Wellington, FL, is the winter equestrian capital of the world. If there is one thing that nearly all Wellington residents share, it is a love of horses. Wellington is known for its National Polo Center, its many corrals and pastures full of beautiful grazing horses, and its country club with a unique focus on Polo as a sport and a way of life. However, it is also often in the path of Florida’s strongest hurricanes. Wellington residents are turning to impact windows and doors to protect their homes and horses from future hurricanes.
The Colorful Founding of Wellington, FL
Wellington residents may know that the town is among the most recently founded in Florida, having been developed from the originally vast Flying Cow Ranch owned by aviator Charles O Wellington (COW). Development began in the 1960s. During this time, what would become the equestrian community went through many phases, including boasting the world’s largest strawberry patch (about 2,000 acres of strawberries in the late 1960s)
The First Polo and Aero Clubs
The very first residential developments after the creation of Lake Wellington were the International Polo Club Palm Beach, now the National Polo Center, and the Aero Club. Founded by an aviator and rancher, this comes as no surprise. These clubs each included their own exclusive neighborhoods, one with private stables and polo fields while the other featured a private airpark.
Today, many homes still feature private equestrian facilities or airplane hangars, reflecting the continued love of these two favorite hobbies of Wellington’s Palm Beach elites. While located slightly inland, the one thing that both equestrians and aviators share is an understanding of Florida’s dangerous weather patterns. It is for this reason that impact windows are highly valued throughout the Wellington, Florida, community.
Batten Down the Hatches in Wellington for Hurricane Season
Wellington is a wide-open community with many fields where you can regularly see horses and airplanes. However, the landscape changes when a storm is brewing. In order to protect precious properties, horses, and planes, it is necessary to batten down the hatches – so to speak – and lock properties up tight before each storm blows through.
Florida’s pattern of severe tropical storms and hurricanes can transform this idyllic community as everyone locks their barns tightly and shutters the windows. In this situation, every ounce of protection can help protect homes, families, and recreational facilities. Since the popular introduction of impact glass in the 1990s, impact windows and doors have become increasingly prominent in Wellington homes, businesses, and recreational properties to keep everyone (including the horses) safe during intense seasonal storms.
What Are Impact Windows?
Manufacturers create impact windows using impact glass. Engineers design impact glass to protect homes and businesses from hurricane-force winds, flying debris, and direct impacts. They make it by combining two pieces of durable tempered glass with a sheet of flexible polymer in the center. Heat and pressure fuse the polymer to both glass panes, creating a “laminated” glass pane that remains crystal clear.
This pane is more durable and flexible than a single pane of glass and offers several benefits, including resistance to hurricane-force winds. Inventors developed impact glass in the early 1900s, and it gained popularity in the 1990s after a particularly devastating hurricane season in Florida. By 2000, experts introduced it as the best solution for Florida homes and businesses to resist hurricane damage.
Flexes Before Breaking
Impact glass is more flexible than you would believe it possible for glass to be. When impacted, you can see the glass flex ever so slightly as the impacting force bounces off the outside pane. This flexibility is provided by the laminate sheet of polymer in the center.
While it is possible to crack a pane of impact glass with a sharp and incredibly forceful blow, even then, the glass will bend and will resist breaking.
The Sacrificial Glass Pane
One unique feature of impact glass is the effect of the two panes with laminate in between. If a force is strong enough to break the glass, it is possible that only one side will break. The laminate reduces the force translated to the glass on the other side, which may remain intact. This is why the exterior pane of glass is sometimes known as the sacrificial glass pane.
Cracks But Doesn’t Shatter
If you have ever seen an impact window crack, you may remember that it never fell or shattered. This is, again, because of the polymer sheet. Even when cracked, the glass is still bonded to the polymer which often remains intact and supported by the less-damaged pane. Shards of glass remain safely part of the window and do not fall into the home, keeping you safe from glass and often continuing to provide weather protection until repairs are possible.
This three-layer system means impact glass rarely takes damage and also continues to protect you even if the glass is broken.
How Can Impact Glass Protect Wellington Homes?
Wellington homes are not seaside but are still quite close to the Florida coast. This puts Wellington in the direct path of hurricanes as they cross the Florida peninsula and often face the strongest wind, rain, and risk of debris. Wellington homeowners are very familiar with the dangers of storm damage and often must take measures to protect their homes when a hurricane is on the way.
Impact windows provide the best possible protection for your home both because they are extremely strong and because they require no effort.
Resist Category 5 Hurricane Winds
The high-performance impact windows installed by A-Christian Glass are all rated to defend homes from Category 5 hurricane winds. Manufacturers put each window through a test to ensure that the window meets the durability standards. Winds over 160 miles per hour and beyond are no longer a worry. Your glass won’t rattle or crack, no matter how big the storm.
Protect Against Flying Debris
Another major concern during a hurricane is flying debris. While many standard windows will merely rattle in the wind, an airborne lawn chair or tree branch almost always risks shattering the window. With impact windows, this is no longer a concern. Designers specifically engineered impact windows to resist impacts, particularly during storms. These windows safeguard your home from the hazards of loose debris caught in hurricane-speed winds.
Allow Sunshine Between Storm Gales
Before impact windows, the best solution to keep windows safe in a hurricane was storm shutters. Sturdy metal shutters protect the glass, but they also block out light for the entire duration of the storm—until it’s safe to open them up again. This isn’t true with impact glass.
Impact windows are as strong or stronger than metal storm shutters, and you don’t have to block out the sun. You can enjoy the strangely beautiful sunshine between the storm’s gales and can even safely watch the storm from the cozy safety of your living room through crystal clear yet incredibly durable impact glass panes.
Provide Peace of Mind At Home and Away
Most importantly, impact windows provide peace of mind for Wellington homeowners. If you are at home when the storm hits, you can rest assured that your house is secure and your family will remain safe indoors. The weather, wind, and debris are no longer something you have to fear as the storm rages around your home.
Impact windows also provide peace of mind for those away from home. Whether you are traveling or staying at another property during the hurricane season, you can relax knowing that your home is unlikely to take serious damage from a broken window while you are away.
Impact Windows in Stables and Airplane Hangars in Wellington
Of course, impact windows aren’t useful just to protect your home. In Wellington, the stables and airplane hangars are just as important. The lives of your horses are precious, and airplanes are delicate machines that could be damaged if hangar windows were compromised. With impact windows, you don’t have to worry.
Protecting Your Horses From Harm
Most stables and corrals have windows to let in natural light. However, in Florida, all windows are a risk unless they are reinforced. Horses are precious, sweet animals who are frightened enough during storms without the dangers of a broken window to worry about. and allow you to remain sheltered at home without worrying about your gentle animal companions.
Preventing Glass Shards In Your Airplane Hangars
When you pour your heart into maintaining your favorite light plane, storm damage can lead to heartbreak. This is why a durable hangar design is a must. Hangars also typically include windows and even skylights to provide plenty of natural light while you work on your planes. With impact windows, you don’t have to worry about water damage or storm debris in your hangar while you wait out the storm at home.
The Additional Benefits of Installation of Impact Windows in Wellington
What else can impact windows do for Wellington homes and facilities? The unique design of impact glass provides advantages beyond just storm damage protection. Impact windows are also energy-efficient, reduce noise transmission, improve home security, and make it safer to play near windows without danger.
Energy Efficient Window Upgrade
Every Florida home benefits from greater energy efficiency. The layer of laminate between the glass panes of an impact window increases the insulation rating. Less temperature change is able to transfer from the outer pane to the inner pane; therefore, the heat stays on the outside, and your cool air-conditioned temperatures stay indoors.
Updating your entire home with impact windows and doors can significantly increase its energy efficiency by reducing the temperature lost through the windows. This not only saves money and decreases your carbon footprint, but it also improves the home’s indoor temperature stability.
Noise Reduction for a Quiet Home
The laminate layer also reduces glass pane vibration in each window, minimizing sound transmission and resulting in noise reduction. With impact windows, your home becomes more peaceful and quiet, keeping traffic and other outside noises at bay. You also enjoy greater privacy, as indoor conversations and activities are less likely to be overheard outside.
Increase Home Security
Impact windows increase home security. This is unsurprising when you consider matters from a physics perspective. After all, if a Cat 5 hurricane hurling lawn chairs can’t break your windows, a thief probably can’t either. It would take an incredible effort just to crack the window, much less push through the durable glass-bonded membrane. Your home will be quite safe from casual smash-and-grab tactics and other home invasion attempts that rely on breaking a window.
Child-Safe for Horseplay
Families also enjoy the comfort of knowing that impact windows are much safer for children at play. Romping near the windows and casually throwing toys are very unlikely to cause damage, and tightly latched windows will effectively keep your children safely indoors. Even the most heroically hit baseball is unlikely to make it all the way through three layers of a single impact window.
Updating Your Wellington Home With Impact Windows and Doors
Homes in Wellington range from well-appointed to manorly estates. Each one is unique and each upgrade provides you the opportunity to improve the home further. When you decide to upgrade your Wellington, FL, home with impact windows and doors, this is not just a new choice of glass pane. You can also explore potential upgrades in window style and function.
It’s good to match the home’s original architecture or design a new window that increases its visual appeal in bold or subtle ways. You can also improve each window’s functionality if you prefer a different style of opening or a new type of window latch, or even combine and split shared frames into larger or separate windows. The creative choice is yours!
Discover peace of mind when you choose high-performance impact windows professionally installed by A-Christian Glass. Call us at (561) 278-3385 or send us an email for a free consultation on your custom impact windows for Wellington, Florida, homes.