The holes are the shape of an eye. The holes are punch six inches on center on the top and the bottom of the panels. The panels are secured into the studded angle track with washer based wingnuts. The panels can also be directing mounted to the wall using lead anchors and stainless steel truss combo screws.

What is the side of the head on the combo stainless/steel sidewalk bolts?

The pictures above compare the head size to dime and the thickness to a nickel.

Why are the sidewalks and truss screws called combo?

The screws are called combo because they can be screw in or out with a flat or Phillips head screw driver or screw bit. The sidewalk screws are used for installing removable tracks on floors. Always replace the screw in the anchor when track is not installed. The beveled edge on the sidewalk screw works great on flooring.

I had my hurricane panels installed by another company several years ago and several of the anchors have popped out. Only the lead portion of the anchor is in the wall. What can I do to fix these?

From your description, it sounds like the anchors were installed backwards (incorrect) with the cone end facing outward. If the holes are in good conditions and the lead cylinder can be removed without damaging to the hole, you can replace the anchor. Use the installation tips on installing the lead machine screw anchors.

Which machine screw anchors do you recommend?

All three machine screw anchors we sell are Miami-Dade product approved and we recommend them all. Our most popular is the least expensive and is used by most professional installer. The difference in the machine screw anchors are the cone threaded 1/4-20 inserts. Notice above the Rawls/Powers have more rib groves on the outer cone and a slightly different shape. The brass have spiral groves and a heavy duty brass cone. As the quality goes up so does the price. Their are many different machine screw anchors on the market, and these are our choice.

I live on the West Coast of Florida and all my windows have a window sill that protrudes out about 1" - 3"?

One solution would be to mount the panels horizontally across the window opening. The panels would have to be mounted with a 2" x 2" studded angle on both sides or directly mounting the panels to the wall. If your opening is 39" (width) by 52" (height) just switch the dimension to 52"(w) x 39" (h). You will need 5 panels to cover 52". We recommend adding 6" - 8" to the length when installing horizontally. If you want to mount the track on the window sill, we can reverse the screws on the 2" x 2" studded-angle. An alternative solution would be to mount a 2" x 2" angle to the back of a 2" x 2" studded angle using Tek screws.

What are the advantages of aluminum vs. galvanized steel panels?

The 20 ga. galvanized steel panels use to be so much cheaper then the aluminum panels. The 20 ga. galvanized, .050 and .063 aluminum all meet the Miami-Dade County building code. We highly recommend using the aluminum panels over the steel. With both products offering the same protection, the .050 aluminum panels weights 1.25 pounds per foot as compared to 2.75 pounds per foot. The galvanized panels have very sharp edges and are harder to handle. When the galvanized panels are laid flat on the floor, a screw driver is required to pry them apart. We recommend wearing leather work gloves when handling either of the panels.

What are the advantages of using tracks vs. directly mounting the panels to the wall?

If you structure is CBS block, the panels can be directly mounted to the wall using machine screw anchors with a stainless steel combo/truss head screw. The advantage of the direct mount system is no tracks or mount gear is visible. Some customers do not like the look of the tracks on the wall. The advantage of using tracks (h-header/studded angle) the installation is one third of the time.

Do you sell half panels?

Yes, we sell half panels in the .050 aluminum only. A full panel could be overlapped instead of using a half panel. If your opening is 39", 3 panels will cover approximately 37". You could use 4 or 3 1/2 panel

Hurricane Depot, Inc. ♦ Phone 305-234-0796 ♦ Fax 305-356-1001 ♦ info@hurricanedepot.com