Board-up is the fast part of a storefront break. The broken glass is cleared, plywood is cut to the opening, and it is fastened to the frame so the space is secure and weather tight, normally inside one visit. Accurate Glass & Mirror runs emergency board-up for commercial properties in Bergen County, and how soon a crew rolls depends on the call.
The work starts with what is still standing. Tempered storefront glass lets go into small pieces that end up on the sidewalk, inside the entry and under the display fixtures, so the first job is clearing them out of the frame and off the floor before anyone walks through. Shards left sitting in the channel will drop later. Then plywood is cut to the opening and fastened to the framing or the storefront extrusion, screwed rather than nailed so it can come off cleanly, with fasteners placed where they will not wreck the frame you are about to reglaze. Doors get their own treatment, since a boarded entry still has to open, lock and swing for whoever is using it, and a stile that has lost its glass has lost some of its stiffness along with it.
Three things move the schedule. First is what the opening is, since a single door light is a different job from a twelve foot storefront lite, and a second story window needs equipment on site. Second is whether the frame survived, because a bent extrusion or a broken door stile has to be dealt with before anything can be secured to it. Third is simply where the crew is standing when the phone rings. Give the address, the rough size of the opening, and whether the building is currently open to the street, and the job can be sized over the phone instead of on arrival.
Plywood is temporary and everyone knows it, but the replacement is not instant. Storefront lites are cut and, where the application calls for it, tempered, and once glass is tempered it cannot be trimmed, so the opening is measured properly after the frame is clear. That on-site measure for commercial work is free. Insurance generally wants photographs and a written scope, so document the damage before the board goes on. When the new lite is ready the board comes off, the frame is checked and reglazed with fresh gaskets, and the storefront goes back to looking like nothing happened.
Police first if it was a break in, so there is a report number for the claim. Then your insurer, then a glass company. Photograph the damage from outside and inside before anything is swept or touched. Those pictures are what the adjuster works from, and they are much harder to produce once the opening has been cleared and covered.
That is the point of it, but only if it is done properly. Plywood over a broken lite keeps weather out and has to be fastened well enough that it cannot be pried loose, which means screws into solid framing rather than a sheet leaned into place. Tell your alarm company too, since a covered opening changes what motion and glass break sensors can see.
Emergency board-up runs on the commercial side with our own crew, licensed and insured, never handed to a subcontractor. Call (201) 460-1313 with the address and the size of the opening, and the free on-site measure for the replacement glass can usually happen on the same trip.
