Best Time to Replace a Garage Door in Florida
The best time to replace a garage door in Florida is March to May, before hurricane season opens on June 1. Rated doors are built to order and lead times are shortest in spring, permits are easy to schedule, and the door is inspected and in place before the first storm. A standard wind-rated steel door runs $950 to $4,200 installed with the permit included, and an impact-rated or HVHZ door $1,800 to $6,500; those prices do not change with the season, but availability does.
The short answer
March to May. Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, and a door that is ordered in March is installed, inspected and closed out on the permit before the season opens. Lead times on rated doors are at their shortest, the building department is not backed up, and we are not yet working around storm calls.
That is the whole recommendation. The rest of this page is the reasoning, and what happens to prices and availability if you wait.
Why lead time is the whole story
A garage door in Florida is not a stock item you pick up on the day. It has to be rated for the design wind pressure at your site, which means a specific model in a specific size with a specific approval: a Florida Product Approval across most of the state, a Miami-Dade NOA in Miami-Dade and Broward. Manufacturers build those to order.
In a normal spring the wait from order to installation is several weeks. It depends on the manufacturer, the door, and whether you want windows, insulation or a color that is not white. A plain wind-rated steel single is faster than an insulated impact-rated double with glass.
That lead time is the reason we say March, not May. A door ordered in March is on the house in April. A door ordered in the last week of May competes with everyone who saw the June 1 forecast, and it is on the house in July if nothing happens in between.
The June 1 rush
Every year on June 1 the season opens, the news covers it, and the phone starts. Most of those calls are for a tune-up or for the door someone meant to replace last year. The manufacturers see the same wave, and lead times stretch through June and July as orders stack up.
None of it is a crisis. A door ordered in June still arrives well before the busiest weeks of the season, which historically are August to October. But you are waiting longer for the same door and paying the same price, and if a storm forms in the Gulf while your door is on a truck, your installation date moves.
The tune-up side of the rush is easier. At $85 to $160 it is a single visit, and April or May is the right month for it. The pre-season checklist in prepare your garage door for a hurricane is built around that visit.
What a storm does to the market
After a named storm makes landfall, three things happen in the affected counties at once.
Rated doors sell out. Every damaged door on every street in the landfall zone needs a rated replacement with a permit, and the manufacturers’ stock of common sizes goes in days. Lead times that were weeks become months. After Ian in 2022, Southwest Florida waited most of a season for some doors, and the same pattern has followed every major storm since.
Building departments back up. Permits still have to be pulled and inspections still have to happen, and the counties are dealing with roofs, windows and rebuilds at the same time.
Prices move, at some companies. This is the complaint people have after every hurricane, and it is a fair one. The same door that was one price in April is a different price in October, from a company that is suddenly very busy.
Ours does not move. The prices on our price list are the prices in April and in October. What we cannot control is the door’s availability, and we tell you the lead time in writing when we quote rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Prices by season
| Timing | Lead time on a rated door | Price |
|---|---|---|
| March to May | Shortest of the year, several weeks | Published price |
| June to July | Longer, order backlog after June 1 | Published price |
| August to November, no storm | Normal to long, depending on the year | Published price |
| The months after a landfall | Months for many sizes | Published price; availability is the limit |
| December to February | Short, manufacturers are quiet | Published price |
The published prices: new door installation from $950 to $4,200 for a standard wind-rated steel single, permit included in the quote. Hurricane-rated door installation from $1,800 to $6,500 for an impact-rated or HVHZ door, permit included. By material, installed: steel $950 to $3,000, aluminum $1,300 to $4,000, wood $2,200 to $9,000, fiberglass $1,400 to $3,800, vinyl $1,100 to $2,800, with hurricane-rated versions of any of them starting around $1,800 and impact-rated glass doors running to $8,000 and above.
December to February is also a good window. Manufacturers are quiet, lead times are short, and seasonal residents who come back in November and find a failed door in Naples or Venice are often better served by ordering in December than by waiting for spring. The one thing those months do not give you is the pre-season tune-up timing, which is why we still say March to May for most people.
Which doors should be replaced before the season
Not every door needs replacing before June. The ones that do:
- Unrated doors. No factory label, no permit on file. These are the largest weak point on the house and the first thing a wind mitigation inspector marks down. See garage door wind mitigation insurance credit.
- Doors from the early 1990s rebuild. Andrew-era replacements in Kendall and Homestead are past thirty years old, and their springs, cables and bottom brackets have had thirty years of salt air.
- Doors with two or more damaged sections. Panel replacement runs $250 to $800 per section when the profile is still made. Two sections and bent track is usually a replacement.
- Doors in the HVHZ without an NOA. In Miami-Dade and Broward the accepted route to a rated opening is a rated door, not a bracing kit. See HVHZ garage doors explained.
The doors that do not need replacing before June are the rated ones with sound hardware. Those get a tune-up, and repair or replace covers the decision in more detail.
The permit and the calendar
Replacing a garage door in Florida requires a building permit pulled by a licensed contractor, with the rating documented on the permit, and the county inspects the finished installation. In spring the whole cycle, application to closed permit, fits inside the door’s lead time. After a storm it does not always, and an open permit waiting on an inspection is one more thing to manage. We pull the permit and it is included in the quote. The process is in garage door permits in Florida.
What to do this week
If it is spring, call for a quote. We measure, confirm the design pressure for your site, name the door and its approval number in writing, give you the manufacturer’s lead time, and pull the permit when you approve.
If it is already the season, the same call, with an honest lead time. A door ordered in July is still a door in place for September, which is when it matters.
If a storm has just passed and the door is damaged, storm damage repair from $150 secures the opening and gives you the written assessment while the replacement is on order. What to do first is in garage door storm damage: what to do.
Related reading
- New garage door cost in Florida
- Hurricane-rated garage door cost in Florida
- Best garage door material for Florida
- Garage door tune-up cost
Related questions
How long does it take to get a hurricane-rated garage door?
In a normal spring, several weeks from order to installation, because rated doors are built to order in the size and rating your permit specifies. In the weeks after a major storm, the same door can take months. We give you the manufacturer's lead time in writing when we quote.
Can I replace a garage door during hurricane season?
Yes, and we do it every week from June to November. The difference is lead time and scheduling. A door ordered in July may not arrive until late summer, and if a storm hits in between, both the door and the installation date move.
Do garage door prices go up after a hurricane?
Ours do not. The published price is the price, before and after a storm. What changes is availability: rated doors sell out and manufacturers back up. Be careful with any company whose price for the same door went up the week after landfall.
Is it too late if it is already May?
No. A door ordered in May usually arrives in June, which is early in the season and long before the historically busiest weeks of August to October. Order now rather than waiting for the June 1 news cycle to remind you.
Should I do a tune-up or a replacement before the season?
A tune-up at $85 to $160 if the door is rated and the hardware is sound. A replacement if the door is unrated, if two or more sections are damaged, or if the door and its hardware are past the age where a tune-up buys you a season. We tell you which on the visit.
