How to Pick the Best Windows on the Bay

The Tampa Bay area is full of beautiful homes, but it’s also home to a lot of hazards you need to protect your house and family from. When you’re looking for the best windows on the Bay, you need to balance security, curb appeal, and longevity.

After all, is it the best window on the Bay if it’s super-secure, but looks ugly? Would it be the best window for your home if it looks great, but shatters to pieces in a relatively minor breeze? No! To be the best windows on the Bay, you need your window to be beautiful, tough enough to take a full-on hurricane, and long-lasting enough to not have to replace them for decades of use.

Here’s a quick guide to help you know how to pick the best windows on the Bay for your particular home:

Choosing the Right Materials for Windows on the Bay

If you have a Bayside home, odds are that it will be exposed to a lot of salty sea air. Sodium chloride (aka salt) is great on food, but terrible on exposed building materials, especially metal. As noted by Aluminum Handrail Direct, “salts are extremely corrosive. When salt air and salt water come into contact with aluminum they can cause both the chalky, white coating of aluminum oxide and unpleasant pitting.”

This can be an issue, because aluminum is a popular choice of material for impact windows. Aluminum is incredibly strong for its weight, making it ideal for resisting hurricane-force winds and debris impacts. Considering that homes on the Bay are often subjected to powerful winds from tropical storms and even hurricanes, you’d want your window frames to be as strong as possible. 

But, because of how easily aluminum can corrode when exposed to saltwater vapor on the ocean breeze, that can be a problem for aluminum windows. 

Compare this to PVC (aka polyvinylchloride, or vinyl) window frames, which are not reactive to saltwater, allowing them to remain blemish-free even after years of exposure to ocean breezes.

However, PVC isn’t as strong as aluminum. So, how can you get the best of both worlds?

One way that top-quality windows on the Bay deliver best-in-class strength and durability against both impacts and salty air is by using vinyl window frames that have a reinforced aluminum core at the center. 

The PVC completely coats the aluminum, shielding it from contact with ocean water and salty breezes while the aluminum provides a strong core to the window to maximize its strength in the face of hurricane-force winds and flying debris impacts.

Choosing the Right Type of Windows on the Bay

When you’re picking windows for your home, what kind of style do you want? The best windows for your home will be the ones that most appeal to your tastes and complement your home’s style. 

While every window on the Bay needs to be an impact window to comply with Florida Building Code requirements, do you want your windows to be single-hung, double-hung, sliding, casement, awning, bay, or picture style? Each window type has its own quirks and advantages:

• Single hung windows have a fixed (i.e., non-moving) window sash (i.e. panel with glass in it) and a single movable sash that goes up and down, typically on the bottom of the window frame. These are incredibly common and a popular choice for homeowners on a budget.
• Double hung windows have two movable sashes that can move up and down, letting you open them from the top or the bottom. They look like single-hung windows at first glance, but have more moving parts and are often easier to clean from the inside of the home thanks to pivot mechanisms that let you tilt the window sashes inward for cleaning.
• Casement windows swing open and close on an armature system. Because of how they open, they provide the most open space, which is great for when you want to enjoy the breeze from the Bay.
• Awning windows hinge open similar to casements, but on the vertical axis rather than the horizontal, which lets them block out light rainfall even while open. Great for cool days where there’s a light drizzle and you don’t want to run the air conditioner.
• Sliding windows move side to side on rollers for easy movement and are a perfect fit for larger window openings or ones that are a bit hard to reach, like a window over a sink in your kitchen.
• Bay windows stand out from the walls of your house to add more depth of view from the inside. Typically, bay windows on the Bay will have three sets of windows in them. This lets in light from more angles, which can help brighten up the home.
• Picture windows are larger windows that don’t open or close. They trade away these mechanisms for extra rigidity and a larger viewing area, making them a great fit for high-end homes with a great view of the Bay.

The type of window that’s right for your home on the Bay may depend on your personal preferences, the type of window opening you’re going to put the window in, and Florida Building Code restrictions.

This is why consulting with a professional window installer before choosing new windows can be important.

Choosing the Right Windows on the Bay: Consulting with an Expert

Before you commit to buying new windows, it can help to reach out to a professional installer and get some advice! An installation pro who knows FBC requirements can walk you through all of the requirements for windows on the Bay, then provide you with recommendations based on what you want from your windows. 

For example, say that you want a picture window for your bedroom… but you only have the one window opening in that room. A professional window installation specialist will know that, as noted by Engineering Express: “Both the IBC and FBC (IBC 2021/FBC 2023 §1030.1) state that every basement, habitable attic, and sleeping room must include at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening.”

In other words, they’ll be able to tell you that a non-opening picture window cannot be the only kind of window you install in a ‘sleeping room.’ In fact, this can be a good way to weed out less knowledgeable or even fraudulent ‘window specialists.’ A certified specialty contractor with an active license from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) will know the safety requirements. So, if the contractor goes “okay” to such a request, you know to run the other way and not to hire them!

With the right window installation specialist, you can get valuable information about the window installation process, pick the right windows for your home on the Bay, and walk away with more knowledge than you had before!

Choose the Best Window Installation Company for Homes on the Bay!

Need help picking the perfect windows on the Bay for your home on the Bay? Reach out to the experts at Karoly Windows & Doors! We’ll send one of our installation specialists out to meet you in person to discuss your window needs, go over your options, and provide you with an accurate quote for service that you can count on!

We can proudly say that we offer the best windows on the Bay because we work with top window manufacturers to source made-to-order windows that are customized to fit your needs and we go above and beyond on every window installation. Unlike some companies that parcel out their installation work to unlicensed third party contractors, we only ever use in-house installation technicians.

That way, we can guarantee consistent installation quality and service for all of our Tampa Bay customers! Be sure to book some time with a real window installation expert and learn how you can get the best windows on the Bay!