
Some Cleveland city council members want to make it mandatory for vacant homes in the city to be boarded up withrather than plywood.
has about 1,000 vacant houses, and under a pilot project, about a third of them are boarded up with polycarbonate instead of plywood. Outside one of the homes, says though using the clear material costs up to two times as much as plywood, it has many advantages -- including its strength.
鈥淪o you don鈥檛 get there-entriesyou do with traditional boarding; you don鈥檛 have the vandalism, the theft, the safety and security issues you have with traditional boarding. And quite frankly it鈥檚 something that esthetically more pleasing to the neighborhood than a wooden board that鈥檚 aging and rotting in place.鈥
Brancatelli says plywood must be replaced frequently, which typically makes that technique as expensive as polycarbonate. And he says polycarbonate has less stigma than plywood, and makes selling the property easier.
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