Storm PanelsWilmington, NC

Wilmington, New Hanover County

What storm panels cost in Wilmington, and who should actually buy them

Aluminum storm panels in Wilmington are $22/sq ft installed and clear polycarbonate panels are $26/sq ft. Both include the permanently mounted tracks, the panels, the wing-nut hardware, the New Hanover County permit and a per-opening design pressure calculation. A house with twelve openings averaging fifteen square feet is around $3,960 in aluminum.

They carry the identical ASTM E1886/E1996 certification as every other rated product we fit. A panel over a window is as good as an accordion over the same window. Everything that differs happens before the storm rather than during it.

That is the trade, and we will not soften it. Somebody has to bring the panels out, carry them to each opening, lift them into the track and tighten the wing nuts. A full house is most of a day for two people. If nobody is going to do that, panels are worse than no protection at all, because you will believe the house is covered.

Where they are exactly right is the first house. Midtown, along Oleander, the streets off Wrightsville Avenue: a young family with a garage, a real budget limit and the willingness to spend a Saturday. Every opening covered at $22 beats half the house covered at $38, and the rating is the same.

The clear polycarbonate version at $26 earns the extra four dollars more often than people expect. Aluminum turns every protected room completely dark and outages here run for days. Clear panels keep the daylight and let you see what the weather is doing. On the Front Street and Market Street storefronts they are the only sensible option, because boarding up a display window costs more in lost trade than the panels do.

Storage is a question to settle at the measure rather than afterwards. A full house of panels takes real garage space, and it wants to be somewhere you can reach in the dark with the power off.