How do I know if my garage door is hurricane rated?

Is my garage door impact rated? The check, step by step

You can answer it from inside your own garage with a flashlight and a phone.

1. Close the door and find the label. Check the inside face of the sections and their edges, the side tracks, and the angle that runs across the door's bottom edge.
2. Photograph it. Get every line sharp. The same picture serves the lookup, a wind mitigation visit and, one day, a buyer.
3. Read the approval number. NOA numbers from Miami-Dade have two digits, a dash, four digits, a dot and two more digits, like 00-0000.00. A Florida approval starts with FL, and the product number ends in a decimal, like FL00000.0.
4. Look it up. Enter the NOA number in Miami-Dade's Product Control search, or the FL number in the state product approval search at floridabuilding.org.
5. Read four things in the result. Whether it's approved for the HVHZ, whether it's impact-resistant, the design pressure, and the expiration date or status.
6. Match it to your door. The approval sets a maximum width and height and lists any glass. Your door has to fit inside those limits, and its rating has to meet the pressure your opening needs.

Where do I find the hurricane label on my garage door?

Inside, where weather can't reach it. Miami-Dade approvals spell out the spot: a 2026 NOA for a steel sectional door, for example, requires a permanent label on the door's side track, on its bottom angle or on the inner surface of a panel. Doors sold under a Florida approval usually carry theirs in the same places.

Start low and work up: the inside face and edges of the bottom section, then both tracks at eye level, then the higher sections. Labels end up under paint, behind shelving or a storage rack, and on older doors the print can fade until only the number is left. The 3D loop on this page shows where that label sits on the edge of a section.

Reading the wind label: what each line means

The label tells you who made the door, which model it is, which approval it was sold under and what it was tested to resist. The NOA labeling rule lists the maker's name or logo, the factory address, the model number, the design pressures, positive and negative, whether it's impact-rated, the installation drawing number, the approval number and the test standards.

• Design pressure, plus and minus. Measured in psf, pounds per square foot. The plus number is the push from outside the door resists; the minus number is the suction pulling it out. On a label it reads like +37.0 / −45.0 PSF.
• Impact. Words like LARGE MISSILE IMPACT, or the impact standards: TAS 201, 202 and 203, ASTM E1886 and E1996, or ANSI/DASMA 115 for garage doors. A label that lists only pressure tests (TAS 202, ANSI/DASMA 108 or ASTM E330) belongs to a door that isn't impact-rated.
• Size. The approval covers doors up to a maximum width and height. One written for doors up to 9 feet wide doesn't cover a 16 foot door.
• The installation drawing. Its number points to the anchoring the inspector checks: struts, track fastening and anchor spacing.

How do I look up a garage door NOA or Florida approval number?

Both databases are public, and each one answers the same four questions.

• Miami-Dade NOA. On the county's Product Control Search, type the number into the file search in the same format (00-0000.00). The NOA opens as a PDF; its first pages give the description with the maximum size, the missile impact rating and the expiration date.
• Florida approval. On floridabuilding.org, the state's product approval search, enter the FL number. Each product's listing shows fields named Approved for use in HVHZ, Approved for use outside HVHZ, Impact Resistant and Design Pressure, plus the approval's status.

If the number won't come up, look for a misread digit, then try the maker and model in the advanced search. An approval that's expired, revoked or suspended won't cover a door you're buying now.

Is a Florida approved garage door enough in Broward County?

Only when its approval says yes to the HVHZ. Florida product approvals are registered for use inside the HVHZ, outside it, or both, and some garage doors sold in Florida are approved only outside it. Broward and Miami-Dade make up the HVHZ, so in Pembroke Pines the line that matters reads Approved for use in HVHZ: Yes. Miami-Dade issues its NOAs with the HVHZ in mind; the one cited above states compliance with the state building code, HVHZ included.

Glass can split one model in two: the same door may be approved for the HVHZ with impact-resistant windows and not with standard ones, so check the listing for your door's exact glazing. What the code asks of a door in Broward is on our impact garage doors page.

What if my garage door has no label?

Then the door can't prove its rating on its own, and three other places may hold the answer. It comes up often here: about 80% of Pembroke Pines homes were built before 2000, and the median year is 1992, according to Census Bureau survey data, so plenty of doors are original to houses from the 1980s and 1990s.

• The city's permit history. Pembroke Pines keeps permit records online, from 1992 through August 2, 2009 in its older system and in the Development Hub after that (permit search). A garage door or opening permit at your address tells you when a door went in under inspection, and that permit's file is where its product approval would sit.
• Your own papers. The builder's closing package, a previous owner's receipts or an earlier wind mitigation report may name the door's approval.
• An inspection. We can look at the struts, the track and the anchors and compare them with approvals for doors of that kind. When there's neither a label nor a record, the honest outcome is often that the door can't be verified, and a wind mitigation inspector will see it the same way.

Text us a photo of the label, or of the spots where it should be, and our reply names the one worth your time.

Does a wind mitigation inspection look at the garage door?

Yes. The state form inspectors fill out, OIR-B1-1802 in its April 2026 revision, includes garage doors in the opening protection question and scores the house on its least protected opening. For the impact level, a garage door needs one of the impact standards the form accepts, which for garage doors include ANSI/DASMA 115, and proof: the form asks for a photo or document behind each answer, which is why the label photo matters. A door verified only for pressure lands lower, and an opening that needs replacing puts the house out of the mitigation credits.

The effect on your premium is your insurer's call (wind mitigation resources from the Office of Insurance Regulation). What we can do is make sure the paper trail exists: the label photo, the approval and, for a new door, a permit with its final inspection passed.

Can you make an existing garage door hurricane rated?

Not by adding parts on your own. A rating comes from an approval for a specific door built a specific way, and bolting extra bracing onto a door that has no approval doesn't create one. A maker may offer approved parts for its own models, and that door's approval documents would show it. For an unlabeled door, the realistic choices are a rated replacement or, for a season, a storm brace as a stopgap.

A rated replacement means a city permit and two inspections: see the Pembroke Pines permit guide and new garage doors. Braces and the storm checklist are on our impact garage doors page.

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