When a window or glass door breaks, deal with safety first: keep people and pets away, protect your hands and feet, and remove only loose glass you can reach safely. Then secure the opening, photograph the damage, report any crime to the police and tell your insurer early. A temporary board or panel keeps the property safe until a permanent replacement is fitted.
What should I do in the first few minutes?
Your first job is to stop anyone getting hurt. Keep children and pets out of the room, put on shoes with solid soles and wear thick gloves before going near the glass. If someone is in danger or a break-in is happening now, call 999. Do not confront anyone or try to stop them.
Next, look at what kind of glass has broken. Toughened glass breaks into small, blunt pieces that can cover a wide area. Laminated glass cracks in a spider-web pattern but usually stays in the frame. Ordinary annealed glass breaks into sharp shards and long splinters that may still be hanging in the frame, which is the most dangerous case.
If the glass is part of a double-glazed unit, one pane may be broken and the other intact. The unit is still damaged and will normally be replaced as a whole. Do not press on a cracked pane to test it, and do not lean out through a broken opening.
- Keep people and pets away from the area
- Wear solid shoes, thick gloves and, ideally, eye protection
- Call 999 if anyone is in danger or a crime is in progress
- Take photos before you move anything, if it is safe
- Switch off nearby lights or appliances if glass has fallen on them
How do I clear broken glass safely?
Work from the floor inwards and from large pieces to small. Pick up large pieces by hand while wearing gloves, then sweep the area with a stiff brush, then vacuum. Small fragments travel further than you expect, so check under furniture, along skirting boards and in rugs. A damp cloth or paper towel pressed onto hard floors picks up slivers a brush misses.
Leave glass that is still in the frame unless it is clearly loose and about to fall. Pulling shards out of a frame is risky, because the glass can split unpredictably. If a cracked pane is still in place, strong tape across it in a grid can stop pieces dropping while you wait for a glazier, but it does not make the glass safe to lean on.
Wrap broken glass in thick layers of newspaper or cardboard, tape it up and label it as broken glass before putting it out, so it does not injure anyone handling the rubbish. Check with your council if you have a lot of glass to dispose of. If you are claiming on insurance, photograph the glass and the frame first.
How do I make the opening secure?
Once the area is safe, the opening needs to keep out weather and intruders. For a small pane, heavy-duty polythene or a sheet of plywood screwed or taped over the frame from the inside can keep rain out overnight. For a door, a ground-floor window or a shopfront, the opening usually needs to be boarded so it cannot be pushed through. Close curtains or blinds if the room is overlooked, and move valuables out of sight.
Boarding up is a temporary repair, not a fix. Plywood screwed into the frame or the surrounding structure gives the most security, but it may mark the frame. If you rent, tell your landlord straight away. In England, Citizens Advice says landlords are responsible for the structure of a rented home, including windows and doors.
If you are not sure the boarding will hold, or the opening is high up, do not climb ladders or reach out of upstairs windows to fix it. Call a glazier or boarding service and ask them to make it secure. We can arrange boarding and temporary glazing across the UK; call and we'll tell you honestly when a glazier can attend.
| Option | What it does | When it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Polythene or tape | Keeps rain and draughts out for a short time | Small cracked or broken panes, overnight only |
| Boarding up | Secures the opening with plywood or board | Doors, ground-floor windows, shopfronts, break-ins |
| Temporary glazing | Restores light and weather protection | When the permanent glass will take time to make |
| Permanent replacement | New glass or sealed unit to the right specification | The final repair once the glass is made |
When should I report a broken window to the police?
Report it if the glass was broken deliberately, during a break-in or attempted break-in, or by vandalism. Call 999 if a crime is in progress or someone is in immediate danger. For anything that has already happened and is not urgent, call 101 or use the online reporting service for your police force. You can report crime online in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
When you report, you will be given a crime reference number. Write it down and keep it with your photos. Insurers usually ask for this number for theft, attempted break-in and vandalism claims, and a claim can be delayed without it. Report the crime before you start the claim if you can.
Preserve what you can. Avoid handling things an intruder may have touched, and do not throw away the broken glass until you know whether the police or your insurer want to see it. If nothing suggests a crime, for example a ball through the window or glass that cracked on its own, you do not need to report it.
How do I claim on insurance for broken glass?
Contact your insurer as soon as possible. The Association of British Insurers advises arranging temporary repairs where necessary to limit further damage, ideally after calling your insurer's emergency helpline for advice. Keep receipts for boarding or emergency work, because they form part of your claim. Check whether your policy covers accidental damage, glass breakage or both, and whether an excess applies.
Insurers usually ask for photos of the damage, a description of what happened, a crime reference number where a crime is involved, and receipts or quotes for the work. Do not throw away damaged items too quickly, as the insurer may want to inspect them. If you have to dispose of the glass for safety, photograph it first.
Insurers can decide whether to repair, replace or pay cash, and may send a contractor they appoint. If you are unhappy with how a claim is handled, complain to the insurer first. If it has not given a final response within eight weeks, or you disagree with it, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Temporary or permanent glazing: what are the options?
A temporary repair makes the opening safe and weathertight while the permanent glass is made. That matters because many replacements, such as double-glazed units, toughened glass and laminated glass, are made to measure and cannot be cut on site. Toughened glass in particular has to be cut to size before it is toughened.
The permanent repair depends on what broke. A single pane in an older frame can often be replaced with new glass of the right type. A broken double-glazed unit is replaced with a new sealed unit made to the frame size. If the frame, hinges or lock were damaged in a break-in, they may need repair or replacement too, and the survey should check them.
To get the permanent glass ordered, the glazier needs accurate sizes and the right specification. That means measuring the frame opening or the old unit, noting the overall thickness of a double-glazed unit, and checking whether the old glass was toughened, laminated, obscure or coated. If you are not sure what type of glass it was, the glazier can usually tell from the break pattern, the frame and where the glass sits in the building. Photos of the whole window, the frame profile and any marks on the glass help the glazier quote accurately and avoid a second visit.
Does the replacement glass have to be safety glass?
In many places it does. Building regulations require safety glass in critical locations, where people are likely to walk into glass. In England, the Planning Portal describes these as glazing in doors up to 1500mm from the floor, side panels within 300mm of a door up to 1500mm, and other panels up to 800mm from the floor. Safety glass here means glass that breaks safely, such as toughened or laminated glass.
If the old glass in one of these places was ordinary annealed glass, replace it with safety glass rather than like for like. The rules differ in detail between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, work to a window that is not a complete replacement, including reglazing, does not need a building warrant, but it must leave the window no worse than before.
In England, replacing only the glass in an existing frame is not treated the same as replacing the whole window, and local authority guidance says the thermal standards for new windows do not apply to glass-only replacement. Replacing the whole window or door is different and brings in the building regulations for replacement windows.
Frequently asked questions
Can I leave a cracked window until I have time to fix it?
A cracked pane is weaker than an intact one and can fail without warning, especially in wind, with temperature changes or if a door is slammed. If the glass is in a door or low panel, the risk of injury is higher. Tape can hold pieces in place for a short time, but it does not make the pane safe. Arrange a replacement soon and keep people away from it until then.
Will my home insurance cover a broken window?
It depends on your policy. Policies differ in whether they cover accidental breakage, break-ins and vandalism, and some offer accidental damage only as an optional extra. For a break-in or vandalism, insurers usually ask for a crime reference number. Check the policy wording and the excess, then contact your insurer as soon as possible, ideally before arranging anything beyond emergency repairs, and keep all receipts.
Why did my glass break when nothing hit it?
Glass can break with no obvious impact. Toughened glass can be affected by tiny nickel sulphide inclusions from manufacture, which can cause it to shatter years later. Other causes include stress from uneven heating, a frame that has moved or been fitted too tightly, or an earlier chip at the edge. A glazier can look at the break pattern and frame to suggest the likely cause.
Do I need to replace the whole double-glazed unit if one pane breaks?
Usually, yes. A double-glazed unit is two or more panes sealed together around a spacer, often with gas in the gap and a coating on one pane. Once one pane breaks, the seal is lost and the unit cannot be reliably rebuilt on site. A new sealed unit is made to the measured size and fitted into the existing frame, which normally stays in place.
Should I board up a broken window myself?
You can make a small pane safe yourself with board or heavy polythene if you can reach it from inside without ladders. For doors, large panes, upstairs windows or anything after a break-in, it is safer to have it boarded professionally, because the board must be fixed securely and broken glass in the frame is a cutting hazard. Keep receipts for your insurer.
Sources
- Contact the police (GOV.UK)
- Community safety, reporting crime in Northern Ireland (nidirect)
- Making a claim on your home insurance (Association of British Insurers)
- Settling home insurance claims (Financial Ombudsman Service)
- Doors and windows: building regulations (Planning Portal)
- Building standards technical handbook 2020: domestic, 0.5 work not requiring a warrant (gov.scot)
- Repairs: what are the landlord's responsibilities (Citizens Advice)
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