A door is an opening, and it is in the large-missile band
The HVHZ requirement applies to every exterior opening, residential or commercial: protection against wind-borne debris, by shutters or by impact-resistant product. Doors are not treated separately and there is no lesser standard for an opening you walk through.
The 30-foot rule then decides which missile level applies. Glazing within the lowest 30 feet of exterior building walls must resist large missile impact. Every exterior door on a Pembroke Pines house is at grade, which is as far inside the lower band as it is possible to be. Front entry, side entry, garage-to-exterior, French doors onto the patio — all large-missile openings.
A door with a decorative glass lite is glazing in an exterior wall, and it is not a special case. If the assembly does not carry approval documenting large-missile performance for that configuration, the lite is the weak point in a wall you otherwise spent money protecting.
The assembly is the product, not the slab
Approval on a door covers an assembly: slab, frame, sill, hinges, strike, lockset and glazing, in the configuration tested. A single door and a pair of French doors with an astragal are different configurations with different documentation, and an inswing and an outswing are not interchangeable.
That has a consequence people find counter-intuitive. You cannot upgrade an existing door to impact by replacing the slab, and you cannot preserve an approval by keeping a frame you like. Under § 553.842, F.S., statewide product approval precludes local jurisdictions from requiring further testing only so long as the product is used consistent with the conditions of its approval. A hybrid of new slab and old frame is not a product with an approval — it is a field assembly nobody tested.
Miami-Dade Notices of Acceptance, issued by the County’s Product Control Section, describe door assemblies the same way. Whichever approval route your product takes, the document defines what was tested and how it must be installed.
Notice of commencement, and why door jobs cross the line
Under § 713.135, F.S., the issuing authority must require the applicant to file a copy of the notice of commencement before the first inspection where the direct contract exceeds $5,000. A pair of impact French doors, or an entry system with sidelites, will often clear that on its own — door work is not the small job people assume when they are budgeting.
The statute also requires the authority, before issuing the permit, to give the applicant printed warnings, distribute a summary of the construction lien law, and furnish two or more copies of a notice of commencement form. Worth knowing: the statute carries a carve-out excusing direct contracts to repair or replace an existing heating or air-conditioning system under $15,000 — and it applies to HVAC only. There is no equivalent threshold for doors or windows. Anyone telling you a door swap slips under a $15,000 line is reading the wrong subsection.
Where the permit goes
Door permits in this city go to the City of Pembroke Pines Building Department, 601 City Center Way, (954) 435-6502, permit email Pinespermits@cgasolutions.com. The department enforces Florida Statutes, the Florida Building Code, Broward County ordinances and City of Pembroke Pines ordinances.
Not Broward County. The County’s Building Code Division holds 22 Inter-Local Service Agreements covering other municipalities — Pembroke Park and neighboring Miramar among them — and Pembroke Pines is not on that list. It is an easy mistake for an out-of-area contractor to make, and it is the kind of mistake that surfaces late.