South West Philadelphia Board Up

Philadelphia Board Up

Property Recovery 911 was contacted by an absentee homeowner for emergency Board Up services in the South West section of Philadelphia. The home was accessed by scavengers who stole the copper plumbing, which is usually sold to local scrap yards for far less that the victim will need to pay for replacement.
In order to avoid further damages and mitigate any potential liabilities associated with unwanted intruders, we were contracted to board up three points that were illegally accessed. The property is a row home consisting of two apartments that are accessed by separate entrances located on opposite sides of the structures front wall, bisected by a large double-hung window that serves the living room in the first floor apartment. Both doors and the window mentioned above were used by trespassers as entry points.

Door Board Up

At the owners’ request, each door board up was designed to secure the property yet allow keyed access. We accomplished this by installing ¾” plywood to the door frame using heavy duty galvanized strap hinges, hasp and padlock. In order to enhance the security of the door board up, we covered the strap hinges exposed face with strips of plywood affixed with Torx head hardware.

Window Board Up

The window board up required joining two pieces of plywood together as the window was oversized and could not be covered by a single 4’x8’ sheet. Torx head screws were used for the window board up, we commonly use Torx hardware as it is not common and comes in various bit sizes lending an extra measure of security over the use of a common Phillips head screw.