A new garage door, from the tape measure to a finaled permit

When it makes sense to replace the door

• There's no approval label anywhere on the door, so nobody knows what wind it was built for. Our hurricane door guide explains what to look for.
• Salt has rusted through the lowest section, or the paint is lifting on several sections. When the damage stops at one section, a panel repair may be enough.
• Surge water from Ian, Helene or Milton reached the garage, and the door hasn't run right since.
• Your HOA asked for a new color or style, or the house is about to be listed.
• The springs and the opener keep getting repaired, and the door still feels heavy by hand.

The steps to a finaled permit

1. Measure visit. We take the width and height of the opening, the headroom and the clearance beside it, photograph the old door and any label on it, and look up the design wind speed for your address on Collier County's map.
2. Written quote. It names the model and color, the approval number the door is sold under and the design pressure your opening calls for. It also spells out the deposit, when the door gets ordered and what happens if the maker's date slips.
3. HOA review. If you have an association, its approval comes before the permit. A 2026 change to Florida law (HB 803) means an HOA can no longer insist on seeing the building permit before it reviews your request.
4. Permit. We file with whichever office has your address: the City of Naples, Marco Island's building services, or Collier County for everywhere unincorporated. Our permits guide shows how each one handles a garage door.
5. Install day. One day at the house, Monday through Saturday inside the local work hours. The old door is taken down and hauled off on our truck, the new sections, tracks and springs go in, and the opener is reset for the new weight.
6. Final inspection and close-out. After the inspector's visit, the permit has to show as closed: FINALED in Collier's system, a certificate of completion in the City of Naples. You get the number and the link to check it.

The Collier County Clerk titled a 2023 article "the job is not finished until the permit is closed", and that's how we count it. In Collier, a status of Inspections Completed still isn't closed (Bulletin 14).

Style, color and what your HOA allows

Naples has every kind of house, so we bring samples to yours: flush, modern sections for the flat-roof houses, raised panels in a woodgrain finish for Mediterranean-style homes, carriage-house designs with a band of windows for the older cottages near the beach. Color is easier to judge against your own stucco, in Naples sun, than on a screen. If you want glass in the door, we quote it rated for wind-borne debris.

Associations here can be precise. Some allow only the body or trim color of the house, or dark wood tones, and ask for a copy of the contractor's license plus an insurance certificate that names the association. Since 2024, section 720.3035 of the Florida Statutes has said an HOA can't turn down a reinforced garage door that meets its specifications, though it can still set the color and the style. We assemble the review packet: the model and color page, the product approval, our license and the insurance certificate.

Away while the permit is open?

Many Naples houses sit empty for part of the year, and a permit keeps its own calendar. In Collier, the county sends a permit's expiration notice to the contractor, not to the owner, and only the contractor on the permit can ask for an extension (Building Permit Resolution Services). Watching that date is our job. From up north, you'll get a text as the inspection is booked, another as it passes, and a last one once the portal shows the permit closed.

Questions about new garage doors