Emergency board-up is the process of securing a fire-damaged structure against weather, unauthorized entry, and further damage by covering broken windows, burned-out openings, and exposed roof areas within hours of the fire. It’s one of the first actions a fire damage restoration company takes after the fire marshal releases the property — and it’s not optional. Your homeowner’s insurance policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage to the property. Board-up and tarping are exactly those steps.
A fire that burned through a wall, blew out windows from heat and pressure, or damaged the roof leaves the structure open to rain, snow, wind, vandalism, and unauthorized entry. Every hour those openings stay uncovered, additional damage is accumulating — and that additional damage may not be fully covered if your insurer determines you failed to take reasonable protective steps.
Call 303-816-0068 immediately when the fire marshal releases your property. Emergency board-up typically begins the same day as the fire department leaves the scene.
What Board-Up Actually Involves
Board-up is more involved than nailing plywood over windows. Done correctly, it’s a systematic securing of the entire structure against multiple types of secondary damage.
Window board-up covers broken or fire-damaged windows with plywood panels cut to fit the opening and secured to the surrounding frame with screws rather than nails — screws hold under wind load better than nails and can be removed cleanly during reconstruction without further damage to the surrounding frame. Standard plywood for residential board-up is typically 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch CDX plywood. The panels are cut to overlap the window frame by several inches on each side for a weathertight seal.
Door board-up covers fire-damaged or heat-compromised door openings. A fire-damaged entry door that no longer seals is a security and weather vulnerability. Board-up of door openings uses heavier material than windows — typically 3/4 inch plywood — because it needs to resist forced entry as well as weather.
Wall openings from structural fire damage — areas where the wall burned through or was compromised enough that it’s no longer weathertight — get boarded similarly to window openings. Large wall openings may require framing support behind the plywood to span the opening properly.
Roof tarping addresses any fire damage to the roof structure. This is the most critical component of emergency protection because an unprotected roof opening allows precipitation directly into the structure. A single rain event through an unprotected roof opening can cause water damage across multiple floors of the structure and in areas far from the original fire damage.
Professional tarping for fire damage uses heavy-duty polyethylene tarps — typically 6 mil or heavier — secured with wood battens screwed to the roof surface rather than weighted with sandbags or tied with rope, which don’t hold in wind. The tarp needs to extend beyond the damaged area and be secured well enough to stay in place through typical weather events.
Why This Matters for Your Insurance Claim
What can happen is the fire occurs, the fire department leaves, the property sits unsecured for two or three days while the homeowner processes what happened and waits for the insurance adjuster to come out, and during that time a rainstorm puts several inches of water through the roof opening. Now there’s water damage on top of fire damage — soaked ceilings, wet floors, water in wall cavities two floors below the fire damage — and the adjuster is looking at whether that additional damage was preventable.
The answer is that it was preventable, and that matters for claim settlement. Insurance policies universally contain a provision requiring the policyholder to mitigate — take reasonable steps to prevent the loss from getting worse. Failing to board up and tarp an obviously exposed structure is difficult to defend as reasonable mitigation.
A common thing seen in the industry is adjusters adding a mitigation notation to claims where board-up wasn’t done promptly, which can affect the settlement of the water damage component of the claim. The cost of emergency board-up — typically $500 to $2,500 depending on the number of openings and the roof damage — is insignificant compared to the additional claim scope that enters through an unprotected structure.
Emergency board-up cost is covered under most homeowner’s policies as a reasonable mitigation expense. It doesn’t come out of your dwelling coverage limit in most cases — it’s a separate line item in the claim as a protective measure.
The Security Dimension
A fire-damaged structure with open windows and doors is a target for theft, vandalism, and unauthorized entry. This is true in mountain communities around Pine, Conifer, and Evergreen where properties are sometimes more isolated and may go days between owner visits — and it’s true in Lakewood neighborhoods where opportunistic theft from visibly damaged properties happens.
Contents still in the structure — appliances, electronics, tools, anything not yet packed out — are at risk when the structure is unsecured. The police and fire department don’t secure residential structures — that responsibility falls on the property owner.
Unauthorized entry creates liability exposure as well. Someone entering an unsecured fire-damaged structure — a trespasser, a curious neighbor, a child — and getting injured on compromised structural elements creates a situation the property owner wants to avoid.
Board-up provides real deterrence. It signals that the property is being actively managed and that entry requires deliberate forced breach. This is not perfect security, but it’s substantially better than open windows and missing doors.
Specialized Concerns in Mountain Communities
Homes in Pine, Conifer, Evergreen, and Bailey face weather exposures that make prompt board-up and tarping more critical than in Lakewood.
Mountain weather is less predictable and more extreme. An afternoon thunderstorm can deposit significant precipitation through an unprotected roof opening. Early season and late season snowfall can occur at higher elevations when it wouldn’t in Lakewood. Wind exposure in mountain locations is often higher than in the metro area. A tarp that might hold at lower elevation can be compromised by mountain wind gusts.
Vacation properties and homes used as part-time residences are a particular concern. What I’ve seen happen is a fire at a mountain property that goes unreported for days because it occurs when the owners are away, and the structure sits unsecured until someone contacts the owners. By the time board-up occurs, significant secondary damage has accumulated.
Log home construction — common in mountain communities — presents specific board-up challenges. Log walls don’t accept standard plywood attachment the same way frame construction does. Roof systems on log homes are often more complex. Board-up in log home construction requires experience with the specific assembly and attachment points.
What Happens After Board-Up
Board-up is the beginning of the restoration process, not the end. Once the structure is secured, the full damage assessment, documentation, and cleaning and restoration work begins.
The board-up panels remain in place throughout the restoration process until reconstruction reaches the point where windows, doors, and wall surfaces are being restored to permanent condition. For a multi-month restoration project, that means board-up panels may be in place for weeks or months.
During that time, the board-up should be inspected periodically — especially after significant weather events — to confirm tarps haven’t shifted, panels haven’t been disturbed, and the structure remains secure. We build this into the project management process rather than assuming initial board-up holds indefinitely.
Reconstruction removes board-up materials and replaces them with permanent windows, doors, and wall assemblies. The board-up materials are typically disposed of as construction debris — they’re not reused after serving their protective function.
The IICRC standards for fire damage restoration including emergency services are at https://www.iicrc.org/page/IICRCStandards. We hold IICRC Triple Master Certification and have responded to fire damage emergencies in Lakewood and the surrounding mountain communities for nearly 30 years.
Call 303-816-0068 the moment the fire marshal releases your property. We respond immediately, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Board-up and tarping typically begin the same day we arrive — because every hour the structure sits exposed, the scope of the restoration gets larger.
