Board-Up and Tarping in American Fork

A broken window at 2 a.m. a roof torn open by a falling tree, a door frame blown out by a fire hose, the structure is already damaged, and every hour it stays open to weather, trespassers, or looters compounds what the insurance claim has to cover. Emergency board-up and tarping is the work that stops the clock on secondary damage. It is not reconstruction; it is containment, buying time for adjusters to document the loss and for restoration to begin under controlled conditions.

What emergency board-up and tarping actually involves

Board-up and tarping is protective work, not cosmetic. On a fire-damaged property, crews seal window openings, door frames, and any wall penetrations with plywood cut and fastened to resist wind load and deter entry. On a storm-damaged roof, heavy-duty polyethylene tarps, typically 6-mil or heavier, are anchored with wood battens and screwed into the decking, not just draped over the peak and weighted with sandbags. The difference matters when a second storm rolls through.

For broken windows after a burglary or vandalism, the work is faster but still requires measuring the rough opening, cutting plywood to fit flush, and securing it so it cannot be pried off easily. On multi-story buildings, lifts or extension ladders bring crews to upper-floor openings that are just as exposed as ground-level ones.

Timeline depends on scope. A single broken window can be boarded in under an hour. A fire-damaged structure with multiple compromised openings and a partially collapsed roof section may take a full crew several hours to secure properly. The goal in every case is the same: leave the property weather-tight and entry-resistant before the crew packs up.

Our process

1. Site assessment and hazard check. Before any material goes up, the crew walks the perimeter and interior (where safe) to identify every compromised opening, including ones that aren’t obvious from the street, like a blown-out soffit vent or a fire-damaged wall cavity open to the attic. Structural hazards are flagged before anyone works overhead.

2. Measurement and material staging. Openings are measured precisely. Plywood is cut on-site to fit each opening; tarps are sized to overlap the damaged roof area by at least several feet on each side and extend past the ridge or eave as conditions require. Pre-cut or undersized material is one of the most common shortcuts that fails in the next rain event.

3. Installation, windows, doors, and wall openings. Plywood panels are secured with structural screws into the surrounding framing, not just the drywall or siding. On masonry or stucco exteriors, tapcons or powder-actuated fasteners anchor the board to the substrate. Every opening gets a perimeter seal, not just a panel dropped in front of it.

4. Roof tarping. Tarps are run from the ridge down past the eave and secured with 2×4 battens screwed through the tarp into the roof decking at regular intervals. This distributes load across the tarp rather than concentrating stress at a few anchor points, which is how tarps survive wind instead of peeling off in it.

5. Photo documentation for insurance. Every opening is photographed before and after boarding, the condition of the frame, the damage to the surrounding material, and the completed installation. This documentation travels with the claim file and protects both the homeowner and the carrier when scope disputes arise later.

What separates a good board-up response from a bad one

The most common failure in emergency board-up is treating it as a temporary inconvenience rather than a load-bearing decision. A tarp stapled to fascia boards will not survive a Utah canyon wind event. Plywood screwed into drywall rather than framing members will be on the ground by morning. These aren’t edge cases, they’re what happens when a crew optimizes for speed over function.

Insurance adjusters look for documentation that the board-up was performed promptly after the loss and that it was adequate to prevent further damage. If a second rain event soaks insulation that a proper tarp would have protected, the carrier may dispute whether that additional damage was covered. A well-documented, properly installed board-up removes that argument.

On fire-damaged properties specifically, crews need to account for weakened framing around openings before fastening into it. Charred lumber that looks intact can be structurally compromised, and a board-up that pulls away from a burned header creates a new liability. Experienced crews probe and assess before they fasten.

What does emergency board-up and tarping cost?

Typical costs vary by the number of openings, the size and pitch of any roof damage, access difficulty, and whether the work happens during business hours or in the middle of the night. Most homeowners pay somewhere in the ranges below, based on industry-typical figures, these are not FIX Restoration’s prices, and every loss is different. FIX Restoration provides a written scope before work begins so there are no surprises.

Homeowners insurance typically covers emergency board-up and tarping as part of the covered loss, it falls under the duty-to-mitigate provision that requires protecting the property from further damage after a covered event. Keep all receipts and documentation.

Seasonal and regional considerations

Utah County’s weather pattern creates specific pressure points for board-up and tarping work. Late-summer thunderstorms move fast off the Wasatch Front and can drop significant hail or drive rain horizontally into any open wall cavity. Winter freeze-thaw cycles mean that a roof left open after an October storm isn’t just a rain problem, water that infiltrates and freezes inside the decking or insulation expands and widens the damage before spring. In American Fork and the surrounding valley communities, afternoon canyon winds can exceed 50 mph on otherwise clear days, which is why tarp anchoring method matters as much as tarp weight.

Spring snowmelt season, typically March through May, is when roof damage that went unaddressed over winter reveals itself as ceiling staining and saturated insulation. A tarp installed correctly in November can prevent that entire chain of events.

Service area

FIX Restoration is based in American Fork and serves communities throughout Utah County and the greater Wasatch Front, including Lehi, Pleasant Grove, Orem, Provo, Lindon, Cedar Hills, Highland, and surrounding areas. City-specific pages for each service area link back to this page for the full technical detail on how emergency board-up and tarping works.

If your property has an open roof, a broken window, or a compromised entry point right now, call FIX Restoration at (801) 930-9750 to get a crew moving and stop the damage from spreading.