVHZ-rated products must pass. It simulates what a window or door actually endures, not a laboratory ideal.

Design Pressure for Your Wind Zone - Design pressures are matched to your wind zone and the specific elevation of your opening. The available range goes up to +/-100 PSF, never higher. We do not oversell a door with a rating it does not carry, and we do not swap in a lower-rated panel for a wider opening just to make the math work.

Energy Performance - Low-E and insulated glass options are available. If the French door faces east or west exposure in Fort Lauderdale, a Low-E or insulated package reduces the heat load that tries to make its way through the glass. We pair the glazing with the frame material that fits the opening and the orientation.

Color & Glass Options

Fort Lauderdale’s housing runs from 1950s ranches to new coastal-modern builds, and the finish range reflects that spread. White remains the default for older Florida Hill and Wilton Manors homes with painted trim. Almond and Tan warm up a stucco facade without demanding attention. Bronze and Black frame an opening more sharply, which reads well on contemporary houses in Victoria Park and Rio Vista, especially with a darker frame against a light wall. The finish should match whatever window family Winslow Windows & Doors is already installing on the home, and we carry all five: White, Almond, Bronze, Black, and Tan.

Glass selection works the same way, dictated by exposure and use. Clear laminated impact glass gives the most honest daylight and the lowest visual barrier, so it suits north-facing openings and shaded lanais. Tinted laminated glass cuts glare and solar gain, a real benefit on a west-facing patio door that gets the afternoon sun. Low-E insulated glass is the strongest energy option and works well when the door is part of a conditioned space with consistent AC use. Laminated impact glass is the foundation of every package; the other layers are decisions you make based on comfort, not code.

Installation by Winslow Windows & Doors in Fort Lauderdale

A Miami-Dade NOA is not a guarantee of performance in the field. The approval belongs to the tested assembly, and that assembly only works if the opening is prepared, anchored, sealed, and flashed correctly. Improper installation is the most common reason an impact-rated door fails a water test or underperforms in a hurricane. Fort Lauderdale’s wind zone and driving rain make installation error unforgiving.

Our installation starts with a pre-install inspection of the rough opening. We check the king studs and header, the sill condition, and the existing flashing before the door ever comes off the truck. The new unit is set level, plumb, and square, because a French door that leaves our shop square and is set twisted will never close clean at the meeting stile. We use AAMA 812 low-expansion foam for the perimeter seal, followed by a full flashing and caulking detail that respects the drainage plane. Our work follows AAMA 2400/2410 practice for window and door installation. After the door is anchored, we run a water test at the sill and corners, the weak points on any paired door. Then we address trim, hardware operation, and final adjustment so both panels open, close, and lock without resistance.

Permitting is part of the picture in Fort Lauderdale. Most exterior door replacements in an HVHZ jurisdiction require a permit, and the permit application typically needs a copy of the NOA or Florida Product Approval for your specific configuration. We provide the documentation and coordinate on the submittal. For condominium work along Galt Ocean Mile or the Intracoastal, the association may need the same paperwork before any work starts. We handle that too.

Frequently Asked Questions - French & Double Doors

Get a Quote - French & Double Doors in Fort Lauderdale

The French & Double Doors profile is a paired, impact-rated opening that should be specified around your wind zone, your exposure, and your house, not picked from a catalog page. Call (904) 747-8989 to schedule a free on-site measurement and get a written line-item quote with your design pressure and approval documentation. We serve Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding coastal communities.

Written by the team at Winslow Windows & Doors, serving Fort Lauderdale, FL with hurricane-impact window and door installation across PGT, CGI, CWS, ES Windows, ECO, and Mr-Glass product lines.