Central Florida Hurricane Protection
Roll-Down Shutters: Permanent Protection for Your Openings
Roll-down shutters lower over an opening when protection is needed and retract into a housing above it when open. We help you determine whether this system suits your home, your openings, and your priorities.
A roll-down shutter closed over an entry archway.
Your Main Questions, Answered
Straight answers first. Some details genuinely depend on your openings, and those are marked so you know what still has to be checked at your home.
What remains visible when the shutter is open?
The shutter curtain itself rolls up out of sight, so the opening is clear. What stays visible is the housing above the opening and a vertical track on each side. Finishes are limited to the manufacturer's standard colours for the system quoted.
Confirmed at your property assessment: We show you where the housing and tracks would sit on each opening, and how they will look from the street, before anything is ordered.
How will the housing and side tracks look on my home?
The housing is a box fixed above the opening; on some homes it can be tucked under a soffit, recess or overhang, and on others it sits on the face of the wall in plain view. The side tracks run the full height of the opening. Appearance depends entirely on the wall, the trim and the space available.
Confirmed at your property assessment: Where the housing can be concealed and where it must be surface-mounted is decided opening by opening at the property assessment.
Will it fit my windows, doors, or other openings?
Each shutter is made to the measurements of one opening. Whether a roll-down suits a particular window, door, garage or lanai depends on the opening dimensions, the mounting surface above and beside it, the room for the housing, safe access for the crew, and the size limits in the approved system.
Confirmed at your property assessment: We measure every opening, check what the housing and tracks can be fastened to, and tell you plainly where a roll-down does not fit. We cannot promise that every opening on a home can be covered by this system.
What should I understand about operating it?
A roll-down shutter stays on the opening all year, so there are no panels to fetch, carry or store. You lower it before a storm and raise it afterwards. The operating method supplied with a shutter varies by system and by opening, and so does the physical effort involved.
Confirmed at your property assessment: We confirm exactly how each shutter you are quoted is operated, let you work one yourself before you decide, and show every member of the household at handover.
What affects the installed price?
The number and size of openings, the room available for the housing, whether the housing is concealed or surface-mounted, the mounting surface, the height and access for the crew, the finish, the locking hardware, and whether permitting is included all affect the installed price. You receive a written estimate for your actual openings rather than a price per foot over the phone.
What maintenance is needed?
Side tracks and the area around the housing should be checked for debris, obstructions and signs of wear, and each shutter should be operated before hurricane season so that anything sticking shows up on a calm day. Insect nests inside tracks are a common cause of a shutter binding. See the care section below.
How are emergency exit requirements addressed?
Openings used as an exit, and bedroom windows used for escape and rescue, are treated differently from other openings. Where required they are fitted with hardware that can be released from inside without a key or tool. Florida Building Code egress requirements apply and are reviewed in the permit and inspection process.
Confirmed at your property assessment: Every exit and bedroom escape opening is identified during the assessment, and the estimate records how each one is released from inside.
What documents support its approval?
Shutter systems installed in Florida carry either a Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, together with the manufacturer's engineering drawings showing approved sizes and fastening. We publish the document for the exact system quoted, unaltered, in the approvals section below.
Could insurance savings or grant assistance apply?
Some Florida insurers allow wind-mitigation credits when approved opening protection is installed and documented, and the My Safe Florida Home program assists some homeowners. Neither is something we can promise. Your insurer decides any credit from your wind-mitigation inspection, and the program decides grant eligibility.
Where Roll-Down Shutters Fit Best
Roll-down shutters are a permanently installed system that retracts above the opening, so there is nothing removable to store. That convenience comes with visible housings and tracks, and with mounting requirements that not every opening can meet.
Situations they suit
- Homeowners who do not want to store, carry or fit removable panels each season.
- Openings that need to be closed and reopened without help, and without a ladder.
- Large or wide openings where a single curtain covers the span cleanly.
- Homes where there is space above the opening — a soffit, recess or overhang — that the housing can sit in or under.
- Second-storey or hard-to-reach openings, where handling panels from a ladder would be the alternative.
Practical tradeoffs
- The housing above the opening and the tracks down each side stay visible all year.
- Openings without enough space above them for a housing may not suit this system at all.
- Tracks collect debris and insect nests and need checking; a neglected track is the usual cause of a shutter binding.
- Cost varies widely by opening and by how the housing has to be mounted, so per-opening prices differ across the same home.
- Colour and finish choices are limited to the manufacturer's standard range for the approved system.
Another product is sometimes the better fit. We compare them with you for your actual openings rather than naming a single best product.
- Accordion shutters: Also permanently attached, with no panels to store, but folded to the sides of the opening instead of into a housing above it. Often the better answer where there is no room above the opening. Read about accordion shutters
- Storm panels: The most economical option, but the panels are stored between storms and have to be carried out and fitted to each opening beforehand. Read about storm panels
- UltraShield hurricane screens: A retractable impact-protection option for suitable outdoor openings where screen material is preferred to a solid closure when deployed. Read about ultrashield hurricane screens
- Bahama and Colonial shutters: Chosen where the appearance of the home from the street matters as much as the protection. Read about bahama and colonial shutters
Real Installation Examples
A photograph of work completed by our team. We do not yet have a matching open-and-closed pair of the same roll-down installation, so none is shown here rather than pairing photographs of different homes.
Photo 1 of 17
Product Approval & Drawings
Installation & Service
Product brand: Nautilus
Manufacturer: ESS Manufacturing Inc.
Nautilus Roll-Down Shutters
Manufacturer: ESS Manufacturing Inc.
Florida's official product-approval record lists the Nautilus Rolling Shutter System, made by ESS Manufacturing Inc., as approved under FL12246-R6, product number FL12246.1, for the Florida Building Code, Eighth Edition (2023). The engineering drawings, evaluation report and the engineer's Certification of Independence are published here exactly as issued. An approval shows the system was tested and approved — it does not make every opening suitable. That depends on the opening, the supporting structure, the anchorage and the installation requirements in the approved drawings.
Verified benefits
- A permanently mounted rolling shutter that closes down over the opening, with no panels to store.
- The official record lists large-missile impact resistance, Level D, for use outside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, subject to the approved drawings.
Suitable uses
- Windows, doors and openings outside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone where the opening, structure and anchorage match the FL12246.1 approved drawings.
- Homes where a permanently installed system is preferred over removable panels.
FL12246-R6 is the Florida Product Approval record (application type: Revision). FL12246.1 is the product number for the Nautilus Rolling Shutter System published here, drawing 23-100. A High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) is the part of Florida — Miami-Dade and Broward counties — with the state's strictest wind requirements. This record is approved for use outside the HVHZ and is not a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance.
- Manufacturer
- ESS Manufacturing Inc.
- System
- Nautilus Rolling Shutter System
- Florida approval
- FL12246-R6
- Revision
- R6 (application type: Revision)
- Code edition
- Florida Building Code, Eighth Edition (2023)
- Application status
- Approved
- Date approved
- December 12, 2023
- Document
- Engineering drawings FL12246_R6_II_PED Dwgs 23-100 ESS Manuf
- Document date
- July 19, 2023
- Product number on the record
- FL12246.1
- Category
- Shutters — Roll-up
- Product brand
- Nautilus
- Manufacturer on the official record
- ESS Manufacturing Inc. f/k/a Expert Shutter Services
- Description on the record
- Extruded aluminum Nautilus Rolling Shutter System
- Drawing number
- 23-100
- Evaluation report number
- 23-0719.04
- Impact resistant
- Yes. Large-missile impact resistant, missile Level D (basic protection only), subject to the conditions in the approved drawings.
- Where the record allows it to be used
- Outside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone: yes. Inside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone: no.
- Design pressures and spans
- Set by the schedules in the approved drawings. They change with span, mounting and configuration, so they are read from the drawings for your opening rather than quoted as one figure.
- Evaluation
- Method 1 Option D evaluation report by Walter A. Tillit, Jr., P.E. (Florida license PE-44167), Tilteco, Inc. / Tillit Testing & Engineering Company
What the document itself says about limits
- These documents cover the Nautilus system for use outside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Suitability depends on your opening, supporting structure, and the approved installation requirements.
- Approved spans, design pressures and anchor requirements are set by the schedules in the drawings; a single figure must not be applied to every opening.
- The drawings are generic and not site-specific. Conditions outside them need separate site-specific sealed engineering.
- The lifting mechanism is excluded from this approval, so the approval does not certify every operating mechanism.
Drawing 23-100: installation details and system limitations, including the approved spans, mounting details and anchor schedules. Printed sheet labels run 1 to 26 and also include sheets 10A, 11A, 12A and 13A, so a printed sheet number does not always match its position in the file.
Dated July 19, 2023.
Report 23-0719.04: the technical evaluation and the conditions of use the approval rests on.
Dated July 19, 2023.
The evaluating engineer's statement of financial independence from the company manufacturing or distributing the product. It concerns the engineer's independence only — it is not insurance, a warranty or a separate certification of the product.
Dated July 19, 2023.
Documents are displayed unaltered. The viewer provides no download or print button, but browser saving, screenshots or printing cannot be completely prevented.
Official Florida Approval Record (opens another website)My Safe Florida Home
My Safe Florida Home is a State of Florida program run by the Florida Department of Financial Services. It offers free wind-mitigation inspections and, for homeowners who qualify, grant assistance toward approved improvements. It is not our program, and we are not part of it.
- This product. Opening protection such as roll-down hurricane shutters is one of the improvement types the program considers. That does not mean your home, or this product on your home, qualifies — your wind-mitigation inspection recommendations, the scope of your project and the program decide that.
- Funding is never guaranteed. Your inspection report and the program decide what, if anything, is funded, and availability changes.
- Do not start work early. If you intend to use grant assistance, construction must not begin before the program has approved your grant. Starting early can disqualify the work.
How it works. You create an account with the program, answer its questionnaire, and are placed in a group. A free wind-mitigation inspection is scheduled, and the inspection report lists the improvements recommended for your home. A grant application follows if you qualify.
What decides eligibility. The program sets the rules — including home type, homestead status, income and age priority groups — and the inspection recommendations and program approval determine what, if anything, is funded.
Our part in it. We are a licensed Florida contractor (Florida Certified Building Contractor CBC1270515). We do not describe ourselves as a program-approved or authorised contractor, and we make no claim of government endorsement. Check the program’s own requirements for the contractor you choose before signing anything.
This link opens the official My Safe Florida Home website (mysafeflhome.com) in a new tab and leaves our website.
Payment Options
Grant assistance and financing are two separate things. Grant assistance comes from the state program described above. Financing is an arrangement between you and a lender.
If paying over time would help, you can look at financing through Enhancify, an outside financing provider. Any amount, term or approval is decided by Enhancify, not by us, so we do not quote rates or monthly payments here.
Explore Financing OptionsThis opens Enhancify’s website in a new tab. You will be leaving our website.
Prefer to talk it through first? Call us at 407-883-1873.
Care and Maintenance
A few simple habits help keep the system ready to operate.
Check the side tracks for debris
Leaves, sand and grit work their way into the vertical tracks and are the usual reason a shutter becomes stiff or stops short. Look into both tracks and clear anything you find a few times a year.
Watch for insect nests
Mud daubers and other insects build hard nests inside tracks and around the housing, especially at openings that are rarely closed. Clear a nest as soon as you see it, before it hardens in place and interferes with operation.
Look over the housing from the outside
Check the housing and its fixings from ground level for damage, loose fasteners, staining or anything hanging out of the slot. Do not open or dismantle the housing yourself — call us and we will look at it.
Rinse the shutter occasionally
Coastal and roadside dirt builds up on the curtain. Rinsing with plain water and drying it keeps the finish clean; avoid pressure washing and harsh solvents.
Lubricate only as the manufacturer directs
Lubricant is only appropriate where the manufacturer's own instructions for your system call for it, and only the product they name. The wrong lubricant attracts grit and makes tracks worse. Ask us what applies to the system on your home.
Operate every shutter before the season
Lower and raise each shutter fully at the start of the season. If one binds, grinds, runs crooked or will not seat, stop and call 407-883-1873 rather than forcing it or attempting a repair at height.
Questions People Ask Us
Does anything have to be carried out or stored?
No. The shutter stays on the opening all year and retracts into its housing, so there are no removable panels to store in a garage or carry out before a storm.
Can the housing be hidden?
Sometimes. Where there is a soffit, recess or deep overhang above the opening, the housing can often be tucked into or under it. On a flat wall with no recess, it is surface-mounted and visible. It depends on the opening.
Confirmed at your property assessment: We tell you which of your openings can take a concealed housing and which cannot, before you decide.
Will roll-down shutters work on every opening of my home?
Not necessarily. Opening size, the mounting surface, the room above the opening and the size limits in the approved system all decide it. Many homes end up with roll-downs on some openings and a different product on others, and we will say so plainly rather than force one system everywhere.
Do I need a permit?
Hurricane protection is permitted work in Central Florida jurisdictions. We handle the permit application and the inspection process as part of the project. No one can promise how long a building department will take.
What happens if a shutter stops working?
Call 407-883-1873. Most problems are debris or a nest in a track. Do not dismantle a housing, stand on a ladder to free a jammed curtain, or attempt a repair yourself.
More questions, if you want the detail
Open any question below. You can leave several open at once.
Both stay on the home all year. A roll-down retracts upward into a housing and leaves the sides of the opening clear; an accordion folds into a stack at one or both sides and needs no housing above. Where there is no space above an opening, an accordion is often the practical choice.
Many associations do, and some have rules about colour or about visible housings on a street elevation. We provide the product documents your association asks for. We cannot approve anything on their behalf or promise what they will decide.
Colour choice is limited to the manufacturer's standard finishes for the approved system quoted. We show you the actual range for your system rather than a generic colour chart.
Homeowners often mention shade and reduced light when a shutter is down. We do not make claims about noise, heat, security or energy savings for this product, because we have not verified figures for the specific system we would install.
It depends on the number of openings, how the housings mount and access around the home. Your written estimate sets out the scope, and we give you a schedule once the permit and the product are in hand rather than a promise in advance.
Find Out Whether Roll-Down Shutters Fit Your Home
We will look at your openings, tell you where a roll-down works and where it does not, and answer anything you want to ask. There is no pressure and no obligation.