24/7 Board-UpOpenings secured the same night
Xactimate FluentScoped in your carrier’s platform
BBB A+ CertifiedOwner-led, Boston based
Free InspectionEvery opening metered and photographed
Window Replacement in Boston Driven by the Claim, Not the Catalog
Window replacement after a loss means removing storm-broken, heat-damaged, or water-rotted units and installing new windows on the insurance claim that covers the rest of the damage. Insurance window replacement is a different job from a retail window sale. Nobody here is quoting you a whole-house package you did not ask for. The scope starts with which openings the loss actually compromised, and the carrier’s file decides the budget, so the scope has to be written in the carrier’s language.
Three kinds of damage bring us to a window. Storm breakage is the obvious one: nor’easter debris, a tree limb, or wind pressure that racks a sash out of square. Fire is sneakier, because heat can cook a vinyl frame or break the insulated glass seal on units that look intact from the street, and those failures surface as fogged glass and warped sashes weeks later. Water is the slowest, rotting sills and frame bottoms from a roof leak or years of failed flashing until the fastener has nothing left to bite. We document all three the same way, with photos and moisture readings per opening, because our reconstruction services team has to defend each unit as a line item, not sell a bundle.
That per-opening honesty runs both directions. On a recent claim, an adjuster may approve four openings while a fifth, equally damaged, gets missed. We supplement the fifth with evidence while the trim is open. Conversely, when a window survived and only the glass stop or a sash needs work, we say so and scope the repair, because padding a claim with healthy windows is the fastest way to lose an adjuster’s trust and stall the whole file.
Bedroom windows are egress windows. Massachusetts code requires a clear opening of about 5.7 square feet, at least 24 inches tall and 20 inches wide, with the sill no higher than 44 inches off the floor. Replacement units must preserve those dimensions, and we verify them before ordering.
Serving Boston and the South Shore seven days a week. Last updated August 2026.
From Board-Up to Installed: How Does Storm Damaged Window Replacement Run?
A broken window is an open hole in a Boston winter, so the sequence matters as much as the product. The night the glass breaks, our emergency board up services crew secures the opening with plywood and sheeting, which stops rain, cold, and liability while the claim forms. Everything after that runs on a schedule we publish to you, because replacement windows are built to order and lead times are real.
Between board-up and installation, the house does not just wait. Wet wall cavities under rotted sills get dried and treated, interior trim gets documented before removal, and the order confirmation locks sizes against our field measurements, not the original builder’s. Consequently, install day is short: most openings swap in a few hours each, weathertight the same day, and the plywood era of your living room ends on a date you knew two weeks in advance.
- Same night: board-upOpening secured, glass cleared, interior protected, photos taken while the damage is fresh for the claim file.
- Days 1 to 3: scope and fileEvery affected opening measured, metered, and written into the Xactimate scope, egress and historic requirements flagged per window.
- Week 1: carrier approvalAdjuster walkthrough with our documentation in hand, supplements filed immediately for heat-damaged or rotted units the first estimate missed.
- Weeks 2 to 5: manufacturingUnits built to field-verified sizes. Meanwhile, wet framing dries and any structural sill repairs are completed so openings are ready.
- Install dayOld units out, new units flashed, shimmed square, foamed, and sealed, typically all openings in one to two days, weathertight the same day.
- Close-outInterior trim and paint restored, stickers off, operation and locks verified with you, final photos to close the claim file.
Full-Frame or Insert Replacement: Which Does Your Home Need?
Every replacement windows company has a preferred answer here, usually the one that fits its sales model. Ours depends on what the loss did to the opening. An insert replacement sets a new unit inside the existing frame, keeps interior and exterior trim, and costs less. A full-frame replacement strips the opening to the rough framing, replaces the sill and jambs, and rebuilds the flashing from scratch. Inserts are faster and cheaper. They are also the wrong call more often than the industry admits.
The deciding question is the condition of the old frame, and on insurance work the frame is frequently the reason we are there. Water-rotted sills, frames racked by wind pressure, and heat-exposed jambs cannot be trusted to carry a new unit, and an insert installed into compromised framing seals the rot in and shrinks your glass area for nothing. Therefore our rule is simple: rot, racking, or char in the frame means full-frame replacement, and a sound frame with failed glass or sashes makes an insert legitimate. We put moisture readings behind that call on every opening, and the same readings justify the full-frame line item to the adjuster, so the right repair and the funded repair stay the same repair.
Frame rot rarely travels alone. The flashing failure that killed a sill has usually been feeding water behind the cladding too, which is why window openings and walls get scoped together. When the tear-off shows wet sheathing spreading past the opening, our siding replacement crews pick up that wall on the same claim, one mobilization instead of two contractors pointing at each other’s flashing.
24/7Emergency board-up dispatch
$0Upfront on covered window work
1Team from plywood to paint
A+BBB rating, licensed & insured MA
Egress, Historic Districts, and the Code Side of Window Replacement
Replacement windows are governed work in Massachusetts, and two rules catch homeowners by surprise. The first is bedroom egress. Under the state building code, 780 CMR, sleeping rooms need an emergency escape opening, and a replacement unit that shrinks the clear opening below the required dimensions can quietly make a legal bedroom illegal. This bites hardest on older double-hungs, where an insert frame steals an inch on every side. We check the egress math per bedroom window before ordering, and where an insert would fail it, that alone decides the full-frame question.
The second is historic review. Several Boston neighborhoods sit inside local historic districts where street-facing windows need commission approval before a permit issues, and the commissions care about sightlines, muntin patterns, and materials. On the 1890s Victorians and triple-deckers of Dorchester and Roxbury, the original weight-and-chain sash is often repairable even after a loss, and sometimes restoration is both the approvable path and the better one. Where replacement is justified, we prepare the review submission with matching profiles and build the approval time into the schedule honestly, because pretending the hearing does not exist is how window projects lose six weeks.
Performance gains come with the new units, and they deserve plain statement rather than a sales pitch. Current code-compliant windows in our climate zone carry a U-factor around 0.30, roughly twice the insulating performance of the single-pane sash and storm combination most older Boston homes still run, and the install itself matters as much: foamed and sealed perimeter gaps end the draft that made the old window feel worse than its glass. Your February will be quieter and warmer. As Ansy Chevalier, our owner and IICRC certified restorer, cert #70268689, tells crews: “A window is a hole in the wall until it is flashed, shimmed, and sealed right. We replace the opening, not just the glass.”
Asked in Living Rooms With Plywood in the Window
Window Replacement Questions Boston Homeowners Ask After a Loss
Should I choose full-frame or insert replacement after water damage?
Let the frame decide. If moisture readings show rot in the sill or jambs, full-frame replacement is the only honest option, because an insert would seal decayed wood inside the wall. If the frame is sound and only the sash or glass failed, an insert preserves your trim and costs less. We meter every opening and show you the readings behind the recommendation.
Can fire heat ruin windows that are not broken?
Yes, and it is one of the most commonly missed items on fire claims. Radiant heat can warp vinyl frames, compromise the seals on insulated glass, and stress tempered panes, with failures showing up later as fogging between panes and sashes that bind. We inspect every window in the heat path and supplement the claim for units that pass a glance but fail inspection.
Do replacement bedroom windows have to meet egress code?
Yes. Massachusetts requires sleeping-room windows to provide an emergency escape opening of roughly 5.7 square feet, minimum 24 inches high and 20 inches wide, with a sill no more than 44 inches above the floor. Replacement units must preserve those clear dimensions, so we run the egress math on every bedroom opening before ordering and size the unit or the opening accordingly.
What if my home is in a Boston historic district?
Street-facing window changes in a local historic district need commission review before the permit issues, and the commission will look at sightlines, muntin patterns, and materials. We prepare that submission, propose units or sash restoration that can actually win approval, and build the review timeline into the schedule up front, so the project absorbs the hearing instead of being ambushed by it.
What happens between the board-up and the new windows arriving?
The house keeps moving. Boarded openings stay secured and weathertight, wet framing under damaged units gets dried and treated, the carrier approves the scope with our per-opening documentation, and the manufacturer builds units to our field measurements, typically over two to five weeks. You get the install date as soon as the order confirms, not a vague window of weeks.
The Plywood Comes Down on a Date We Put in Writing
Free inspection of every affected opening, direct billing to your carrier, and no upfront cost on covered window replacement across Boston and the South Shore.