Can Safety Glass Really Offer Hurricane Window Protection? Here’s What You Should Know

If your home gets caught in the middle of a hurricane without proper protection for your glass doors and windows, you’re likely to experience devastating property damage. There are many hurricane window protection options to choose from to prevent such a loss from happening. With all the options out there, it can be hard to know the best choice to protect your home against hurricane damage. Riot Glass laminated safety glass offers affordable protection during a hurricane when compared to other products and methods you can use.

Examples of Common Hurricane Home Protection Methods

Before we talk a little bit more about why Riot Glass is a popular way to protect your property from hurricane damage, let’s take a look at some of the other common ways people protect their homes during a hurricane. There are many hurricane-specific products on the market, as well as do-it-yourself methods of fortifying properties in the face of a coming storm. Some of the most frequently used techniques include covering glass with hurricane fabric, boarding up windows and doors with plywood, and installing permanent storm shutters.

Hurricane Fabric Pros and Cons

Hurricane fabric is one of the cheapest and most convenient products you can use to cover up your home’s glass before a coming storm. Think of it as a piece of trampoline fabric that stretches over your windows and bounces away storm debris that gets thrown during a hurricane.

Some advantages of this special fabric are that it is easy to install and remove, it doesn’t take up a lot of storage space, and you still retain some level of visibility through your windows. In terms of strength, hurricane fabric is one of the weaker options available to you, and any debris it bounces away from your home can fly towards other property and still cause damage.

Plywood Pros and Cons

Boarding up your windows and doors with plywood is another inexpensive way to protect your home from a hurricane. Strength-wise, plywood is much more durable and resistant to flying storm debris than hurricane fabric and will create a strong barrier on top of your glass.

This method of window protection is also the most labor-intensive and will require you to measure, cut, and store the plywood ahead of time, then install it with plenty of time before the storm hits. After the hurricane passes, you have to take it all down again and put it back into storage, which can take up a lot of room if you have many windows.

Storm Shutters Pros and Cons

Out of the traditional hurricane window protection window methods, permanent hurricane shutters are the most practical and effective (and also the most expensive). Hurricane shutters are installed above all your windows and you just have to lower them down when a storm is coming, which makes them very convenient.

There are many styles of hurricane shutters, so you can choose a variety that matches your home’s aesthetic. However, some styles of hurricane shutters can interfere with the amount of natural light that comes in through your windows, even when they’re up, and the cheaper varieties can be very unattractive.

3 Reasons Riot Glass Is Preferred By Many Coastal Clients

1. Stronger than Other Types of Safety Glass

Riot Glass retrofit glass is not designed to replace the strength of plywood and other storm mitigation barriers, but does offer better protection than regular glass, and even other types of security laminated glass. Riot Glass laminated safety glass is a type of safety glass that contains a thermoplastic interlayer. This special composition makes it 100 times stiffer and 5 times stronger than other types of impact-resistant windows on the market. If Riot Glass does receive an impact hard enough to make it shatter, it can retain its shape and strength and keep storm debris and water out of your home.

2. More Affordable Than Window Replacement

Besides its superior strength, a significant advantage of Riot Glass over other types of hurricane window protection is that it can be retrofitted right into your existing framing, making it an affordable alternative to completely replacing your windows. Even if laminated safety glass isn’t in your budget, Riot Glass also offers a full range of more affordable Riot Glass Window Security Laminatess that can be applied to your existing glass to strengthen and protect it.

3. Protects Your Existing Glass All the Time

Another advantage of Riot Glass is that it offers permanent protection—24 hours a day, 365 days a year—so you don’t have to worry about anticipating a storm to protect your property against damage. Riot Glass doesn’t just protect against storm damage. It is also a very effective all-around security enhancement that can protect against forced entry, seismic events, and other security threats.

Other Benefits of Riot Glass

All Riot Glass products are available in tinted, colored, and mirrored varieties for added privacy or if you want to change the appearance of your windows. Additionally, Riot Glass blocks out 99.9% of the sun’s harmful UV rays that cause fading (of upholstery, photos, carpets, etc.) and skin damage. Finally, Riot Glass is available in a variety of energy-efficient options that can help you reduce your utility bills year-round—no matter what the weather.

Choose Riot Glass for Your Hurricane Home Protection

Now that you see why Riot Glass is an attractive option for window protection during a hurricane, why not take the next step and schedule a consultation before the next hurricane? The best way to have Riot Glass installed is to have your glass company call us to discuss which product would be best suited to retrofit into your existing window frames. Contact Riot Glass today at 800-580-2303.