Condo Window Replacement Types: Units, Balconies and Whole Buildings
Who orders the work and how high the glass sits change the product, the paperwork and who pays.
Single-Unit Window Replacement
An owner replacing a unit's own windows works within the board's hurricane protection specification, which can fix color, style and other details. If the condo documents require approval, the board can't turn down an installation that conforms to that spec, though it can insist on the building's unified exterior look. Bring the spec sheet to the measure so the quote lists matching frames and glass.
Balcony Sliding Glass Doors
The statute treats exterior doors as apertures alongside windows, so a balcony slider falls under the same board specification. All glass in a sliding door is a safety-glazing location, and the panels also need impact approval. Pricing and panel layouts are on the sliding glass doors page.
High-Rise Windows Above 30 Feet
Broward's code sets two impact tests by height. Products up to 30 feet above grade must survive the large missile, a 9-pound 2x4 at 50 feet per second. Above 30 feet the small-missile test applies: 2-gram steel balls fired at 130 feet per second. Check that the approval for each unit covers the floor it goes on, and that its labeled design pressure fits that wall.
- Up to 30 ft: large-missile test (TAS 201 and 203).
- Above 30 ft: small-missile test.
Association-Wide Window Projects
A board can install hurricane protection itself, or require owners to, with a majority of the voting interests. The vote goes into a certificate recorded in the county public records, with the date the work must be done, and owners get a copy. If the declaration already makes windows the association's job, no vote is needed. A board can't repeat the same type of protection on a building that already has code-compliant protection unless it's worn out or needed to prevent damage.
Low-Rise Condos and Villas
Florida's energy code treats apartment-type buildings of three stories or fewer as residential, so their replacement glass follows the 0.25 SHGC limit. Taller condo towers fall under the commercial energy rules instead, covered on the commercial window replacement page.
Why Pompano Beach homeowners call Pompano Windows
- One independent installer calls back, not a list of five
- The request costs you nothing
- Ask for approval numbers and design pressures on the quote
- Permit, removal and stucco patching priced in writing
Condo Window Costs: Unit Owner or Association
The declaration of condominium decides who maintains and replaces each part of the building, and the association handles the parts the declaration assigns to it. Read yours before collecting quotes.
Association repairs
Unless the declaration says otherwise, a unit owner doesn't pay to remove or reinstall windows and doors when the association needs them out to repair property it's responsible for.Owner-paid removal
If the owner does that removal, the association must reimburse the cost or credit it against future assessments.Undecided declarations
Where the declaration is silent, the board decides whether the owner or the association does the removal.
Reserve Studies and Milestone Inspections
Buildings three stories or taller need a structural integrity reserve study, and windows and exterior doors are on its list of required items. Associations that existed on or before July 1, 2022 had until December 31, 2025 to complete the first one. Separately, condo buildings need a milestone inspection by an engineer or architect by the end of the year they turn 30, counted from the certificate of occupancy, then every 10 years. The local building agency can move that to 25 years where conditions such as nearby salt water call for it. A board planning window work around either report should ask for quotes that price each opening type separately.