How do I make a broken window or door secure until it is repaired?

The aim of a temporary repair is one night, or a weekend: weathertight enough, secure enough, and reversible without wrecking the frame the glazier will reuse. Most damage in this situation is done by fixing the board through a uPVC frame that then has to be replaced.

Safety

What you'll need

• 12mm plywood or OSB, cut to size
• Cut-resistant gloves, eye protection, stout shoes
• Screws and a driver, or clamping brackets for uPVC
• Timber battens for a through-reveal fixing (optional)
• Heavy polythene and gaffer tape for weatherproofing (optional)
• A rigid container for the glass

Step by step

1. Check with the police first if it was a break-in.If a scene examiner may attend, ask before touching the point of entry. Ask also whether you may cover it temporarily without disturbing anything.
2. Check whether your insurer will do this for you.Most home policies include an emergency helpline that arranges boarding-up and glazing, often at no cost within the claim. Ring them before you buy anything.
3. Protect yourself before touching anything.Cut-resistant gloves, eye protection and shoes with a solid sole. Keep children and pets out of the room entirely until it is cleared.
4. Remove loose glass from the frame.Work from the top down so nothing falls onto your hands. Pull shards straight out of the rebate rather than levering them. Put everything into a rigid box, never a bin bag.
5. Vacuum the surrounding area last.Use an old vacuum or a workshop vacuum — glass splinters ruin a household one and can damage the hose. Sticky tape or a damp cloth lifts the fine fragments a vacuum leaves.
6. Measure the opening and cut the board oversize.About 50mm larger all round than the aperture, so it bears on the frame rather than sitting inside it. Most timber merchants and DIY sheds will cut a sheet for you.
7. On a timber frame, screw through into the frame timber.Screws every 200-300mm around the perimeter, into solid timber and not into the beading. Countersink slightly so the heads sit flush.
8. On uPVC, do not screw through the profile.Use board clamps, or run battens across the inside and outside of the reveal bolted to each other through the opening, sandwiching the board without touching the frame. Screwing a uPVC frame usually condemns it.
9. Fix from outside where you can.A board fixed from outside cannot be pushed in. Where only an internal fixing is possible, add battens across the reveal so the board bears against the masonry rather than the frame.
10. Weatherproof the joint.Heavy polythene tucked under the top edge and taped, or a bead of temporary sealant along the head. Water running behind the board into the room causes more damage overnight than the broken glass did.
11. Keep an escape route from that room.If the boarded window was the escape window for a bedroom, either do not sleep in that room or make sure another usable exit exists. Fire risk does not pause for a repair.
12. Book the permanent repair straight away.Measure the sealed unit properly if it is double glazing — width, height and total thickness — and consider laminated glass for the replacement if this is a vulnerable opening.

Tips

• OSB is cheaper than plywood and adequate for a few days. Plywood is stiffer over a wide opening and looks less alarming from the street.
• Write your own contact number on the inside of the board. If a passer-by or the police need to reach you about the property, it saves time.
• Take photographs of the damage before boarding. The insurer will want them and the board will hide everything.

Common mistakes

• Screwing a board into a uPVC frame — The holes ruin the profile and the weather seal, and the frame often has to be replaced instead of just the glass. Clamps or through-reveal battens avoid it entirely.
• Putting broken glass in a bin bag — It cuts through and injures whoever lifts it, including refuse collectors. Use a rigid box, tape it shut, label it clearly, and check your council's rules for glass disposal.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask