Commercial & Industrial · 24 hours a day, every day
Emergency Glass Repair & Board-Up (24/7)
Glass down and the building will not lock. We clear the opening, board it into the existing frame so the premises are secure tonight, measure while we are there, and glaze it properly when the unit lands. Across Toronto and the GTA, since 1979.
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Dispatched 24/7 from our Mississauga shop · since 1979 · board-up first, glass after
If the glass is broken and the building will not lock, the job tonight is not glazing — it is making the opening secure. We clear the remaining glass, board the opening into the existing frame, and measure for the replacement before we leave. The new unit is made to that measurement and glazed in on a scheduled visit, usually within days. Call the 24/7 line and we will tell you what the board-up costs before a crew is on the road.
Canuck Door Systems has run emergency glass calls across the GTA since 1979. We are a commercial door and glass contractor rather than a glass shop, which is why the crew that boards the opening can also tell you whether the frame, the closer or the lock is what actually failed — and can fix that too.
Call, don't fill in a form
An emergency page with a contact form as its main route is a page that has never handled one. Phone the 24/7 line: it is answered around the clock, and four pieces of information are enough to dispatch the right crew with the right kit.
- The address, and how to get to the opening — including gate codes, mall access, or whoever is holding the keys at 2am.
- What broke — a door leaf, a window, a shopfront bay, or an interior partition.
- Roughly how big it is, and which floor. A ground-floor door and a third-floor window are different trucks.
- Whether it is over a public pavement. That changes the priority and the clearing method.
What happens on the night
- Clear the opening. Broken tempered glass keeps dropping out of a frame for hours, and annealed glass leaves shards standing in the rebate. All of it comes out, including the pieces still held by the gasket.
- Board it into the frame. Plywood cut to the opening and fixed using the glazing stops where the framing allows, so the frame is not drilled, damaged or left needing repair when the boarding comes off.
- Make the opening lockable again. If the failure took out the lock, the closer or the leaf as well as the glass, we secure that too rather than leaving you with a boarded door that still swings.
- Measure and photograph. Every emergency opening is photographed on arrival for your insurer, and measured for its replacement so the unit goes on order that night.
Why the glass cannot go in tonight
This is the question every emergency call asks, and the answer is the same everywhere: commercial glass is made to the opening. Tempered glass is heat-treated after it is cut, which means it cannot be cut, drilled or edged afterwards — a tempered lite is manufactured to your dimensions or not at all. Sealed insulating units are assembled to size around a spacer. Laminated glass is bonded to size.
So no truck carries a shopfront bay. What a truck can carry is plywood, fixings, a glass-clearing kit and a tape measure, and that is what makes the building safe tonight. Anyone promising same-night replacement of commercial glass is either describing a stock residential size or is going to board it up exactly the way we do.
The one exception worth knowing: small interior lites in standard sizes — a vision panel, a borrowed lite — can sometimes be glazed on the first visit if the make-up is plain tempered and we happen to hold the size. We will tell you on the call; we will not promise it.
What we handle as an emergency
- Storefront bays — smashed display glazing, at grade and above it.
- Entrance doors — glass in aluminum leaves and all-glass doors, plus the lock, closer or pivot when those went with it.
- Windows — broken lites and shattered sealed units in commercial elevations.
- Interior glazing — partitions, office fronts, vision panels and borrowed lites.
- Openings that will not secure — where the glass is intact but the door, frame or hardware has failed, which is a 24/7 emergency door repair call rather than a glass one. Same line, same crews.
Break-ins, vehicles and vandalism
The three causes behind most night calls, and each one changes what should go back into the opening.
| Cause | What we usually find | What to consider on the reglaze |
|---|---|---|
| Forced entry | One bay or door lite broken out; frame and hardware often damaged too | Laminated glass, which holds the opening together, or a shutter or grille |
| Vehicle impact | Framing bent or displaced as well as the glass | Framing repair before glazing; bollards if the parking layout invites it |
| Vandalism | Repeated damage to the same accessible bay | Laminated glass or security film, and lighting — thicker glass alone rarely helps |
| Thermal stress | A long clean crack with no impact point | A different make-up or shading; it will recur on the same elevation otherwise |
| Weather or debris | Impact damage after a storm, often several openings at once | Like-for-like, prioritised by which openings are insecure |
If the same opening has now been boarded three times, the least expensive thing we can sell you is not a fourth pane. Laminated glass plus a rolling shutter or grille costs less over two years than repeated emergency call-outs, and it stops the trading interruption as well as the breakage.
Insurance and paperwork
Most commercial policies cover glass breakage and expect you to mitigate promptly, which is what a board-up is. The three things adjusters consistently ask for are photographs taken before the opening is touched, the date and time of the call-out, and an itemised invoice that separates making the premises safe from replacing the glass.
We do all three as a matter of course: the crew photographs the opening on arrival, the call-out is timestamped, and the board-up and the glazing are invoiced as separate lines. We invoice you rather than your insurer, so there is no waiting on an adjuster before we make the building safe.
After the boarding: the second visit
- The unit is fabricated to the measurement taken on the night — plain tempered is quickest, laminated and sealed insulating units take longer.
- We schedule around your hours. For retail that usually means before opening or overnight, so the reglaze does not cost a trading day.
- The boarding comes out and the glass goes in, with new gaskets, stops and sealant rather than the perished ones around it.
- The frame and hardware are checked — a break-in frequently bends a frame or damages a lock, and glazing a new unit into a distorted opening breaks it again.
Planned work rather than breakage — fogged sealed units, cracked lites, a low-E retrofit across an elevation — is a different job and a much better price: see commercial window glass replacement & reglazing.
Glass work across the GTA
Emergency openings are rarely photographed for a portfolio — these are documented glass and aluminum jobs from our own project files.
Sable Metal Fabrication
Replaced outdated glass-and-aluminum windows with modern, energy-efficient units.
PCI Pharma Services
Replaced the exterior glass-and-aluminum storefront door and the surrounding windows.
Intercity Properties Limited
Replaced the exterior glass-and-aluminum storefront at their Toronto property.
Four decades of doors and glass for names Ontario knows — Canada’s Wonderland, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, the LCBO, Metrolinx, Marriott & Hilton hotels, the University of Toronto — plus thousands of businesses across the GTA. Dependable people, quality products, since 1979.
Emergency glass across Toronto & the GTA
Emergency crews dispatch from our shop at 1645 Bonhill Road in Mississauga — central to the region rather than at one end of it — and the line is answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including holidays.
Core GTA
- Toronto
- Mississauga
- Brampton
- Vaughan
- Markham
- Scarborough
- North York
- Etobicoke
- Richmond Hill
- Oakville
- Burlington
- Milton
Southern Ontario belt
The belt is where we are honest about distance. A 3am call-out to Niagara is a long drive and we will say so on the phone rather than leave you waiting — planned reglazing travels much better than emergencies do. See all service areas
What an emergency call costs
A board-up and a reglaze are two visits and two numbers, which is the part worth understanding before you call anyone. The board-up is priced on labour and materials; the glass is priced like any other unit:
- The size of the opening — a door leaf, a window, or a full shopfront bay
- How much broken glass has to be cleared, and whether it is above a public pavement
- Access — ground level, a lift, or an upper floor
- The hour — after-hours, weekend and holiday call-outs carry a labour premium
- Whether the frame was damaged as well as the glass
- The replacement unit itself — size, make-up, and whether it is tempered, laminated or a sealed unit
- A second visit to remove the boarding and glaze the opening
We give you the board-up cost on the phone before we roll, and the glass cost once the opening is measured. The glass is not priced differently because you called at midnight — the premium is on the labour, and it is disclosed.
Common questions
Is a broken window an emergency?
Treat it as one if the building can no longer be locked and left, if the opening is no longer weathertight, or if there is glass still in the frame that can fall on a public pavement. A cracked but intact pane above head height can usually wait for a scheduled visit. A shattered storefront at street level, a broken fire-exit lite, or any opening a person could step through cannot — those are call-tonight jobs, and so is anything your insurer has to be told about.
What does a board-up actually involve?
Three things. The remaining glass is cleared out of the frame, including the pieces still standing in the rebate that will drop later. Plywood is cut to the opening and fixed into the existing framing — using the glazing stops where the frame allows it, so the framing is not damaged and does not have to be repaired afterwards. And the opening is measured for its replacement before we leave, so the unit is on order that night rather than after a second trip.
How much does it cost to have a window boarded up?
It is priced on labour, materials and the hour, and it varies mostly with the size of the opening and how much broken glass has to be cleared. A single door leaf is a much smaller job than a full shopfront bay above a public sidewalk. We give you the number on the phone before dispatching, so the decision is made before a crew is on the road, and it is invoiced separately from the glazing so your insurer can see both.
How fast can you get there?
The line is answered 24 hours a day and crews dispatch from Mississauga, which is central to the GTA rather than at one end of it. What we will do on the call is give you a real arrival window based on where the crew actually is — if the honest answer is three hours, we say three hours. What we will not do is publish a fixed response time we cannot hold to for every address in Southern Ontario.
Why can't you just replace the glass tonight?
Because commercial glass is made to your opening. Tempered glass cannot be cut, drilled or edged after it is manufactured, and sealed insulating units are assembled to size, so every unit has a fabrication lead time — there is no stock pane on a truck that fits a shopfront bay. Any company promising same-night replacement of commercial glass is describing a residential stock size, or is going to board it up like everyone else. The board-up is what makes the wait safe.
Can I just tape it until morning?
Tape holds fragments together for a photograph and nothing more. It does not secure the opening, it does not keep weather out, and it leaves loose glass standing in a frame that may be over a public sidewalk — which is a liability question as much as a security one. If the opening is small, intact and internal, waiting until morning is reasonable. If it is a way into the building, it needs boarding.
Do you do residential emergency glass?
Yes. Our emergency work covers commercial, industrial and residential — storefronts, offices, plants, schools, clinics, warehouses, multi-residential common areas and houses. Most of what we do out of hours is commercial, and the crews and framing systems are built around commercial openings, but a broken house window at 2am is still an opening that has to be made secure tonight, and we will attend it.
Will our insurance cover a board-up?
Glass breakage is commonly covered and board-up is usually treated as mitigation, which most policies expect you to carry out promptly. The paperwork typically needs photographs of the damage before it is touched, an itemised invoice, and the date and time of the call-out. We photograph every emergency opening on arrival and invoice the board-up and the glazing separately, which is the format adjusters ask for. We invoice you, not your insurer.
How long does the boarding stay up?
Until the replacement unit is fabricated and glazed in — days rather than weeks in most cases, and we tell you the expected date when the glass is ordered. Plain tempered is the quickest; laminated and sealed insulating units take longer. If the boarding has to stay up over a trading period, we can face it or make it neater, and on repeat-target premises it is worth talking about laminated glass or a shutter instead of a fourth board-up.
Opening not secure right now?
Call the 24/7 line — that is the fastest route to a crew. We will tell you what the board-up costs before we roll, and what the glass will cost once we have measured it.