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Mr-Glass Home Additions & ADU: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If you own a Mr-Glass home addition or ADU in Fort Lauderdale and something’s failing, here’s the straight answer: we diagnose, repair, and rebuild Mr-Glass-compatible additions and accessory dwelling units throughout Broward County, and typical repair or rebuild work runs $45,000 – $130,000 depending on scope, structural condition, and finishes. Most owners discover the problem the same way: a door that no longer seals, a roofline that’s sagging at the corner, water staining along the top plate, or a window that won’t square up in its frame. What started as a small leak or a sticky door is usually a structural connection that’s been working loose for years.
We’re an independent Fort Lauderdale contractor, not a Mr-Glass dealer or affiliate. That’s worth saying up front because it means we don’t have a parts list we’re trying to push. We match what’s actually on your structure, spec what will hold up in South Florida humidity and hurricane season, and give you a written price before any work starts.
Which Mr-Glass Models This Applies To
Mr-Glass structures vary more than most homeowners realize. The company has produced both stick-framed and prefabricated wall-panel additions over the years, and the two fail in different ways. Stick-framed Mr-Glass rooms behave like any conventional addition: trusses, top plates, sill plates, and glazing set into standard rough openings. Prefabricated panel versions rely on factory-welded brackets and channel systems that tie wall sections together, and those connections are what we most often see corroded or pulled loose in Fort Lauderdale’s salt air.
Here’s the compatibility gotcha: Mr-Glass panel systems from the early 2000s used a narrower wall channel than later production runs. If someone patches an older unit with a newer panel, the wall thickness won’t match and the corner trim never sits right. You can check what you have by pulling a corner trim piece off and measuring the exposed panel edge. 3-1/2 inches means stick-frame. Anything under 3 inches means a panel system, and then you need the actual channel width before ordering anything.
When the part is cosmetic – glazing gaskets, threshold sweeps, interior trim – quality aftermarket equivalents work fine and usually cost less than OEM. When the part is structural – corner posts, header assemblies, tie-down brackets – we recommend OEM or a fabricator who can match the spec exactly. Cutting corners on a structural connection in a hurricane zone is how you end up with a room that leaves the slab.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Mr-Glass Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Doors that stick at the top corner. The frame has racked, which means the sill plate is no longer level or a corner post has settled. The door didn’t warp overnight; the structure under it moved.
- Drywall cracks radiating from window and door corners. Classic shear movement. In panel-built Mr-Glass rooms, it’s usually a corroded bracket or a wall tie that’s pulled free of the floor track.
- Water staining along the ceiling edge or baseboard. In Fort Lauderdale, this is rarely a roofing-only problem on these units. The roof membrane fails first at the transition flashing where the Mr-Glass wall meets the main house. That joint is the weak point on nearly every addition we inspect in Victoria Park and Coral Ridge.
- Visible separation at the corner trim. If you can see daylight or feel air movement at a corner, the panel-to-panel connection has opened up. This is structural, not cosmetic, and it gets worse every time the temperature swings, which in South Florida is daily.
- A floor that feels soft near the exterior wall. Water has been getting in at the sill and the rim joist or bottom track is rotting. By the time you feel softness underfoot, the damage is deeper than the visible flooring.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In Fort Lauderdale, you’re looking at $45,000 – $130,000 for a Mr-Glass addition or ADU rebuild, depending on whether we’re repairing structural connections or tearing out and reframing sections. Full ADU construction runs $90,000 – $220,000 when the existing structure can’t be saved. If it’s a garage conversion tied to the Mr-Glass system, the range is $30,000 – $80,000 depending on how much of the original framing and glazing we can reuse.
What drives the range: how much structural repair is needed, whether the roof has to come off to fix the wall-to-roof connection, what kind of glass you had versus what’s code-compliant now, and how much of the original Mr-Glass hardware can be salvaged. Every quote we write breaks out parts and labor separately, and it includes the permit, the inspection, and the haul-off. You get one number in writing before anything gets touched. If we find hidden damage after we open the wall, we tell you what we found, what it takes to fix it, and what it will cost – before we touch a thing. No change orders that show up out of nowhere on a Friday afternoon.
Every repair or rebuild carries our written guarantee. We cover what we installed for 365 days from the completion date, and if a repair fails within that window, the second visit is free. No dispute process, no conditions.
DIY or Call Us?
Some of this you can check yourself. Pull the trim at one corner and look at the condition of the metal. Run a hose along the roofline on a dry day and watch inside for leaks. Check the floor with a level. Those are safe, useful inspections, and they’ll help you understand what you’re dealing with before you call anyone.
What I would not do is start removing wall panels, cutting into headers, or jacking a corner that’s settled. Those are load-bearing connections, some of them under real tension in a two-story Mr-Glass room. If a panel releases wrong, it can swing, drop, or take a section of roof with it. That’s not a scare line; it’s what the physics says. If you’re in Fort Lauderdale and you can see structural movement, call us at (754) 354-3720. We’ll come look, tell you what’s actually wrong, and give you a written price for the fix.
FAQs
A properly maintained Mr-Glass structure in Fort Lauderdale should last 40 to 50 years, but the wall-to-roof transition and the sill connections typically need real attention by year 20 to 25, especially east of Federal Highway where salt air accelerates corrosion. Metal brackets in that zone often fail a decade before the wood does. Call (754) 354-3720 if you’re at that age and seeing cracks or door drag; we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s time for a repair or a rebuild.
It depends entirely on what’s failed. Gaskets, sweeps, trim, and even some brackets can be repaired or replaced individually. But when a corner post has corroded through or a sill plate has rotted, you’re replacing the assembly around it, not patching it. We’ll show you what we found, in writing, with a price either way. Call (754) 354-3720 to schedule the inspection.
A bracket-and-flashing repair on a Mr-Glass unit is usually three to five working days. A full section rebuild runs two to four weeks depending on permit turnaround in Fort Lauderdale and whether we’re matching existing finishes. You’ll get a schedule in writing before we start, and we’ll tell you if anything we find changes that timeline.
We stock the common wear items on the truck: glazing gaskets, threshold sweeps, corner trim, standard bracket sets, and flashing material for the roof-to-wall transition. Structural components that have to match an older panel spec usually get ordered from a fabricator, and that takes three to ten days in Fort Lauderdale. If you need a rare piece, we’ll say so up front and give you a real arrival date. Call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll check stock before you even book the visit.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale at Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
