Impact French Door Types for Pompano Beach Homes
A French door is mostly glass, hinged rather than sliding, and usually hung in pairs. The type you choose decides how the door seals against rain, how much wall it takes and what the quote includes.
Outswing double French doors
Outswing pairs open toward the patio. On the state approval drawings for two impact door lines, outswing doors meet the HVHZ water infiltration requirement only with a specific coastal sill, so the threshold model is worth checking on the quote, not just the door.
- Exterior French doors installed (HomeGuide): $1,300 to $5,500.
- Doors alone, plus labor (HomeGuide exterior door guide): $250 to $4,500, then $300 to $1,100 to install.
Inswing French doors
An inswing pair opens into the room, which keeps screens and patio furniture clear outside. The trade-off in Broward is water. Those same two approvals say inswing configurations don't meet the HVHZ water infiltration requirements and may be installed only in non-habitable areas, or where an overhang or canopy is deep enough that the angle from its edge to the sill is under 45 degrees. A good installer will show you that note for the product quoted.
Single French door with sidelights
One door with fixed glass panels either side fits a narrower opening and still lets in a wall of light. HomeGuide's front door guide adds $500 to $1,500 or more per sidelight, materials and labor. Sidelight glass close to the door edge and low to the floor usually needs safety glazing as well as its impact rating.
Converting a window or slider to French doors
Turning a window into a pair of French or double doors costs $1,200 to $5,000 in HomeGuide's exterior door guide, and widening an opening or going from a single door to a double adds $400 to $800. The city treats installing an exterior door as structural work, so the new opening goes on the city permit; ask whether the header and any stucco patching are on the quote. Hanging the doors is the short part: HomeGuide's exterior door guide allows 3 to 8 hours for a typical door, with any wall work done first.
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
Deposits and Lead Times for Impact French Doors
French doors are built to order, so expect a deposit at signing and a factory wait before anyone comes to install. Florida law and one local installer's published figures set out what to expect.
The 10% deposit rule (F.S. 489.126). A contractor who takes more than 10% of the contract price as a first payment on residential work must:
Apply for permits
within 30 days after the payment is made.Start the work
within 90 days after the permits are issued, unless there is just cause or you agreed in writing to a longer period.Keep working
a contractor holding more of your money than the work done is worth may not stop for any 90-day period.
Pay the deposit in a way that records the date, since that date starts the 30-day permit clock. If those dates pass, the statute's remedy starts with a written demand sent by certified mail. A contractor who neither acts nor refunds within 30 days of that demand can be presumed to lack just cause.
Factory lead times. One installer serving Broward and Palm Beach notes that manufacturers don't publish lead times and that factory production often takes about 4 to 14 weeks. Its July 6, 2026 update listed:
PGT
3-4 weeks.ECO (NOVO)
4-5 weeks; ECO (EcoGuard): 5-6 weeks.ESW
10-12 weeks; GIG: 12-14 weeks.CGI
listed as discontinued.
The same page says some makers ran 26-28 weeks in 2021, so these figures move. They are one seller's numbers, not a survey. If a quote's delivery date runs past the 90-day window, put the agreed date in writing as the statute allows.
Glass Choices for Impact French Doors
Nearly the whole face of a French door is glass, so the glass spec carries more weight here than on a solid entry door. Three standards apply at once.
Impact and safety
Every lite must be safety glazing because it's in a swinging door, and in the HVHZ it must also pass the impact tests as part of the approved door. Laminated glass covers both; the interlayer types are explained on the glass replacement page.Heat gain
Florida's energy code caps glazed fenestration in Broward at the 0.25 SHGC limit. ENERGY STAR's Version 7.0 criteria for doors with more than half-lite glass in the Southern zone are tighter: U-factor 0.28 or lower and SHGC 0.23 or lower.Insurance grading
The state wind mitigation form counts doors among the glazed openings it grades, so a French door without verified protection pulls the whole house down a level. The form itself is covered on the hurricane shutters page.
Ask for the door's design pressure, SHGC and U-factor in writing next to the price. Two French doors that look the same in a showroom can sit on different sides of those limits.
What Moves a French Door Quote
These are the lines that make two French door quotes hard to compare.
Approval and pressure
Each door needs its own approved, labeled HVHZ unit rating; the drawings list separate design pressures for inswing and outswing.Removal and labor
HomeGuide's patio door guide puts labor at $200 to $1,000 and taking out the old door at $100 to $500.Finish
Many new doors arrive unfinished, and HomeGuide prices painting a door at $125 to $225.Decorative glass
HomeGuide adds $100 to $1,000 or more over a solid door for decorative glass.Paperwork
A contract above $2,500 must carry the state's lien-law notice.
See impact front doors.