Glass breaks at the worst times, usually at night and usually in winter. The order of operations matters more than speed.
First fifteen minutes
Move people and pets away from the area. Small fragments travel further than you would expect, often several metres across a hard floor.
Do not pull the remaining glass out of the frame. Shards held in a frame are under tension and can drop or snap while you are handling them. Leave them. Whoever boards up will remove them properly.
Put shoes on. Everyone, including whoever is doing the sweeping.
If the break is from a break in, call the police before you touch anything. You will need the report number for the insurance claim.
Photograph it before you clean up. Wide shot showing the window and room, then close ups of the damage. If you are claiming, the insurer will want these, and once the mess is cleaned up you cannot recreate them.
Then secure it. In winter an open window at minus 15 will drop the room temperature fast and can freeze pipes on an exterior wall. In rain, water gets into the frame and the floor. Cardboard and tape buy you an hour, not a night.
Cleaning up safely
Sweep the large pieces first, then vacuum the area twice with a shop vac rather than a household vacuum, since fine glass shreds bags and can damage the motor. Press a damp paper towel or a slice of bread over hard floors and window sills to lift the fragments too small to see. Check the tracks of any adjacent window or door, since glass collects there and comes back out weeks later.
If a patio door or door lite broke, the glass was tempered. It shatters into thousands of small blunt cubes rather than shards, which is safer but far more scattered. Expect to find pieces in the yard and in the door track.
Board up: what it is and what it costs
A board up is plywood cut to the opening, fixed to secure the space, with the remaining loose glass removed and the site cleaned. It runs $150 to $350 plus an after hours charge if it is nights or weekends.
It is a separate line from the glass replacement, not a deposit against it. The reason is that the two are separate visits with separate materials: the board up happens now, and the replacement glass has to be measured and manufactured to the exact opening, which takes three to seven business days for a standard rectangle and longer for shapes or specialty coatings.
For a storefront, board up is usually the priority because an unsecured retail opening is both a security and a liability problem. We do those same day.
What replacement will cost
| Window type | Cost |
|---|---|
| Single pane, older home or basement | $150 to $350 |
| Sealed unit, standard size | $350 to $650 |
| Sealed unit, large or tempered | $650 to $900+ |
| Patio or sliding door glass | $450 to $900 |
| Entry door glass insert | $300 to $1,500 depending on style |
| Storefront lite | $800 to $2,500+ |
Same day and after hours work adds roughly $100 to $250.
Cracked but not shattered: is it urgent?
A crack that is stable and does not go through the full thickness can wait for a scheduled appointment. Things that make it urgent:
- The crack runs corner to corner or has branched. That unit is going to let go, and it will do it on its own schedule.
- It is a door, a patio slider or a pane near the floor. That is tempered glass by code, and a damaged tempered pane can fail all at once.
- The crack passes through both panes of a sealed unit. Weather is now getting into the cavity.
- It is on a ground floor window facing the street, which is a security issue as well as a glass one.
A crack that is stable will also spread with temperature swings, so a hairline in November is often a full break by January.
Insurance: worth claiming or not?
Broken glass from a break in, vandalism, storm or an impact is usually covered under home insurance, subject to your deductible. Failed seals and foggy windows are not, because that is wear rather than damage.
The arithmetic is simple. If your deductible is $1,000 and the window is $500, there is nothing to claim. If a break in took out a patio slider and a door lite and the total is $2,500, it is worth it. For commercial storefront glass it almost always is.
We provide the itemised invoice and photos insurers ask for.
What to have ready when you call
- Which room and what floor
- Rough size of the glass, measured corner to corner
- Whether it is single pane or double
- Whether it is a door or a window, since doors mean tempered glass
- Whether the opening is secure right now
That is enough for us to give you a price range on the phone and to know what to bring. We cover Hamilton, Hamilton and out to Hamilton, same day, with no travel fee, and emergency board up is usually within two hours.