When a door is smashed, a frame is kicked in, or a storm takes out a glass panel, the opening needs to be secured immediately — not tomorrow, not after a quote process. We provide emergency board up across Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley, day and night, until permanent repairs can be made.
A damaged opening is a compounding problem. Every hour it sits unsecured, the risk of secondary entry increases, weather moves in, and the cost of the eventual repair grows. In Ottawa's winters, an unboarded opening can drop an interior room to outside temperature in hours — damaging pipes, flooring, and any contents near the breach. After a break-in, an open door is an invitation for a repeat visit the same night. After a storm, water entering through a broken panel starts working on the structure immediately. The board up is not the repair — it's what makes everything else possible by stopping the damage from getting worse while you get the right people in place. At Fix My Door Now Ottawa, board up is a service we provide around the clock because the situations that need it don't happen between nine and five.
We secure damaged openings of all types for residential and commercial properties across Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley. This includes smashed entry doors where the slab has been broken or the glass destroyed, kicked-in frames where the door can no longer be pulled shut and latched, shattered patio and sliding door panels that have left a full wall opening exposed, sidelites and transom glass adjacent to entry doors that have been broken in a break-in or impact, and storefront glass panels that have been smashed in a commercial break-in or vandalism incident. We work on residential homes in Ottawa neighbourhoods, commercial storefronts, office buildings, multi-unit apartment lobbies, and industrial properties across the Valley.
A break-in is the most time-sensitive situation we board up for. Once a property has been entered, the clock is running on a second intrusion — especially if the original entry was opportunistic rather than targeted, because word travels. The immediate priority after discovering a break-in is to contact police so the incident is documented for insurance, then to secure the opening. We work with homeowners and business owners who are waiting on police to clear the scene, arriving as soon as access is available and boarding the opening thoroughly enough that the property is secure while you arrange permanent repairs.
For insurance purposes, boarding documentation matters. We provide a written record of what was boarded, how it was secured, and when the work was completed — information your insurance company will ask for. We also photograph the damage before we touch anything, so the record of the original state of the breach is preserved for the claim.
Ottawa's weather produces board-up situations in several ways. Ice storms can shatter door glass panels as ice builds up and expands overnight. High-wind events drive debris into glass entries and patio doors. Hail can crack or break glass panels that were already stressed. And freezing rain coating a door and its frame can cause a door to freeze shut, be forced, and fail — leaving a frame that no longer closes properly and needs to be secured until it can be repaired. Storm-related board-ups often involve more than one opening and need to happen quickly before another weather event moves in. We assess the full scope of damage when we arrive, secure every compromised opening in a single visit, and give you a written summary of what was found so your insurance claim covers everything.
Commercial properties face their own board-up scenarios. Storefront glass smashed in a break-in or vandalism incident leaves merchandise, cash registers, and inventory exposed from the street. An aluminum storefront door that has been forced off its frame can't be simply pulled closed and left. Office lobby glass destroyed by vehicle impact creates both a security and a liability situation. For commercial clients, we prioritize board-up calls because the financial and liability exposure of an unboarded commercial property is significant — and because your business can't operate from an unsecured premises. We work with property managers, business owners, and commercial tenants, and we coordinate with your insurance adjuster if you need us to.
Property unsecured right now? Don't leave a smashed door or broken glass open to the street overnight. Call 613-265-3667 for fast emergency board up across Ottawa & the Valley, day or night — or request a quote online.
A proper board up is not a piece of plywood leaned against a hole. It needs to be fastened securely enough to prevent entry, fitted well enough to keep weather out, and installed without causing additional damage to the surrounding frame and structure that will complicate the permanent repair. We use structural-grade materials, sized and cut to fit the specific opening, secured with fasteners appropriate to the frame material — wood, aluminum, steel, or masonry. Where the frame itself is damaged and can't accept conventional fastening, we span the frame and anchor into adjacent solid material. The result is a board up that holds through an Ottawa winter night and doesn't require emergency calls back because it's come loose.
We also clean up broken glass from the immediate area before we leave. A shattered tempered glass panel produces a large volume of small fragments, and leaving them for the property owner to deal with at 2am is not something we do. We clear the hazard, secure the opening, and leave the site safe.
If you've discovered a break-in, do not enter the property until police have cleared it — both for your safety and to preserve the scene for investigation. Once you have access, photograph everything before moving or cleaning anything. Secure any valuables you can remove from the immediate area of the breach. If the break-in involved entry through a door into an attached garage, treat the interior house door as compromised until we've assessed it — intruders sometimes defeat the garage-to-house door and re-lock it behind them.
If the damage is storm-related, get everyone away from broken glass, cover any interior contents that could be damaged by weather moving through the opening, and call us. Don't attempt to force a frozen or damaged door open further — the additional movement can worsen frame damage and make the repair more involved.
The board up is the first step, not the whole job. Once the opening is secured, we assess what permanent repair is needed — whether that's a new glass unit, a frame rebuild, a replacement door, or a combination. In most cases we can give you a permanent repair quote on the same visit as the board up, so you have a clear picture of the full scope and cost before you need to make any decisions. We coordinate the permanent repair around your schedule and availability, and we work with insurance adjusters directly when a claim is involved. The goal is to go from damaged and unsecured to fully repaired with as few steps and as little disruption as possible.
Board up is the first step — these pages cover what comes next:
After a break-in or accident, securing the opening comes first. These guides help:
Damaged openings secured fast at Ottawa homes and businesses — day or night, after break-ins and broken glass.
A damaged entry opening boarded and secured on an emergency call, sealed against weather and entry until permanent repair.
A sliding patio door with a shattered tempered-glass panel cleared and secured the same day, removing the hazard and closing the opening before replacement glass was fitted.
A shattered tempered panel cleared of fragments and the opening boarded, ready for a permanent glass unit replacement.
Sticking, drafty, or won't latch? The sooner we look, the simpler — and cheaper — the fix.
Same crew, same flat-rate pricing — explore our dedicated Ottawa door repair pages.
Door won't close or lock after a break-in or storm? Same-day emergency response across Ottawa & the Valley, 7 days a week.
Emergency Door Repair →Cracked or shattered door glass replaced — insulated units, tempered safety glass, entry doors and patio doors across Ottawa.
Broken Glass Repair →Kicked-in or impact-damaged frames repaired and reinforced — we rebuild the structure, not just cover the damage.
Door Frame Repair →Tell us what's wrong and we'll get you a fast, honest price for the fix.
What Ottawa homeowners and businesses ask us most about board up service.
We respond to board-up calls across Ottawa & the Valley day and night — don't leave a damaged opening unprotected.