Anyone can do a normal color session Part 2: Window & door sampling
The next important point is the entry door. If you drive through the residential area of Cape Coral, you will either see ornate doors of all kinds or, in modern houses, white glass doors with frames – always the same and usually made of wood. Scroll doors refer to the various types of molding (profiles).
Sampling with scrollwork doors?
Our builder only had all kinds of scrollwork doors on offer – at least that’s what we thought, because he gave us a copy of the door to choose from. Again, we were at a loss and searched the internet restlessly.
There we found a website with modern, European-styleentrance and interior doors. Great, we thought, and picked out something nice. Unfortunately, we were quickly brought back down to earth because the chosen one did not comply with Floridian codes(building regulations).
Nope, but not a dream door either
You can also make it difficult for yourself when it’s actually really easy: we searched and searched and finally resigned ourselves to our fate by choosing the white glass door that all other modern houses have.
Then, in a conversation with the builder, we found out the supplier through whom he ordered doors, windows, roofs and other building elements. Communication sometimes happens when people talk past each other. If he had told us about this company beforehand, we would have saved ourselves many hours of time. At any rate, ABC Supply has all the doors your heart desires, in wood, fiberglass, metal, with small and large glass, decorated or clear and paintable in every imaginable color.
We found a beautiful door there, which will later be painted Adriatic Sea Blue because we chose spa turquoise for the exterior color. The garage, entrance and bathroom will also be finished with Panel Ledger (veneer). The whole thing results in a beautiful Caribbean outfit.
Turquoise glass does not work
When it came to the windows, we initially only knew that they should be PGT windows because they are supposed to be the best quality. However, as we were unsure about the glass color and frame, we went to a window supplier. It’s a bit like in Germany, if you want to look at building elements, the suppliers with showrooms always want to know who the building contractor is. After all, why should they advise you if you don’t order from them later?
That’s why we didn’t feel so welcome in such offices, but we had to get our information from somewhere. There is certainly a lot of information on websites these days, often including configurators. But you can only find out from a specialist whether it’s better to choose aluminum or PVC frames, that glass colors are no longer actually selectable for these windows and which guides are the most robust. So we opted for the aluminum frames because the frames are smaller, so the glass is larger and the view is better.
Windows in Florida have had to endure a real upward trend in regulations in recent years. If you are building in Florida today and don’t want to use shutters when the hurricane comes, you have to install so-called impact windows. Depending on which region you are in, these have to withstand wind speeds of currently 160 mi/h (around 260 km/h) in Cape Coral. In addition, the building must maintain a certain energy balance. It is therefore advisable to use so-called low-e glass (energy-efficient glass).