Florida's Curtain Wall Contractor.
Precision-Built.

What Curtain Wall Is —
and When It's Specified.

Curtain Wall is a non-structural exterior cladding system that spans continuously from floor slab to floor slab — or from roof to grade on a single-story structure — without being supported by the floors between. It transfers wind loads, gravity loads, and thermal movement back to the building's primary structure through engineered anchor systems at each floor level.

Architects specify curtain wall when the design calls for continuous, uninterrupted glass facades across multiple floors; when thermal performance targets require a thermally broken framing system; when the structural frame cannot provide the intermediate support points that a window wall or storefront system requires; or when the aesthetic demands a flush, slab-to-slab glass elevation.

Curtain Wall is structurally and mechanically distinct from storefront. Storefront is a lighter system designed to fill a single-story opening between structural elements. Window wall sits in a structural opening between slabs. Curtain Wall spans across slabs, supported only by its own anchoring system. When architects and GCs use these terms interchangeably, scoping errors and budget surprises follow.

ACG specifies and installs all three systems — and provides written scope clarifications when plans are unclear about which system was intended.

Curtain Wall installation in Florida involves a layer of code compliance, engineering documentation, and product approval requirements that don't exist in most other states. Every curtain wall system installed in Florida must carry a Florida Product Approval — a state-administered certification that validates the system's structural performance under the design wind pressures for the specific building's location, height, and coastal exposure category.

In Miami-Dade and Broward counties — the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) — curtain wall must also comply with Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) requirements. Miami-Dade's testing and approval protocol is more stringent than the base Florida code, and not all curtain wall systems that carry a Florida Product Approval also carry an NOA. GCs who assume they're compliant based on the Florida approval alone risk a failed inspection.

Beyond product approvals, Florida's coastal exposure conditions create real engineering challenges: wind pressures at upper floors of a beachfront mid-rise are dramatically higher than inland structures of the same height. Thermal movement in Florida's climate requires properly engineered pressure caps and glazing bite dimensions. Salt air corrosion in coastal zones affects hardware specifications and finish requirements.