Emergency Board Up Services in Interlachen, FL

How Do You Know a Damaged Opening Needs an Emergency Board Up?

Here's the test: if any opening in the house can't be closed, locked, or kept dry tonight, board it before dark. That matters more than how bad the damage looks. Glass, doors, roofs, and fire damage each fail differently, and each changes what the crew does once they pull into your driveway with plywood and a screw gun.

• Cracked glass still hanging loose in a window frame
• Exterior door that won't latch or lock after forced entry
• Daylight showing through a roof gap after a fallen limb
• Vent holes firefighters cut or broke during a fire
• Sliding glass door panel knocked off its track

What Happens to Cracked Glass Still Hanging in the Window Frame?

It comes out before any plywood goes up. Board over loose shards and you trap them against the frame, where they keep shifting and gouging the sash. Wearing cut-resistant gloves, the crew knocks out the remaining pieces from inside and bags them so nothing falls onto a walkway or a kid's bare feet below. With the opening clear, they cut a sheet of half-inch or thicker exterior plywood slightly oversized and screw it into the framing or brick mould, not the decorative trim, where one gust can pop it loose. The sash usually stays put. The glazier needs the original frame dimensions to order the replacement unit, and tearing out the sash just to reach the glass creates a second repair.

Will Swapping the Lock Fix an Exterior Door That Won't Latch After a Break-In?

Usually not. A forced door almost always splits the jamb around the strike plate, leaving a new lockset nothing solid to bite into. A kick tends to crack the jamb lengthwise along the grain, and it can also pull the hinge screws out of the stud on the opposite side. For the night, the crew either screws the door shut from inside with a horizontal brace across the frame or covers the whole opening with plywood fastened through to the studs, and you use a different door to come and go. The permanent fix is a jamb rebuild or a reinforced strike kit with long screws driven into the framing. Once the adjuster has photographed the damage, a carpenter can usually handle it within a few days.

Is a Tarp Over the Roof Gap Enough When You Can See Daylight After a Fallen Limb?

Not over an actual hole. A tarp alone sags into the gap, pools water, and tears at the fasteners in the first real wind. The limb comes off first, since its weight can keep cracking rafters as long as it sits there. Where the decking is broken through, the crew cuts back to solid sheathing, screws plywood across the gap onto the rafters, then runs the tarp over the patch and anchors it with wood battens rather than nails punched straight through the plastic. Check the attic insulation and ceiling drywall under the gap, too. Wet insulation stops insulating and can start growing mold within a couple of days if it isn't pulled out.

Why Do the Vent Holes Firefighters Left Need Boarding the Same Night?

Firefighters break windows and cut roof openings on purpose to release heat and smoke, so once the trucks leave, the house is wide open in places the fire never touched. Those vents let rain soak already-scorched framing and give scrappers an easy way in, which is why departments often hand homeowners a board-up contact before pulling away. The crew covers every vent with plywood, secures any doors forced for access, and patches the roof cut with plywood and a battened tarp, just as they would for storm damage. Leave the interior alone until the adjuster and a fire restoration crew have documented it. Hauling out charred debris early can complicate both the claim and the cause-of-fire report.

Can You Just Lift a Sliding Glass Door Panel Back Onto Its Track?

Rarely, at least not safely. A panel that's been knocked loose often has bent rollers or a stressed tempered pane that can let go when flexed. Tempered glass fails by crumbling into small cubes, and a damaged panel can hold for hours before suddenly dropping out of the frame. Leave it braced where it is, or have two people lift it out and lay it flat. The crew then covers the full opening with plywood screwed into the header and side jambs, adding a 2x4 crossbar inside on wide openings so wind pressure can't bow the sheet inward. Before a replacement panel goes in, check the bottom track for dents. A bent rail will throw a new door off just as fast.