Emergency Glass Repair

Zone 1 (60-90 minute arrival): Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Essex, Union, eastern Morris. From the Garfield shop, this is the immediate dispatch area. We carry plywood, 2x4s, polyethylene sheeting, and a board-up crew on rotating overnight call for these counties.

Zone 2 (90-180 minute arrival): Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth, Somerset, Hunterdon, western Morris, Sussex, Warren. Slightly longer drive time but the same overnight call rotation. We stage materials in two satellite locations to cut response time for the I-78 and Route 1 corridors.

Zone 3 (2-4 hour arrival): Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Atlantic, Cape May, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland. South Jersey board-ups are dispatched from our shop with the option to subcontract a local board-up crew through our reciprocal-network partners when time is critical. Permanent reglaze still goes through our fabrication and install.

Severe-weather events (nor'easters, hurricane remnants, derechos) collapse all zones — we triage by police/fire on-scene status, occupancy, and ground-floor exposure. Residential occupied with a child's bedroom open to the weather goes ahead of an unoccupied warehouse with a high broken transom.

Standard board-up is 1/2" CDX plywood cut to the opening, screwed into the frame with 3" deck screws and weatherproofed with poly behind the plywood and a sealant bead at the perimeter. For ground-floor commercial we'll run 2x4 cleats across the inside face to prevent the plywood from being pried off. Pricing: $350-450 base call-out fee covering up to two standard residential openings within Zone 1; $50-100 per additional opening; oversized and second-story openings priced per situation. After-hours premium (10 PM - 6 AM, weekends, holidays) adds 50% to the call-out.

Commercial storefront board-ups are quoted separately because they vary so much. A typical 6'x8' storefront opening with the door intact runs $600-900 fully boarded; a full storefront with door damage runs $1,200-2,000 because we have to secure the entry point with a temporary lockable plywood door insert. We carry padlocks and hasps on the truck.

Insurance reimburses board-up under most commercial property policies and most homeowner policies — we invoice the carrier directly when authorized and provide photographs, the police report number, and a signed scope sheet for the claim file.

Roughly 60% of our emergency calls become insurance claims. We work directly with State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, Chubb, AIG, Hartford, Cincinnati, Nationwide, Plymouth Rock, NJ Manufacturers, and most regional carriers. The workflow: we arrive on-scene, document conditions with photos and video, generate a written scope, give the homeowner or property manager the call-out invoice for the board-up, and then submit the permanent-repair estimate directly to the carrier or to the homeowner to forward.

For commercial property managers we coordinate with the insurer's TPA (third-party administrator) — Crawford, Sedgwick, ESIS — and provide ACV/RCV breakdown on the estimate. We don't inflate scope to game depreciation; we write it straight. Adjusters appreciate that and approve faster.

On vandalism and break-in claims we coordinate timing with the police report — most carriers require the report number before they'll pay, and we won't start permanent work until the insured confirms the claim is open.

Single-pane annealed glass in stock sizes (24"x36", 30"x42", and other common dimensions): we can cut and install same-night for residential single-hung and double-hung sashes, single-pane storm windows, and basic transom and sidelight glazing.

Tempered safety glass: stocked sizes for shower doors and standard storefront panes go in same-night or next-day. Custom-size tempered requires fabrication — 24-48 hours minimum, sometimes 3-5 days for thick (1/2") panels.

Insulated glass units (IGUs): always require fabrication. 5-10 business days for standard sizes through our manufacturer partners. The board-up is the permanent measure until the new IGU arrives.

Laminated and impact-rated glass: 1-3 weeks fabrication. Common on coastal properties and high-security retail.

Storefront aluminum and curtain wall: we can reglaze with stocked tempered or annealed within 24-48 hours; full frame replacement runs 4-6 weeks if the frame itself is damaged.