29 Aug Recovering from a vandalised window
According to carious sources, “Pardon my French” or “Excuse my French” is a common English language phrase ostensibly disguising profanity as words from the French language. The phrase is uttered in an attempt to excuse the user of profanity, swearing, or curses in the presence of those offended by it, under the pretense of the words being part of a foreign language.
This extract was from Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_my_French
So why this explanation?
If you have found that your lovely uPVC window frames or doors have been vandalised, or that there is now a broken glass unit, then you may be wanting to excuse your curses as the anger, frustration and disappointment bubble over.
Once out of the way, you need to put things back in order and return your home to normality.
The first suggested step to take would be to determine if the damage was accidental or purposeful. Accidental damage may be from a loose roof tile that has fallen and caused the damage or from a rouge football.
In such cases you will need to get in touch with your insurance with the details and arrange for repair quotes. One careful thought though, you may be required to pay an excess and the cost of repair may be less than the excess.
If the damage was not accidental, but an act of vandalism, then you may need to get in touch with the local police so that you can get a reference number. Some insurance companies may insist on getting this number for the reports.
The police are likely to be interested in vandalism as they may be monitoring other occurrences which you may not be aware of. They may also want to come and take a look at the damage to see if there is a similar pattern to other locations. They will let you know.
Photographs of the damage are always useful as it better shows the damage for the insurance company.
Keep a record (date and time) of when you think the vandalism damage occurred. Also keep a track of all correspondence of who you spoke to and when. Great if you need to back track to a previous conversation.
Once the insurance company have been contacted they may want a few different quotes for the repair. Professional window and door companies would be quite happy to call round and take a look at the damage that you need repairing, either replacing any broken glass units or repairing any damaged parts of the framework.
Depending on the damage you may need to organise some short term security solution.
If it is a broken glass unit then it may require boarding to prevent entry or the glass removing for safety reasons. It is suggested that you only remove the glass that is safe to be removed, for example off the floor. Use gloves, if you can, along with a broom and shovel. If you have to leave large sections of glass in the frame but you need to cover the window with wood, cover both sides if you can to stop anyone catching themselves on the loose glass.
If it a section of frame that has been damaged but the glass unit is intact then you may be able to cover the section with a plastic sheet to prevent any water getting into the frame, this would also cover any sharp edges that may be there too.
Once the quotes have been given to you then you can pass these on to the insurance company. They are likely to tell you which company to use.
Be mindful of the excess charge that will be on your insurance. It may work out cheaper to pay for the repair yourself rather than via the insurance company. Also, the insurance company may increase your premiums.
Once the quotes are with the insurance company and they have given you the go ahead, you can contact the professionals to come in and make good the damage that has been done. They may be able to perform a some repair to the uPVC damage, or if it needed, replace the broken glass unit as a whole. The insurance company will likely want you to replace like for like. So reaching a glass unit for the same unit rather than an upgraded unit. However if the unit is put of date and the upgraded units are cheaper then they may likely prefer this option of repair.
So to use points….
- Get in touch with your insurance company to report the damage.
- Take photos of the damage.
- Obtain a police reference if you feel that the damage was intentional.
- Make secure the damage as best you can, but only if the police do not need to visit and inspect the damage first.
- Speak to a few companies to obtain some repair quotes.
- Once given the go ahead, let the uPVC company come and sort things out.
If you’re interested in replacing a window for your home, take a look at our New Window packages. Alternatively, just take a look at our other services for more!
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