We’re deep into hurricane season and the peak of the season is just around the corner (early September, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA). If you haven’t already gotten your windows replaced with impact-rated models built to withstand hurricane conditions, then what can you do to protect your home?
In a pinch, knowing how to board up windows can be a crucial protective strategy if you have no better window opening protection installed already.
While the basic process for boarding up windows is simple, there are considerations that need to be made depending on your home’s siding, the size of your windows, and how much time you have between now and the next hurricane.
Let’s go over how to board up a window in different homes and what else you can do to protect your home from hurricane damage.
How to Board Up Windows: The Basic Process
To vastly oversimplify the process of boarding up windows, it basically goes:
- Measure your windows
- Acquire plywood boards and reshape them according to each window’s measurements
- Prepare guide holes at least every 12 inches along the length of your plywood. For example, if you have a board that’s 48” tall and 24” wide, you’d need at least three holes along the top and bottom, and five holes along the sides (One for each corner then a hole every 12” between the corners).
- Hang up your plywood and drill screws into the wall using your guide holes.
This is the most basic explanation of the process, but it doesn’t account for the different types of siding a home may have. Some homes might require a different approach than others because of the type of siding they have.
Some common types of siding include: vinyl, wood, fiber-cement, brick, and stucco.
Let’s cover some of the unique factors that affect how to board up windows properly for each type of siding:
How to Board Up Windows if You Have Vinyl, Wood, or Fiber-Cement Siding
Vinyl, wood, and fiber-cement siding are three very different materials, but the installation process is largely similar because they tend to have flat exterior surfaces and are relatively easy to penetrate with a drill or screw.
Some of the characteristics of each include:
- Wood. Has great variability in durability and performance depending on the type of wood used for the siding. In Florida, the most common wood types used for siding are usually the more rot-resistant species like cedar, tropical hardwoods, or composite lumbers. While this can make it difficult to generalize about the performance of wood, most wood siding remains relatively easy to drill into with screws so you can affix a plywood board without much difficulty.
- Vinyl. A water-impermeable and chemically inert material that is commonly used for its long-lasting durability. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), roughly 25.6% of homes across the USA use vinyl siding. The rigid polyvinyl chloride used for siding has a rockwell hardness rating of R115, which is on the higher end for plastic hardness.
- Fiber-Cement. This siding is growing in popularity, accounting for 21.7% of siding in homes according to NAHB data. It consists of a mixture of cement, sand, water, and cellulose fibers, and is often given a faux wood appearance, though a look at the interior layers would quickly dispel that impression. Tends to be less expensive than wood, but costlier than vinyl and is notable for being both flame- and rot-resistant. However, some finishes may imitate stucco instead of wood, which may create a rough, uneven surface.
While the installation process for wood, vinyl, and fiber-cement is largely the same as the four steps outlined previously, there are some specific considerations to make:
- Your plywood boards should be cut to be roughly eight inches wider and taller than your window opening. This is because you will be drilling into the siding of your home to mount the window. So, you need the extra space to ensure the board goes around the whole window. When setting screw placements, try to put the screws through the siding and into the framing of the structure around the window.
- For especially large windows, it may be necessary to join multiple pieces of plywood together. To do this, you’ll need to cut an extra ‘brace’ piece, glue the two plywood boards together with wood glue, then secure the brace over the seam with screws. It may be helpful to create several smaller braces to more evenly distribute stress during a storm.
- Use a stud finder to locate studs around the window opening so you can drill into these reinforced points for a more secure hold. Drilling screws into bare siding without this reinforcement could allow the wind to pry the plywood cover free from your home.
How to Board Up Windows with Brick or Stucco Siding
Boarding up windows in homes with brick or stucco siding works differently from wood, vinyl, and fiber-cement sided homes. Brick, in particular, is much harder to drill into, and both materials have a rough, often uneven surface that makes it difficult to get a tight enough seal when placing a piece of plywood over it.
So, rather than affixing the board over the window opening, you would:
- Check the depth of the window opening. To install a plywood board insert-style, you’ll want to have at least a couple of inches between the edge of the house exterior and the window frame.
- Measure the inside of the window opening at three points vertically and horizontally, much like you would if you were measuring to install a new window. This can help you account for any sagging in the window opening.
- Cut your plywood board to fit snugly within the window opening—a common rule of thumb is to cut the board roughly ¼” smaller than the window opening. This way, the board can cover the whole window while being easy to remove when the time comes.
- To hold the board in place, you’ll need to either install bolts into the opening surrounding the board or specially designed clips to secure it in place. In the case of bolts, you’ll need them at each corner and one more for every 18” of distance along the board’s edge. For example, if you had a window that’s 36” across, you’d need three bolts: one for each end and one in the middle.
- For clips, please refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for proper installation procedures, as there may be variances based on clip design.
Once you have your plywood board slotted into the opening and secured with either bolts or clips, you’re done!
Problems with Boarding Up Windows
Boarding up windows is typically a last resort emergency measure taken when you have no better options available. It’s the kind of wind mitigation measure that you can conduct with relatively little time between the issuance of a hurricane watch and the storm actually hitting your home.
While it can be a good option for homeowners who need protection on short notice, there are several reasons why it’s not generally preferred:
1: It’s Unsightly
One of the biggest problems with boarding up windows is that it just doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing. However, it beats letting wind pressure and flying storm debris act directly on non-impact windows.
The worst part is after the storm passes, however. Drilling holes into the side of your home to attach plywood boards may keep your windows safe, but it leaves holes in the side of your home nonetheless.
At best, this is unsightly, and might be fixable with wood putty or other structural filler materials. At worst, it could become an opportunity for moisture or pests to penetrate into the siding of your home. Especially if you have an older home with wood siding.
2: It’s a Lot of Effort
The next biggest problem is that it demands a lot of physical labor from you as the homeowner. Especially if you have a two-story home or windows with custom shapes other than rectangles and brick or stucco siding.
For homeowners with mobility issues, cutting, shaping, and installing the plywood boards may be a major challenge, especially as a last-minute attempt to protect the home when handyman labor might be in short supply.
3: It’s Temporary Protection
With plywood boards, you will often end up throwing them out after a single storm, requiring you to do everything all over again once the next storm comes around. This is especially true if you use untreated plywood as a cost-saving measure, as it may soak up too much moisture and develop issues that keep the boards from being reused.
So, if you rely on boarding up windows as a primary window opening protection method, that means having to go out and buy, shape, and install new plywood boards every time there’s a major hurricane.
The Better Alternative to Boarding Up Windows
Rather than relying on temporary plywood boards to protect your home, it’s better to get permanent, 24/7 protection that you don’t have to lift a finger to deploy. It’s better to get impact windows.
Impact windows are designed to withstand incredible wind pressure and shrug off impacts that would shatter normal windows. And, they’re a form of opening protection that you install once and don’t have to think about for pretty much the rest of your life.
Even better, modernizing your windows with newer impact windows can help you improve your home’s energy efficiency. With low-e glass, argon gas fills between the layers of safety glass, and thermally-inhibitive vinyl construction, newer impact windows can massively reduce the amount of heat that gets into your home from the hot Florida sun!
Be sure to get your new impact windows installed expertly for the biggest benefit! Reach out to Karoly Windows & Doors today to get started.
