A Smarter Path to Hurricane-Region Building Product Approvals

22 Oct 2025

A structured three-step process helps manufacturers streamline approvals, reduce costs, and shorten timelines

Testing and approving products for hurricane-prone regions requires more than meeting baseline code requirements. Without proper planning, even well-designed products can face failed tests, project delays, and increased costs.

Success depends on selecting the right market targets, designing test plans that capture all product variables, and maintaining compliance through approvals and quality assurance. A structured approach reduces rework, shortens approval timelines, and improves long-term resilience and market viability.

Costly Missteps

Each year, manufacturers aim to enter the hurricane-rated market by securing approvals for regions such as South Florida, the Gulf Coast, or coastal communities from Texas to Massachusetts. Despite good intentions, many waste time and resources due to a lack of upfront planning.

Examples include:

• Overlooking Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) approval at the outset, only to need it later, forcing additional testing.
• Assuming one tested unit covers an entire product line, only to find variations missing from the approval process.
• Building specimens that are over-engineered for the wrong region, adding cost without delivering value.

These challenges increase costs, extend timelines, and weaken credibility with architects, specifiers, and contractors.

A Structured Approach

A three-step process can help streamline approvals, reduce costs, and shorten timelines.

1. Define Market Targets and Timelines: Not every product requires Miami-Dade NOA. The key is to align approval goals with actual sales and installation regions and to pursue NOA only when needed. This avoids wasted effort while making sure the right approvals are in place.
2. Build an Efficient and Inclusive Test Plan: Account for all variations, including frame sizes, glazing types, hardware, and installation methods. Boundary testing and substitution rules expand approval coverage while minimizing the number of specimens.
3. Support Approvals and Long-Term Compliance: Compile test reports, installation instructions, and evaluation summaries for submittal. Intertek also manages renewals, mid-cycle updates, and quality audits to maintain compliance over the product’s lifecycle.

Intertek’s Role

We operate accredited laboratories across North America, where thousands of structural, impact, and weathering tests are conducted each year. Our experts also serve on standards and code committees, providing clients with early insight into regulatory changes that impact test protocols and certification cycles.

This depth of technical expertise, combined with a structured approach, gives manufacturers a clear path to market that reduces rework, shortens approval timelines, and delivers products built to meet the highest standards of resilience.