Wind Mitigation and Opening Protection
Most people first hear the phrase from their insurance agent and nod along. It is
worth ten minutes of your attention, because it is the one part of your wind premium you can still
change after the house is built.
What a wind mitigation inspection is
A standardised inspection Florida insurers use to price wind risk on a home. A licensed inspector
walks the house, fills in a state form, and the carrier prices off what the form says. It is not a
home inspection and it is not a code inspection — it looks at a short list of things that
decide whether a house comes apart in a hurricane.
| What it checks | Can you change it? |
|---|---|
| Roof covering — age, material, code compliance | Only by re-roofing |
| Roof deck attachment — how the sheathing is fixed | Effectively only during a re-roof |
| Roof-to-wall attachment — clips, straps, wraps | Difficult and invasive after the fact |
| Roof geometry — hip, gable, flat | No |
| Secondary water resistance | Only during a re-roof |
| Opening protection | Yes — this is the one |
Five of the six are decided by how the house was built or roofed. Opening protection is the line
you can go and change this month.
The part people get wrong: it is all or nothing
The form does not ask how many openings are protected. It asks whether all glazed
openings are protected, and to what standard.
Which means protecting the windows and leaving the lanai sliders bare does not half-score. It
does not score. The most common version of this we see is a house with good shutters on every window
and a wide unprotected lanai, whose owner is surprised the form came back with nothing on that
line.
If you are protecting a house partly for the insurance credit, the order matters. Finish
every glazed opening to the same standard, including the lanai, or the last one you leave
undone is the one that decides the answer.
Shutters or impact glass — does the form care?
Generally not. The form asks whether the opening is protected to a rated standard, not what it is
protected with. Rated accordion shutters,
roll down shutters, storm panels,
rated hurricane screens and
impact windows are all opening protection when they are
specified, permitted and installed correctly.
The word doing the work there is rated. Something bolted over a window with no
Florida Product Approval behind it is not opening protection, however solid it looks. A screen
enclosure or pool cage is not opening protection either — that is the single most common
misunderstanding we run into.
What to do about it, in order
- Ask your agent what the credit is actually worth on your policy. Before you
spend anything. It varies by carrier and by the rest of your construction, and anybody who quotes
you a savings figure without seeing your policy is guessing. - Find out what is already on the form. If you have had an inspection, you have a
copy. If not, that is the starting point rather than a purchase. - Protect every glazed opening, including the lanai. Partial does not count.
- Have the inspection redone afterwards. Nothing changes on your premium until
the carrier has a form that says so.
We will happily tell you which openings on your house are unprotected and what it would take to
close the list. What the credit is worth is a question for your agent, and we are not going to
pretend otherwise.
Find out which of your openings are unprotected
Tell us what you are looking at and someone from our team will call you the same business day. We go through it on the phone first — your openings, the products that actually fit, what is involved — and if it is a fit we come out and put a written quote in your hand. No charge and no obligation.
Questions we get asked
What is a wind mitigation inspection?
A standardised inspection Florida insurers use to price wind risk. It covers roof covering, deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, roof geometry, secondary water resistance and opening protection. Opening protection is the only one of the six most owners can realistically change after the house is built.
Do I get credit for protecting most of my windows?
No. The form asks whether all glazed openings are protected, not how many. A house with shutters on every window and an unprotected lanai does not score on that line, which surprises a lot of people.
Do shutters count as much as impact windows?
For the form, generally yes – it asks whether the opening is protected to a rated standard, not what it is protected with. What does not count is anything without a Florida Product Approval behind it, and a pool cage or screen enclosure never counts.
How much will I save?
That is a question for your agent and nobody else. It depends on your carrier and on the rest of your construction. Ask what the credit is worth on your policy before you spend money, not after.
More questions? Our full hurricane shutter & screen FAQ covers products, service, permitting and financing.
Florida Screen & Shutter, LLC · 883 NE 27th Ln #5, Cape Coral, FL 33909 · (239) 409-0426
License #SCC131152867 · Fully Licensed & Insured Florida Contractor · MagnaTrack President’s Club, #6 in the country, 2025