High-Velocity Hurricane Zone — Florida Product Approval

Which approval applies to your project

The compliance boundary is the county line, not the coastline. Every project in Miami-Dade or Broward County requires HVHZ-compliant product approval, regardless of location within the county.

Miami-Dade County — HVHZ

Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Homestead, and all municipalities. Full HVHZ requirements apply countywide. Large missile impact required at all heights, including high-rise. PINKYS holds Florida Product Approval evaluated including HVHZ provisions. Confirm acceptance with Miami-Dade Building and Zoning before permit submittal.

Miami-Dade additionally requires a one-time product approval from Miami-Dade RER (Regulatory and Economic Resources, the county's own building department) before installation.

Broward County — HVHZ

Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, and all municipalities. Full HVHZ requirements apply countywide. Architects specifying from outside South Florida sometimes assume HVHZ is Miami-Dade only. Broward County is HVHZ in full. Confirm acceptance with the Broward County building department before permit submittal.

Palm Beach County and all other Florida counties — Non-HVHZ, Florida Product Approval

Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, and all other municipalities. Florida Building Code applies without HVHZ provisions. Florida Product Approval required; large missile testing required within 30 feet of grade. Contact PINKYS to confirm which approval covers your project's configuration.

Florida is the most structured framework. The exposure exists nationwide.

Florida's HVHZ is the most codified high-wind fenestration compliance environment in the country, but significant hurricane and coastal wind exposure extends well beyond South Florida. The compliance framework differs by state; the physics do not.

THE NATIONAL FRAMEWORK

Outside Florida, high-wind fenestration compliance is governed by the International Building Code (IBC) and ASCE 7, which maps design wind speeds across the US and defines windborne debris regions. In these regions, the test standard is ASTM E1886/E1996, the same standards used in Florida's non-HVHZ approval pathway. PINKYS HVHZ-approved products are tested to ASTM E1886/E1996 and carry that compliance documentation for use in non-Florida windborne debris regions.

FLORIDA VS. THE REST OF THE US

Florida's TAS 201/202/203 standards are the state's own test protocols, used for Florida Product Approval and HVHZ compliance. Other states reference ASTM E1886 (test method) and ASTM E1996 (performance requirements) directly. Because PINKYS products are tested to both TAS and ASTM E1886/E1996, the same tested assembly that qualifies for Florida HVHZ installation also carries the impact test documentation required by IBC windborne debris regions in other states. Confirm local AHJ requirements before specifying.

Key coastal high-wind jurisdictions outside Florida:

Texas Gulf Coast: Galveston, Corpus Christi, Houston metro coastal areas. Windborne debris regions trigger ASTM E1886/E1996 impact requirements under the Texas Building Code.

Carolinas — coastal counties: Outer Banks, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Charleston. Fall within IBC windborne debris regions.

Northeast — Long Island, coastal NJ: The Rockaways, Fire Island, Jersey Shore, Cape May. Post-Sandy code updates tightened requirements.

Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast: New Orleans metro, Gulfport, Biloxi, coastal parishes. Post-Katrina code adoption strengthened wind requirements.

Hawaii: All islands, particularly Kauai and Maui windward coasts. Year-round trade wind exposure and periodic hurricane threats.

Virginia, Maryland, Delaware coasts: Virginia Beach, Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach, Chincoteague. Mid-Atlantic barrier island communities fall within IBC windborne debris regions.

PINKYS products are tested to ASTM E1886/E1996, the standard referenced by IBC windborne debris region requirements in other states. Whether that test documentation satisfies your local AHJ's submittal requirements depends on the jurisdiction. Contact PINKYS at specification stage with the project address and local AHJ requirements to confirm what documentation is available for your project.

SentryGlas interlayer. Tested as an assembly.

The glazing configuration is part of the approval and is specific to the tested assembly. The IGU specified in the installation drawings is the system that was tested and approved.

Approved IGU — all three HVHZ products: 1-5/16" O.A. laminated insulated glass unit with SentryGlas (SGP) interlayer by Kuraray America, Inc. The SentryGlas interlayer itself carries a Miami-Dade County Notice of Acceptance (NOA), making it an approved material within the HVHZ jurisdiction. The complete assembly, frame and glass together, is what the Florida Product Approval covers.

IGU layers: 5/16" tempered glass (outboard lite) — 0.060" SentryGlas interlayer by Kuraray (SGP laminate) — 5/16" tempered glass (inboard lite) — 3/8" aluminum spacer + 1/4" tempered glass (cavity + inner pane).

Substituting glazing materials or configurations outside the approved assembly invalidates the Florida Product Approval for that installation. Contact PINKYS to confirm glazing scope for any project-specific requirement.

Frame material matters under cyclic pressure loading

FRAME RIGIDITY — The ASTM E1886 test protocol includes thousands of cyclic pressure cycles simulating sustained hurricane wind fluctuation. Steel's elastic modulus is approximately three times that of aluminum, meaning a steel frame deflects less under equivalent cyclic load. Less deflection at the frame means less stress concentration at the glazing perimeter, the most common failure point in large-opening impact assemblies.

WELD INTEGRITY — PINKYS steel frames are welded at corners, joints, and junctions; the load path through the assembly is metallurgically continuous. Aluminum systems are mechanically assembled with corner keys and fasteners; under large missile impact and cyclic pressure, those mechanical joints are the failure points. A welded steel frame carries none.

SGP INTERLAYER — SentryGlas Plus (SGP) provides significantly higher post-breakage structural capacity than standard PVB interlayer. After a missile strike breaches the outboard lite, the SGP interlayer retains rigidity during the subsequent cyclic pressure phase, the test sequence that standard laminate assemblies fail. All approved PINKYS HVHZ configurations specify SGP as the interlayer material.

COASTAL DURABILITY — Every PINKYS unit goes through the same eight-stage coating system before assembly: Sa2.5 abrasive blasting, degreasing and pure-water rinsing, phosphate conversion, a cathodic E-coat (~30 µm, 1,000+ hours salt-spray resistance), TIGER electrostatic powder coat (~180 µm), two-pass pre-paint sanding, a PPG fluorocarbon topcoat, and final curing — approximately 210 µm total build. The cathodic E-coat is the primary corrosion barrier between the steel substrate and South Florida's salt-air environment; the powder coat and fluorocarbon topcoat above it hold color and gloss under sustained coastal UV exposure.

Documentation for your permit submittal

PINKYS provides the complete Florida Product Approval package at specification stage: current approval documents, signed and sealed installation drawings, glazing specifications, and anchor schedules. Request the package at specification stage, before permit submittal. Lead time for Air Series and Iron Door products is 12 to 15 weeks from approved shop drawings; factor documentation review into your project schedule accordingly.